I am a rookie at this hobby although I have enjoyed trains all my life. I humbly ask you sages this. I have a set that I am starting with that has the couplers attached to the truck unit. However, as I look for cars and other Bachmann items I see the “body mounted couplers” and they don’t look compatable. First of all are my couplers “old school” and are they compatable with the body mounted type. If not can I adapt my truck attached to the body attached?
Thanks[C=:-)]
Check this site out first. It will probably answer most of your general questions. All cars can be converted to body mount couplers. That is usually the preferred method. The site has a list of recommended couplers for most applications.
We thank ya.
My guess is, you’ve got old “horn-hook” couplers, and your intuition serves you well – they are not compatable with knuckle couplers. Although you will still occasionally find them, and some manufacturers even include them with new kits, they’ve gone the way of the dinosaur:
Yeah, horn-hooks even look like dinosaurs, don’t they?
The good news is, there’s a Kadee for pretty much everything. You’ll probably need to get one of the kits that includes “draft gear boxes,” the little housings that you attach to the car ends and put the coupler mechanisms in. It’s probably a good idea to get a modern car and turn it upside down to see how these things fit together.
I pulled a bunch of my old trains out of storage after 40 years, by the way. Every one had a set of horn-hooks, and I’ve converted a lot since I became a born-again model railroader. Once you’ve done a few and restored some “old friends” to operating condition, it becomes a matter of honor to be able to install Kadees on anything. So far, so good.
MisterBeasley-THAT’S funny!![(-D] I never realized how much those old fossils looked like those old fossils![:P]
Here are a couple of web pages that might help you.
http://www.nmra.org/beginner/couplers.html
http://www.nmra.org/beginner/retrucking.html
Let’s just activate these links.