all of my locamotives and roling stock have Horn Hook couplers. Are companies still making locamotives and roling stock with the Horn Hook couplers? And how hard and expensive would it be to change evry thing for these new couplers? Help me out here?
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
Hi Suan Again,
I strongly reccomend that you go with Kadee couplers for your rolling stock and locomotives. While they maybe an extra expense. They operate 20 times more relaibly than the best horn hook couplers I have seen. I reccomend that you go to your nearst hobby shop and pick up some packages of Kadee #5 or #58 couplers. The #5 and #58 are designed for the same situations. Its just that the #5 design is slightly oversized due to the limitations of the technology when it was introduced nearly 50 years ago. The #58 is the modern scale sized version and is inteded to be a direct substitute/replacment for the #5. If they hobby shop is worth its salt they should be able to show you how to install them with a minamum of fuss. But if you have your heart set on horn hooks, Round House, Athearn, Atlas, and Walthers Train line still include them in their trains. THorugh you may have to substitude the kadee style generic coupler that they also come with.
Posted by Chuck Walsh (Member # 677) on :
Here's some additional infor on the KD(Brothers Keith & Dale invented them 1960) KD has developed a complehensive system of 40 different couplers, mounting methods and hardware to vitually fit every loco or car built.
KD also produces the trip pin pillars #237 and the coupler height gauge #205, both a must when converting.
Once you are at the www.kadee.com site click on the product bracket, 1-79, then scroll down to the specific coupler # you want to see, click and up pops an exploded picture, description & specifications.
You can also scroll down to the #237 pillars and the #205 gauge and click for a picture.
Like James said too, I strongly recommend KD.
[This message has been edited by Chuck Walsh (edited 03-11-2003).]
[This message has been edited by Chuck Walsh (edited 03-11-2003).]
[This message has been edited by Chuck Walsh (edited 03-11-2003).]
Posted by Chuck Walsh (Member # 677) on :
SEE MY CORRECTED KD URL'S
Posted by woodguy (Member # 2319) on :
My rolling stock was equppied with horn hooks until last fall. I wanted to convert to knuckle couplers but did not want the expense. So I went with McHenry couplers. After a couple of months of that, I converted to Kadees. This is a fine example of wasting my money by purchasing the cheaper brand, and then throwing them away in favor of the brand I should have bought in the first place. And as previously mentioned, get the trip pin pliers and height guage.
Posted by BIG SARGE (Member # 2328) on :
Hey there.
In my time spent in this hobby, I have messed with 98% of the different types and manufacturers of couplers. Go Kadee and stay Kadee. Conversion is easy (you may have a challenge here or there like I did recently) and made easier by the company itself (check out the web site). Your conversion can be gradually scaled over. Keep a conversion car with a horn hook on one end and a Kadee on the other. This way you can use both inventories nonstop.
Check out ebay. Often you can find a "lot" of couplers for a pretty fair price. Otherwise, check the train shows for bulk discount buys.
Good luck!
Mark
Posted by NewHavenFan (Member # 2150) on :
Can Kadee couplers be used with magnetic uncoupling track to uncoule cars REMOTELY ?? Or is there another type of coupler or uncoupling device to do this ?
Posted by Kairho (Member # 1567) on :
An excellent discussion for HO.
Can anyone contribute similar information about N scale couplers? Which is the concensus best?
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
Kadee couplers are designed to be used with an uncoupling magnat. The magnate forces the trip pins that hang down from the coupler and vaugly resenble an airhose off to the right of each coupler. This "opens" the knuckles and the car can be incoupled. Kadee couplers also have a "delayed" uncoupleing feature. If you back off just eneugh so that the couplers are still over the magnate, they will cock off to one side. When pushed back together, the coupler nuckles cant engage and the car can be pushed to its final spotting.
Kadee makes three syles of Magnates. The first kind fits between the rails and when executed and planned these can be disguised as rural, or in yard grade crossings. The Second kind is an under track magnate that you fit into the road bed and then lay your track over it. This style is harder to work with as the roadbed needs a hole cut into it and needs to be flush with the top of the roadbed to funtion properly. Both of these magnates are known as permanant magnates. Kadee's third syle magnate is an electro-magnate. With the other kinds of magnates if the couplers are over the magnate when the train stops, and there is slack in the train at that point. you will have an accedental uncoupling. With the Electro mangante however this is probelm is circumvented as it can be engaged only when needed.
Rix Products also makes a Magnetic Uncopling wand that you can hold between the cars to engage the manetic uncoupling abiliteis of Kadee couplers. But last I know. the Delayed uncoupling feature did not work to well.
