# Nutty question



## Big_Steve (Feb 21, 2016)

They say the only stupid question is the question you don't ask. Okay.......

I just bought a set of passenger cars made by model power. It's 2 chair cars, a domed observation car, and a 2nd observation car at the end of the train. The 2 chair cars, and the rear observation cars each has a good sized stainless steel nut loose inside of it. I assume (??) they there there from the factory for weight? But I bought these on Ebay as new, and this makes me curious if they are used. They don't show any wear or other abnormalities.
Thanks.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Nuts*



Big_Steve said:


> They say the only stupid question is the question you don't ask. Okay.......
> 
> I just bought a set of passenger cars made by model power. It's 2 chair cars, a domed observation car, and a 2nd observation car at the end of the train. The 2 chair cars, and the rear observation cars each has a good sized stainless steel nut loose inside of it. I assume (??) they there there from the factory for weight? But I bought these on Ebay as new, and this makes me curious if they are used. They don't show any wear or other abnormalities.
> Thanks.


Big_Steve;

First of all, don't be concerned about asking any train-related question here. It's not likely that anyone on this forum will give you a hard time about asking questions. After all that's one of the big reasons this forum exists; to answer questions and thereby share information. 

I suspect that if the nuts you found were "good sized" enough not to fit say, the tiny screws that hold the trucks onto the car, then they were added by a previous owner, not the manufacturer. I don't know of any case of a manufacturer putting something like 1/4-20, or 3/8-16, size nuts into a car to add extra weight. They normally use flat sheet metal weights in the floor of the car. On a few Rivarossi brand passenger cars, I have seen car weights that were also used as "nuts" to hold the truck mounting screws in place. These were cylindrical parts that had screw threads on the inside. They looked more like spacers than normal hex nuts, but they did perform as nut fasteners, and add a bit of weight directly over each truck. Modelers will use anything heavy that fits inside a car to add weight. That's why I think this was done in someone's home workshop, not a factory.
An observation car is usually the tail end car of a passenger train. The "domed observation car" in the middle of the train, was usually just called a dome car. Different railroads had lots of advertising names for dome cars; vista dome sky dome, big dome, Etc. This is not criticism. Just my attempt to share some info. The railroads created a truly bewildering and extensive "language" of technical terms, so many that I doubt that anyone knows them all. On a pragmatic level, the dome was used to observe the passing scenery, so in that sense it was an observation car. There was even a tail end observation car that actually had a dome on top. It was used on the rear end of the "California Zephyr" passenger train. That same train also had four other domes, on cars further forward. 

regards;

Traction Fan:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Big_Steve (Feb 21, 2016)

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know.



traction fan said:


> Big_Steve;
> 
> First of all, don't be concerned about asking any train-related question here. It's not likely that anyone on this forum will give you a hard time about asking questions. After all that's one of the big reasons this forum exists; to answer questions and thereby share information.
> 
> ...


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