But Weight ....... There's More!

Thanks to Peter Mackenzie's post on the Aus_Model_Rail Yahoo group, the mystery of the excessive weight has been revealed.

Basically there is a huge big weight inside the tank, about 66 grams by my scales which is the full length of the tank. Way too heavy, and hard to imagine why it was designed to be that big?

In any case Peter's method of removal is shown below, for those of you who aren't a member of Aus_Model_Rail.

"The end cap of the tank at the handbrake end is not glued and can be removed
with little effort.

There is a screw in the middle of the underframe, this retains the weight -
remove it.

The weight should now slide out, the ladder at the open end will need to be
eased out as it fouls the weight.

You can now cut the weight to your desired size or replace with something else."

I found that cutting the end wings off the weight (second picture) and using the fully circular centre section gives a weight of about 26 grams, which equates to a total wagon weight of about 45 grams which is ballpark for what you'd want.

However, I chose to fill my wagon with an appropriate volume of real oil, as I would hate to be one of those toy train players who fill oil tankers with lead!