Thanks everyone for the opinions on couplers. I think whenthe cold winds of a Minnesota winter start blowing I am going to spend the time converting all my rolling stock over to Kadee’s couplers. It will also give me time to weather the stuff I haven’t done yet, repaint, reletter some of my RR’s engines and cars and of course, IF I have the furnace in the building, work on the sheetrock, backgrounds, lighting and the benchwork, etc. Other than that, not much to do.
After all that I would like to get the mainline and it’s switches down and be able to at least run the length of the road.
Excellent choice in couplers. I prefer nothing by Kaydee, mostly #5’s. Those cold winds are coming very soon. Nice here right now but its turning sharply colder over the weekend with snow/rain forecasted next week. Cheers Mike
Even in the ‘Sunny South’ of Minnesota(Rochester), we are going to see some pretty cold weather this week-end. It will be a high in the 30’s by this W/E - Sure glad I have my ‘outside’ work completed!
I too have a stash of model projects ready to work on. Being retired, my only obligation will be to ‘snow blow’ the driveway after it stops snowing!
The drawbars come with the subway sets. Using couplers puts them way too far apart to look pleasing. I have made drawbars out of circuit board material which I use on other train sets. These subway cars use 48 wheel pickup.
Use the drawbars and you will crunch off the pantograph gates on the curves. LION removed alternate gates between cars but leaves them both on the ends. These happen to be first generation cars, and never had pantograph gates.
I suppose one could use genteler curves, but subways do not do that. Of course real pantograph gates collapse as the cars round the corner. Newer equipment uses springs instead.
Thanks for the idea on using PCB for drawbars. Plastic that size distorts when I try to drill it and sheet metal tends to dimple. PCB should be just right.
As a side note, if you model coal unit trains, and have a Walthers rotary dumper, I discovered a source for HO scale rotary couplers while reading another thread.
Those are nice if you want to use Sergent couplers. Just be aware that if you use Kadee couplers on your locos and/or other rolling stock the end car will need a kadee/Kadee clone on one end. Sergents ARE NOT compatible with other couplers.
The Sergent couplers are great looking and work great also. If I was just starting out I would be using them. Since I would need more than 1000 of them cost wise would not be optimal. Coupling on curved track is a great advantage. The only disadvantage of the couplers is the reach in tight places or far away spots on the layout. Uncoupling passenger cars would also be a pain with the diaphragms over the couplers. One of our newest club members uses them and they work fantastic. I may put some on the front of my steamers and both ends of the helpers. What is the sense of having super detailed locomotives with the giant claws for couplers?
Sometimes I wish. Not they are Life-Like, now Walthers/Life-Like. Walthers has the price up from where LIfe-Like had it, and they do not keep stock current. Right now, Trainworld does not have any. The first ones (If I am not mistaken) were commissioned by Trainworld, and they bought out the entire run, only later were they made available to all vendors. I wish Trainworld would commission a new run!
