I have noticed, as I buy rolling stock that some cars sit higher than others… if you look at the side of the couplers, one is higher than the other almost like this — __ . The cars seem to stay together, but at times, as the cars transition from an incline to flat, they will uncouple. only the ones that are mis-matched. Can I adjust the height of these? What causes this?
Unfortunately, there is no set standard among model makers for coupler height, so each is on their own. That’s why Kadee makes couplers with center-set, raised, and lowered coupler heads, as well as long, short, and medium length shanks.
If you think HO and N scale are bad, you should see the mess among G-scalers. Sometimes the couplers won’t even touch each other. Here again, Kadee has stepped in and makes a variety of couplers.
The first step is to buy a Kadee coupler height gauge. Then make sure everything matches up to that. If the coupler is too low, you can add shim washers between the truck bolster and the bottom of the car. Kadee sells washer to accomplish this.
If the coupler is too high, you may have to remove some material from the truck, bottom of the car, or both. This can cause problems with the free movement of the trucks, however so a certain amount of care must be taken with this.
With engines, sometimes you can get the above procedures to work or you may have to modify the coupler mounting area to get the couplers to line up.
Good luck!
Tom
Some times the couplers are not in gauge because different type of cars has different wheel sizes which helps cause the coupler height problem…Best to get a KD coupler height gauge and adjust each cars coupler height by using thin washers made by KD…
Another often overlooked cause of incorrect coupler height is a warped floor. Athearn BB freight cars are notorious for this. The metal weight is often not flat and when the plastic floor and chassis are attached to it, they bend with the metal. This causes the ends to curve up or down causing incorrect height in the couplers. In extreme cases, you can’t put enough shims on the trucks to correct the height. Fortunately, it is easily fixed. The weight is made of soft metal that can easily be flattened out. I had pretty much written off Athearn BB kits until I learned how simple this was to fix.
Good advice! Add the frame to your list as well as they can be warp as well…[:D] Another easy fix as well.All you do is gently bend the frame till its straight.
Kadee also makes shims to go under their pockets to drop the coupler height if needed. In some cases it’s easier to cut off the car manufacturer’s pocket and just install a Kadee pocket.
Deffinately buy a gauge. The KD shims and washers work well too.
This drives me nuts. I’ve got a bunch of Athearn BB’s that all have different stock heights and a bunch of Bach deisels that are ALL different. You would think one company could get their stuff the same. I’m about to switch over to the KD whiskers with their new snap fit draft gear boxes. I’ve only heard good things about them.
As you may know care must be taken while assembling a Athearn BB car kit.A lot of modelers have problems with these cars because they rush through building the kits without giving a thought to check the weight and frame to ensure these parts isn’t warped.
Wow, such good info! I will look for that guage at Hobby Bench, but I bet I will have to go to the train hobby store. Hobby Bench many times has what I need, but that sounds very specialized. The one Hobby Bench that I go to has a whole case of couplers behind the counter, so maybe they sell the guage too. I need to go and get some of that Woodland Scenics Road goup…
Thank you to all and happy holidays!
I’ve been using a piece of heavy plate glass to test the weights in my BB Kits. Once they are flat & level I paint them semi-gloss black to reduce their visibility and mount them per the instructions. I’ve had no problems with coupler height, per the Kadee height guage, with any of my BB Kits once I’d worked over the weight.
Mark Gosdin