Hi,
My husband and I are building a 4x9 layout. All of our equipment cars & engines are the old horn and hook stuff until we bought a new engine that has McHenry knuckle couplers. I bought some more McHenry couplers with the intention of replacing all the old horn and hook to that. The cars have the couplers attached to the trucks. When I take out the horn and hook and put in the new ones, it doesnt fit quite right. There is a lot of “slop” to the coupler. If I attach to another car it pushed the coupler back into receiver if you will. and the little springs may make it want to stay to one side or the other. It seems that the hole in the McHenry coupler that holds it in place is much larger than the little plastic retainer clip.
Does anyone, know what I could do to use these couplers in old trainset type equipment?
I would use the Kadee couplers instead, there site just came back up with all the new updates. They should list your type of freight cars in with pictures that show you how to convert them.
Well Laurie in N scale we would buy a pair of Kadee or McHenry equipped trucks a replace one on truck each on two cars. They would be adapters to attach your engine to the rest of your cars.
That is what we would do in N scale. I don’t know what is available in HO.
If it is HO, you may want to consider doing away with the truck/coupler combinations. It runs up the cost but a new set of trucks opens the area just above them to glue a coupler box to the freight car bottom. Kadee couplers (#5) come with the mounting box and cover. Now the couplers are mounted to the car frame instead of the truck as the prototype. Good luck with your hobby.
Thanks for the info on the #5. I was just looking at Kadee’s site to see if they instructions on my cars. Unfortunately the cars are not marked with a manufacturer. The loco is marked that came with them as IHC Mano slokena? I guess I can assume that since it came in a set they are the same manufacture.
I noticed on Kadees site that for some manufacturers, they had instructions on removing the coupler box from the truck. Doesnt look too much of a pain. has anyone done that type of procedure.
What you have are talgo trucks. Their chief advantage is that you can use sharper curves for your trains. Their disadvantage is that cars are more likely to derail when pushed. Most coupler manufacturers including McHenry and Kadee sell a variety of couplers to fit different brands of cars. If you can’t find your trucks on their list you may have to experiment.
Alternatively you can use body mount couplers. You’ll need a draft gear box, coupler manufacturers sell them in sets with the couplers. You glue or screw the draft gear box to the body at the end. (You’ll need to cut off the coupler box on your talgo trucks.)
Yes I have and with a little patience it can be done quite well. If you use Kadees #5 you can buy them with the draft gear boxes or sepparitly. It would depend on how many you need. You will need a #2-56 tap and a drill bit to match the tap. Remove the truck and cut the old draft gear box off. Next place the new Kadee draft gear box on the bottom off the car ( some filing my be nessacary to get it to sit flat or shimming). Drill the hole with the tap drill. Make sure it is in the center and that it will stick out far enough past the car for clearance. Usually I like to leave about an eighth of an inch past the of the car with the draft gear box. Tap the hole. Next install the centering spring and Knucle coupler. Put the top on the Draft gear box. Use a #2-56 1/2 machine screw to fasten the whole unit to the car. Be sure not to over tighten it as it will cause the coupler to be stiff and not work properly. Good luck and have fun.
Generally, when you convert from truck mounted (Talgo) trucks to body mount couplers, the couplers end up being a little too high. Buy yourself a Kadee coupler gauge if you don’t have one. To lower the coupler, file some material from the truck bolster (this is the area where the car body meets the truck. To raise the coupler height, Kadee makes truck shims to raise the body. I do this religiously with ALL of my new locomotives and rolling stock.
I have converted many Tyco, Life-Like & Bachmans to Kadee #5 couplers using
Kadee’s #212 to get rid of the slop you are referring to. Very few coupler heighth
problems. http://www.kadee.com/html/212.jpg
If you still insist on using talgo style trucks you may want to pick some of Kadee’s #212 talgo truck adapters with #28 couplers. I did the conversion on some of my old trainset equipment a couple years ago and they work pretty good.
The last thing I can add is make sure the couplers match heights or derailment will happen or run away cars I did that. I bought a kadee coupler gauge so all my couplers are the same correct height. your hobby shop should have shims there cheap and easy to use they look like little paper washers. Good luck
I have a lot of old cars with horn-hooks, which are being slowly converted to Kadee’s. These are all 40 years or so old, so I’ve found that the Kadee conversion guides don’t really cover them.
Instead, I buy bulk-packs of #5 couplers, and the pack of #232 draft gear boxes. I’ve got a Dremel tool that I use to cut off any old coupler mounts, and then I drill and tap the car body for a 2-56 screw which I use to mount the new coupler. It took a while to get used to this, but now I can do pretty much any car in about 10 minutes.
Body-mounting couplers is the better way to go. The cars will run much better, particularly when backing up your trains, and they certainly look more prototypical. The only exception might be extra-long cars (like modern passenger cars) when you are using tight-radius curves. I use mostly 18-inch radius curves (HO) and I can run 50-foot cars with body-mount couplers with no problem. For my 72-foot passenger cars, though, I use truck-mounts to get around the corners.
The coupler gauge, as mentioned above, is a must. I’ve also found that the trip-pin adjustment tool is handy.
With this setup of using the #5 coupler and the 232 body mount of the draft box, do you still use the old trucks after cutting off the coupler mount? This sounds like the easiest method for most conversions.
What about gluing the 232 body mount box?
what I have done is cut the coupler box off the truck then spin the truck around
180 degrees so the left over plastic doesn’t interfere with the new coupler box
Yes, I just put the trucks back on after I cut off the coupler mounts. I cut them off close to the center pivot hole, so I don’t have to reverse the direction, and there’s nothing to interfere with the new box. The Kadee boxes have small plastic “ears” on the side, which I usually trim off because they can interfere with the wheels on tight turns.
It is also possible to glue the boxes directly on to the body. If you have a problem with the coupler, though, then you’re going to have to cut the whole thing off, toss it and start again, so I always prefer a screw-mount so I can open the box if I have to. I have glued a couple of them on, though, and they work fine so far.
A lot of modellers really hate the plastic wheels found on most Talgo trucks, so they end up replacing either the wheels or the entire truck. Metal wheels will roll smoother and keep your track cleaner, but that’s an upgrade you can save for later if you want. To be honest, most of my cars still have plastic wheels. I’ve got a box of metal wheels that I bought a couple of months ago, but I haven’t gotten around to converting very many of them yet.
a quick note…if you do decide to go to kadee couplers, use the #26 coupler for passenger cars and locomotives…passenger cars are long and swing out wider than most rolling stock…the #26 will swing out better than the #5 …most locomotives (athearn is notorious for this)…will also need the longer #26 kadee or you’ll be whittling down the front of the locomotive with a hobby knife to make a #5 coupler fit… chuck