Greetings all,
I bought a set of Broadway Limited Wabash Bluebird passenger cars, 3 in the set.
They run fairly well on a 22” radius track, although from time to time the diagrams do come in direct contact with each other on curves and the result is a derailment.
I would like to change the coupler with one with a longer shank allowing the cars to run more smoothly on both 22” track and also on a tighter 18” radius track.
I contacted Broadway Limited and spoke with a very friendly lady but she didn’t have any idea what size coupler I could use nor what size the coupler which came with the car was. She did tell me that these cars are the same as the Zepher passenger cars but that doesn’t help.
They use a strange coupler box where the coupler just slips in and the coupler box has whiskers built into it providing spring for both left and right centering.
I checked out Kadee to try to f
Hi, Howard,
I was curious about your dilemma so I pried one of my Broadway cars apart to see what your solution could be. I run on slightly broader curves and the Broadway cars don’t give me any problems.
You have to carefully release the tabs — I used a very small, flat blade screw driver — that lock in the “carrier” to the car floor, which retains the plastic swing bracket. The coupler that fits into this swing bracket is either a genuine Kadee #5 or a very close “clone”
IMG_9492_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
As far as I know the only replacement for a #5 Kadee with a longer shank is the Kadee #26 or #36 (same coupler, different draft gear) which is actually a plastic coupler but much stronger than the McHenry type plastic couplers.
https://kadee.com/htmbord/page26.htm
Kadee also has a “Scale Whisker” long shank coupler but I can’t be too sure of the fit. You would have to cut off the whiskers, of course. Scale head couplers are less forgiving of track irregularities, too.
Good Luck, Ed
Haven’t had the Bluebird cars, but understand they are very similar to the Zephyr cars. You’re lucky if they do work on 22" as most consider them and simolar cars as eeding a 24" min R. A longer shanked coupler could make 22" more reliable.
18" R, though? I think you’re going to find that it will take much more than longer shank couplers to solve that. There’s the swing of the trucks and lots of potentially interfering underbody details to deal with. Also, side skirting could need to be cut away. Full length cars in 18" curves will also look pretty ugly, even if you hack away enough stuff underneath to make it work.
Howard, go to the Kadee site and ask Sam the Kadee Answer Man to help you out. Send him an email via the contacts button on the site. The Kadee site says you will get a response within 24 hours. 2 to 3 hours is more like it. Kadee and Sam are wonderful.
Could you just glue a thin sheet of plastic over the diaphragms so that they just slide against each other without catching while going through curves?