Evening all, I've spent a good bit of my railroad time inventorying equipment lately and making decisions on what to keep, sell, use, bash and so on. One problem I have is that of my 300+ car fleet the couplers are all over the place, a common problem I suspect with equipment this age. The two problems are that some are truck mounted and others mounted to the chassis. The big problem though is that about half are Kadee and half are hook and horn. I'm used to the latter as it's what I used as a kid but it appears that Kadee is the preferred unit today. I want to go ahead and make it all uniform so the big question is which one to use? I won't use cost as a factor and as for numbers it won't make much difference as the fleet is more or less 50/50 as to which type coupler is used. Most of my passenger fleet is h/h and that numbers maybe 75 cars. Another 250 or more are industrial, gondolas, boxcars, tankers and so on. There is no method to it, just random couplers depending I guess on the mood of the original modeler. As to mounting method, I would again prefer to be consistent and either mount all of them to the truck or to the chassis. Not sure that is practical though and may not be able to carry it off. I would consider replacement trucks if I could go one way or the other and in fact need to replace quite a few. The good news, if it can be called that, is that I have enough equipment to repair, update, weather and generally work on that I won't be buying anything new, just parts. I think I know the answer but what would any of you do. Kadee? A specific one? I know there are different types but not sure what they are, I will do some research on that. Thanks to all. Rick H.
Definitely Kadee. They have a conversion chart on their web site, which should be helpful: http://www.kadee.com/conv/convpl.htm
Kadees have never disappointed me. Not only do they have a conversion chart on their web site, in some cases they even show you how to mount them if there's some modification or other mangling involved. And like Jim J, #5 and #158 are my prime choices.
Body mount your couplers. Kadees are the ONLY coupler I use. About 800 freight cars All equipped with both Kadee couplers an trucks As for which coupler to use Probably either the good ol' nimber 5 or if you don't want to have the brass centreing spring use the 148. I also weight my cars. I use one ounce per ten feet of car length. A 50 foot car should weigh five ounces.
I too use Kadee Couplers body mount for the most part on my HO scale inventory. I did run an experiment with Sargent Couplers on one train of 10 cars. I really liked them however they are more expensive and slightly more difficult to uncouple; so that was short lived and stuck with Kadee.
They do have bulk packs, so you might save some money there. Perhaps a little more, if you can get them from a discount source.
Also, if you have certain cars that always runs together, you really do not need to switch the couplers out right away. I have two coal trains(one loads, one empties) and only about half have Kadee Couplers. The others have dummy couplers that are not operational. Since coal trains are not really switched like a regular freight... it works just fine. I think this way will work with intermodals, auto racks, and other unit train types. Just a thought. JMS
In the old days, we made adaptor cars. A piece of 1/8" wood floor, cut square, a DeVore on one end, a Baker on the other.....whatever we needed, throw it between strings of different couplers. I've been changing mine out as I have time, standardizing on one type, and so far it's working well. I've got pictures, but it's such a pain to load them onto a site, then copy here..someday. Both body and Talgo (altho the Ta
When I started building my layout years ago, I started building my freight car fleet at the same time. Kadee couplers were among the first thing added to the old blue box kits which were among the better freight cars at the time. Metal wheels and sometimes even sprung Kadee trucks were also added. Once they got a little weathering, they went into service. I also built a number of the old Silver Steak wood kits, and again, Kadees always went on. Most all of the freight equipment is still in service, and I am now replacing the number 5 Kadees for the closer to scale #158's when time allows or if a car needs servicing.You are a lot better off body mounting the couplers. Right now I am in the midst of major home remodeling, but when the projects have been completed, I have a number of #5's I could send you. My work bench area is now piles high with tools and various items for remodeling and I have no idea where they are at the moment. I make it a habit to buy the couplers in bulk packs. Check on Amazon. I bought my last 2 buld packs of couplers there at somewhat of a savings over retail. I have no hobby shops around me at all. You could also check the prices on some of the online retailers such as Internet trains and woo woo woo woo woo woo. There are a number of online retailers that I deal with because of not having any hobby shops in my area and most see at a discount. ............................... Chet
In the old days, we made adaptor cars. A piece of 1/8" wood floor, cut square, a DeVore on one end, a Baker on the other.....whatever we needed, throw it between strings of different couplers. I've been changing mine out as I have time, standardizing on one type, and so far it's working well. I've got pictures, but it's such a pain to load them onto a site, then copy here..someday. Both body and Talgo (altho the Talgos are factory), all of my conversions are body mount. Mantuas. Dave (and I have no idea why this post it up twice, both times as a quote of myself when I didn't, and most of the end of the post is missing...and I can't edit it.
Ditto with conversion cars for me, except in this case I had a couple of cars with a horn-hook on one end and a Kadee on the other. On my rolling stock, I prefer Kadees, and I have a mix of number 5s and number 58s. I like the 58s for the scale size, and have had no problems with them in operation. Any McHenry couplers or other plastic wannabes are promptly removed and saved for a future scrap pile (hmm, maybe parts of a couple for busted knuckles tossed aside in disgust by trainmen changing out coupler knuckles). I can't say anything about the other Kadee numbers (except for some number 7s I have on my Atlas/Roco diesels), but the whiskered ones sound intriguing.
I always wondered what those were called, I have some cars equipped with them but they are quite old. Looks like prevailing wisdom says go with the Kadees so that's what I will do. Chet if you are serious I'd be happy to buy all of them you want to part with. I'll be needing quite a few. No hurry on them, just when you find them. I'll buy new too as need be. I'll be building a new table in the garage in the next couple of weeks and will be able to do some more work on rail projects. I'll be re-establishing the HO version of the CBAM&J in a bigger better layout probably triple the size of the first one. Right now I'm in a building frenzy of model planes, got some things that need finishing up for delivery and then I'm going to give the trains a lot more attention. Also have a couple of scale boat projects that will be getting built. What can I say, my life is largely a big toy collection. Rick H.
Bakers had a spring that held the hook down. John modified them by removing the spring so they coupled with no pressure.
Same here! In the attached pic, I have some McHenry's on the silver/aluminum rack that still have the drawbars. These are representing new couplers. If you look in front of the rack, you will see knuckles, drawbars and other assorted parts just lumped into a pile... of course hidden behind the little RIP building so no one driving by could see them! LOL! JMS
