I just bought a set of P2k F units and have a coupler question. I absolutely HATE plastic couplers, Always Have, Always will. What, if any, is a suitable solution for mounting Kadee couplers on these beasts. Thanks.
The factory supplied Proto 2000 F7 couplers are die cast metal.
I’ve always been able to replace P2K couplers with Kadee #5 or #58. It’s just a drop-in replacement. The #58 is a smaller head, closer to prototype size. #58’s and #5’s work together very well.
How old are the F-units?
Depending on how the couplers are mounted and how tight your curves are, you may need longer shanks, particularly on the pilots. I don’t have any P2K F-units myself, so I can’t say.
Lots, maybe most, HO locomotives need electrically insulated couplers. Reason? typical locomotives use the metal frame of the locomotive to carry current from the wheels to the motor. This means the frame is electrically connected to one rail. If you double head your engines, especially a pair of A units coupled back to back, you find the frame of one locomotive goes to the north rail and the frame of the other goes to the south rail. Couple the two locomotives together with metal (conductive) couplers and you have a dead short.
The Kadee “30” series couplers are all plastic to avoid this problem. It is also possible to mount a metal Kadee in a plastic coupler box, secured with a plastic screw and obtain electrical insulation, but you have to be careful to make it work out.
Thanks for the replies folks… Guess I should have opened the package and looked a little closer. They sure looked like the old plastic junque P2K couplers to me. The locos are the newly released units from Walthers with the killer QSI sound units. Make my Genesis F units sound Sick (not in a good way)… Anybody want to swap some MRC sound decoders for a couple 4 function regular decoders? (seriously, email at rolleifix at rolleiman dot com or PM if you want).
Thanks, David. I’m actually pretty familiar with all of it. Starting with my original set of P2k GP-18 (in the Tan boxes). I was just not wanting to reinvent the wheel here. My general experience with these P2k locos is that special couplers are usually required to ‘look’ right. You know, not stick out too far, bind against the body, hang too far down, and still actually work.
On all of the P2K locos I had, the couplers that came with it were plastic, not metal. WHen did they start putting metal ones on? As a matter of habit I replaced ALL couplers with Kadee. That includes P2K, Accumate, and McHenry. I find they just work better and more consistently.
Most of the P2K’s. a #5 just drops in and comes out to the correct height, but on some of their older models you may need to use different ones to get the height correct.
–Randy
Randy,
Last year Walthers introduced the ‘Pro Max’ metal coupler with the Hiawatha cars and F7 engines. Mine work fine, but Walthers price of the couplers is more than I can get ‘real’ Kadee couplers for!
Jim
That was true of Athearn Blue Box locomotives and most brass locos, but all of the P2K locomotives I’ve owned have had the trucks electrically isolated from the frame, with wires soldered to the trucks for electrical pickup. Even if that were true of P2K, their coupler boxes are plastic, so there can’t be any electrical connection with the frame anyway. I don’t mind using plastic couplers (Kadee brand only!) on freight and passenger cars, but on locomotives, it’s gotta be metal for me, because that’s where the majority of the load is placed.
Not just Athearn and brass, I have a ABBA set of P2K Alco FA2 hood units. All four of them are hot chassis.
I learn something on here every day. Since Santa Fe didn’t have FA’s I never bought any of those. [:)] Everything from the GP7’s/20’s/30’s on has been isolated. Even so, metal couplers work as long as there’s a plastic coupler box.
The P2K F7s are the first in the line to have metal couplers. I have a P2K freight car with the metal couplers, and they are nice, but are still far more over-sized than the standard Kadee coupler. If the coupler head size doesn’t matter, then there’s no need to replace them.