I am not all that familiar with N scale couplers. However, I know that Micro Trains Couplers are just smaller versions of Kadee couplers and this magnet discussion applies to them as well.
Posted by NewHavenFan (Member # 2150) on :
OK ... Once I "uncouple" over the magnet and move the car to it's FINAL spot on the track , how can I get the coupler (knuckle) to open up again , so I may recouple , when I want to ??
Posted by Tom H (Member # 53) on :
Kadee couplers are ALWAYS able to recouple after you drop the car. (Unless you have dropped the car on a short radius curved track). To help insure proper operation, get an NMRA track guage, and use it to verify that all of the wheelsets on a car (or loco) are in guage, also use it to check track guage, and recommended clearances for guard rails at switch frogs and/or bridges, etc. and also if anything is built too close to the track. Also - mount the couplers on the car body instead of on the trucks. Truck mounted couplers (of any type) will always give you problems if you are backing up a long train. With body mounted KD's I have backed a 113 car coal drag thru several 'S' curves on the layout of a club I used to belong to - very successfully. (Sleeping engineer [ME] missed a signal and went down the wrong track!
Tom H Have fun & keep on railroading
[This message has been edited by Tom H (edited 03-13-2003).]
Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :
I will agree with the rest of the responses. Use Kadee, and no other cheap imitation.
I run N-scale, and use Micro-Trains brand. Actually, Micro-Trains is Kadee. They used to be called Kadee until a few years ago when they changed names in N-scale.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
Posted by Chuck Walsh (Member # 677) on :
quote: Micro-Trains is Kadee. They used to be called Kadee until a few years ago when they changed names in N-scale.
[/B]
Correct me if wrong but the brothers Keith & Dale developed the KD and then they split and thus came the N scale knuckle version.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
As someone who is a more casual model railroader than most of you, I have to say that while Kadee couplers work very well, I have found they are not all that easy to install. There are several small parts that must be assembled just so, and it can be pretty tricky. I've mangled a few centering springs and broken several talgo truck adapters in the process. And sometimes the little coil springs on the knuckle come off, and they can be a real pain to get back on.
Moreover, finding the specific kit you need can be a major challenge in itself, especially if you don't have a knowledgeable hobby shop in your area like I don't.
I bought a Kadee conversion kit to try on my IHC passenger cars and gave up trying to make it work. I got half way through the conversion on one car and got nothing but frustrated. I never did figure out how to get it in. It involved cutting out some plastic from the original truck. This makes a return to the original snap-in couplers impossible without replacing the truck. I'm going to try McHenry's snap in conversion couplers, keep my trucks intact, and be done with it.
As a very casual model railroader, I have found Kadees connect perfectly well with cheaper brands of knuckle couplers (which also hold up fine in my level of use), so I see no need to convert every single car. About half of my cars also have horn and hook couplers. So I have made three "transition" cars which have a Kadee #5 at one end and a horn and hook at the other. This enables me to have mixed trains. My two cabooses have one of each type coupler as well, so I can use them regardless of which type of coupler is at the end of the train.
One thing about Kadees that has really been a blessing, though, is the availability of offset shanks, which can compensate for a coupler that is too high or too low. That has saved me a few times.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
I model in N Scale and found the very best way to get the Microtrains couplers you need is to make a list of everything you need (couplers, pilot conversions for locomotives, etc.), then go to a national convention of the National Model Railroaders Association, find the Microtrains exhibit, and let them sell you everything you need. Take lots of money; they will have on hand everything you need. I personally like to assemble my own couplers; they are much cheaper if bought that way (in bulk). I've had good luck holding the tiny springs sideways on the tip of an Exacto knife with a #11 blade. If you let it get away, it's highly unlikely that you'll ever see it again. good luck.
Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :
Mr Toy has brought up a good point. The rest of us have replied expecting the reader to be a serious model railroader. For casual railroaders who just want to run a few trains around, there is no point in getting the very best. As he said, it is sometimes quite difficult (especially for a novice) to install them.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
Posted by Russ Bellinis (Member # 2377) on :
The KD knockoffs will work fine on a home layout with short trains. The only time you will run into a problem with knuckle couplers other than KD is when you get on a club layout with a long train and find that the plastic knuckle springs will stretch out and unhook because of the weight. I think McHenry makes some with metal knuckle springs that may pull long trains without problems. I had trouble assembling KD's when I first started, but I just stayed with it until I got it down. On our modular club layout, one of the members has under the track permanent magnets mounted. I did some switching on his module, and they worked very well.