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4 Responses to How To Change Couplers
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The best kind is Kaddie couplers. I eventually change any purchased engines and cars as I can afford to at Plastic couplers do not hold up near as well. If you are just pulling short trains plastic is OK but still eventually they give out.
Couplers are usually very easy to change out. especially if they already have body mounted coupler boxes You will need a good coupler gauge to adjust your fleet to the right height. The trip pin below will also need adjusted. There are trip wire plyers for that that make that much easier.
If you are changing out truck mounted couplers. It is best to mount the boxed on the bottom of the cars and get rid of the coupler and truck mounted box. But many of the cheaper line trucks do not have much way to adjust height of the car to raise or lower the coupler. Cars like Athearns do where you install shim washers (Kadee No 208 or 209) on the truck mount screw If you are doing the truck mounted position of cars like Tyco or Backmann I suggest Kadee no. 28’s as your basic for those couplers. and install per instructions. They have an H shaped clip that you install on the top side of the truck mounted coupler box that comes with it For some of your engines though the height will give you trouble and you might have to go with a over shank or under shank coupler that is already raised or lowered and help you bring them in to the correct height. Kadee has a full chart to help you find the correct coupler and they also have recommended couplers for specific brands of cars and engines in a chart. Just go to KADEE.com for that from Newman Atkinson
Patty I just recently did a clinic at our NMRA Train Show last month showing how to go about the coupler change and the types and manufacturer’s of them and the difference. I said that Kadee is probably the best but there are other choices out there. But if you are looking at it from saving money the difference to get the KADEE’s is really not worth the little you might save. Per car it only amounts to say 50 cents a car difference to install the best. I probably average about 2.00 a car to install the KADEE’s and that is not buying them in bulk 20 packs either Hope your conversions work well and if there is questions just let us know from Newman Atkinson
I agree with Newman, Kadee’s are the way to go. When I am changing couplers on a body mounted car, I use a thick block of foam rubber with a slit down the middle that is at least twice the length of the car to hold it upside down so that I have both hands free to work on the couplers. If I need to keep using the truck mounted couplers because of the length of the car, I remove the trucks from the car body to work on them. Good luck with your project. Tim
There was one word in the question about changing couplers, and that was AMATEUR. Mate, of all the model railroaders/railway buffs in the world, my guess is that less than 1% are professionals. In Australia our premier magazine is put together bimonthly by amateurs, and it is one of the best in the world. Most of the layouts featured in the many magazines published around the world are built by amateurs, Even the guys and girls who write in these magazines are amateur model railroaders – but professional journalists.
So what! It means that none of us should feel inadequate or overshadowed by the feeling that we aren’t good enough. All hobbies, especially one as diverse as ours have learning curves. Thank God we have forums like this to help us out of those inevitable holes that threaten to gobble us up