Close Coupling PAX cars...I could really use some advice.....

Garden Railroading
1

Does anybody have a way of coupling heavyweights together closely so that there isn’t that giant gap between cars?

I know the first thing everybody will want to know is “What’s your tightest radius?” and I will tell you it’s about ten foot.

Ideally, I’d like to find a way to couple them so that they have the appearance as shown in the picture below, perhaps with an additional membrane of some kind to fill in the last quarter inch.

I appreciate the help.

p.s. in the picture, I simply jammed the couplers together side-by-side.

2

I’ve never seen them available in the U.S. in any scale, but a European manufacturer makes couplers with springs that pull the cars close to each other on straght track and allow them to move apart so they can go around curves. Marklin ? Fleischman ?

It may be possible to modify some Kadee couplers to do this by adding a coil spring to the back of the shank, but it would require a lot of experimentation.

3

I had 10 ft dia, now 20’, but body mounted Kadee 789s worked fine. and had good side to side motion. switches is where you need to check the first two cars on that you do.

4

I have done it to all 20 of my aristo heavy weights.

I just measured the gap I needed to close. I divided by 2.

I removed the truck from the car.

There are 2 measurements you need to cut to.

1st. is the offset that the coupler sits in.

2nd is the amount you have to remove from the mounting section.

I have a pull saw with a very flat blade. I marked the distance on the coupler sits in.

I layed the saw on the mounting stub. I cut out the slug.

Then I measured out from the stub. The distance from the end of the coupler to the end of the mounting pocket.

Then I cut the excess off the truck arm.

Then center the coupler and drill the new screw hole.

I was very happy with the new look.

I also purchased enough knuckle couplers from “MTH” and replaced all the Aristo coupler.

That added a 100Xs better look. Also the “MTH” couplers hold a lot better.

Just one thing You need to watch out for. "MTH"s couplers have a rise with a hole to attach a uncoupler bar to.

I cut one truck to where the rise is under the diaframe edge. I can not open that coupler.

point to watch out for.

When you are removing the truck from the car. You will have to cut the lighting wiring from the car to the tr

5

[quote user=“spikejones52002”]

I have done it to all 20 of my aristo heavy weights.

I just measured the gap I needed to close. I divided by 2.

I removed the truck from the car.

There are 2 measurements you need to cut to.

1st. is the offset that the coupler sits in.

2nd is the amount you have to remove from the mounting section.

I have a pull saw with a very flat blade. I marked the distance on the coupler sits in.

I layed the saw on the mounting stub. I cut out the slug.

Then I measured out from the stub. The distance from the end of the coupler to the end of the mounting pocket.

Then I cut the excess off the truck arm.

Then center the coupler and drill the new screw hole.

I was very happy with the new look.

I also purchased enough knuckle couplers from “MTH” and replaced all the Aristo coupler.

That added a 100Xs better look. Also the “MTH” couplers hold a lot better.

Just one thing You need to watch out for. "MTH"s couplers have a rise with a hole to attach a uncoupler bar to.

I cut one truck to where the rise is under the diaframe edge. I can not open that coupler.

point to watch out for.

When you are removing the truck from the car. You will have to cut the lighting wiring f

6

I have those couplers; that was my next question…and switches are definitely where to check, I hear you on that.

Can I ask the same question I asked of Spike, do you have a picture or two you could share?

Thanks.

7

I will post some in a couple of days.

8

I hope the photos will help you.
I made a major mistake and purchased a Apple MacBook Pro. I never would believe someone could make something so user Unfriendly.
my point - I have attempted to place this onto your post. Every time I attempt to move around my information. The computer jumps to a different area. I loose every thing I wrote.

First I adjusted (cut) all my truck coupler boosters. So i can not show you before and after.
My first photo- The Mail car. I changed from a 2 axle truck to a 3 axle truck. One side still has Aristo coupler and the other has MTH’s.
My opinion of Aristo couplers - They are the worse things on the market.
the 1st photo shows the long distance between cars. it is actually shorter than original Aristo spacing.

Long spacing Aristo couplers
http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/SpikeJones5/?action=view&current=Couplers04.jpghttp://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/SpikeJones5/?action=view¤t=Couplers04.jpg

2nd photo shows the difference after cutting down the boosters. The car still have Aristo couplers. I did not do proper measurements. There is still some space between cars. it is just about impossible now to adjust. The mounting screw hole would be to close.
They do look a lot better.

Adjusted Coupler Spacing
http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/SpikeJones5/?action=view&current=Couplers05.jpg

http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/SpikeJones5/?action=view¤t=Couplers05.jpg3rd Photo shows the MTH coupler. Remember the Booster was cut to except Aristo’s coupler.
MTH coupler
http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/SpikeJones5/?action=view&current=Couplers07.jpg

http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/SpikeJones5/?action=view¤t=Couplers07.jpg

4th photo You can make out th

9

They made a lot of changes to this FORUM. It is not as easy to add photos. I use to pick the tree simble(above) that is between the film strip and Smile face. That would let me place the photobucket address for the photo.

Now just the film strip is accessible. it does not show the photo now.

Now did you insert your photos?

10

Thanks Spike, I really appreciate it…I posted them here for you…click on the media film thing, then paste in the full internet address, then select insert.

11

…ps…by the way, when you are looking at the image you want to inser (while you’re in photobucket) you right click your mouse and you’ll see “copy image location” and that’s what you copy and paste.

12

Thank You for posting my photos.

I do not know why they have to continually change procedures.

I did click the icon bottom row third from right (film strip).

Then I got " insert media" and I inserted the address in Link to media".

You see the results.

I wanted to insert comments to clearify the photo.

It use to be very easy. Then they had to change the format.

13

Hiya Spike…don’t try to insert comments…just make any comments you want to make part of the text of your post, not part of the picture. That might be where things went haywire for you.

I wish I had time to work on my couplings, but right now I’m spending my time digging ice off my tracks and investigating battery power, which I am definitely going to start using.

14

If you search by my sign-on.

You will see a lot of my posts. I placed text and then photos and text in-between.

15

This fellow on the MRR forum says he adjusted one set of couplers and got a better result, including better operation on tighter radius. (I don’t know if I’m interested in much tighter radius because of the unrealistic look of it, but better operation in terms of fewer derails would be good.)

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/200199.aspx

Has anybody in our large scales tried this?

I finally got myself dug out from the ice and snow and this weekend will get the awning up and the final stretch of track in the big loop so I can focus on battery power, then I’ll get to my first consist including close coupling my heavyweights. Wouldn’t it be nice to have full time to dedicate to trains, at least some times? Alas, that’s not happenin’

p.s. actually, there’s quite a bit of talk in that discussion about close coupling

16

I sympathize…I just tried to post an active link to another website address and apparently couldn’t figure out how to do that!

Geez.