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Henry’s NMRA Rolling Stock Car Standard Scale Weight Calculator

I’ve created a model railroad train rolling stock car standard scale weight calculator.  Use this to determine the standard weight (as defined by the NMRA) of rolling stock cars.  This calculator is very useful for someone building or modifying model railroad train cars.

Henry’s NMRA Rolling Stock Car Standard Scale WEIGHT Calculator

Published 12/05/2018.

3 thoughts on “Henry’s NMRA Rolling Stock Car Standard Scale Weight Calculator

  1. Hi Henry! I’m delighted that I’ve found your car weight calculator! Thank you for developing it and sharing it with all of us!
    Somehow for me the metric part is not working right. For HO at least, the weight given in grams for a car length entered in inches is low by about the amount of the initial weight (1 oz or ~28 grams). If the car length is entered in cm’s the weight in grams is way too high. The reason I want to use grams is because that’s the only thing my scale shows! I’m happy to be able to enter the car length in inches however!
    Again, thanks for sharing!
    Arvin

    1. Thank you Arvin for your comment. Forgive me for just now seeing it. I certainly appreciate the feedback especially if my calculator is not working correctly. Currently, when one switches from using the US Standard measurement system to the Metric system, both the length and the weight would need to be entered using the Metric System. I actually didn’t TEST using the Metric system as all of that should be working due to mathematical calculations. However, anything is possible.

      So, when one switches to the Metric system, the calculator only changes the OUTPUT which is the suggested Weight. For starters, when the calculator first appears, it is set to HO scale with 6 inches as the length of the car. If one immediately switches the calculator to Metric, the length DOES NOT CHANGE or get converted. However, the calculator is now assuming that the car length is 6 centimeters. The equivalent of 6 inches in centimeters is 15.24. So if one changes the length to 15.24 (which is centimeters), the OUTPUT shows 218.56 grams which is WRONG!!! Congratulations! You did find a flaw in the calculations. It should be 113.40 grams. I’ll check the math now and see what the issue is (and I might even CONVERT the Lengths when the Switch of Systems is made).

      Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

      I’m having my car worked on and am at that service appointment right now. So I may not finish this while my car is being worked on. I will post again once the corrections have been made.

      Sincerely,

      Henry
      1/7/2019 @ 5:02 PM

    2. Arvin and All Others:

      I have modified my NMRA Rolling Stock Car Standard Scale Weight Calculator. It now properly calculates the appropriate weight using the Metric Scale. It also will convert the Length currently entered from English to Metric whenever you switch Units. Many thanks to Arvin M. for discovering the miscalculation issue.

      Enjoy!

      Henry
      01/08/2019 @ 3:01 AM

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