Are there any available commercially? Those of you who have made your own what did you make them with? I want to connect 3 Athearn SD40s 3 Kato GP30s and , Lifelike f3s and intermountain fs.
Thanks
I use ¼” wide K&S brass strips. You have to be carful and make sure the frame connection to the rails are the same. I have four E7 ABB lash ups that I have never had any problems using the brass drawbars.
Run a wire from the other rail between the locomotives and you will never have an electrical power pickup problem with 18 wheels picking up power!
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
As Mel suggests, brass is a good option, as is his suggestion about all-wheel pick-up.
I’ve also made drawbars from .060" sheet styrene. I believe Evergreen also offers their sheet material in black styrene.
Wayne
I’ve made them out of styrene for two sets of Stewart FTs. They did come with two sizes of drawbars but I preferred to make my own.
With a Dremel moto tool you can easily shape what you want, drill the holes, etc.
If using metal drawbars, make sure they are in insulated coupler boxes. This will prevent shorts if you decide to reverse one of the engines at some future date.
I use these from State Tool and Die. They are available from Walthers in a pack of ten for $3.00.
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They can be cut into five different lengths.
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They holes need to be enlarged a bit, and then they can go into a Kadee #242 snap together coupler box just fine.
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They work very well and I have been happy with them.
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-Kevin
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For a more realistic appearance use dummy couplers glued or soldered together. Kadee couplers could also be glued together.
Mark Vinski
That’s exactly what I’ve done on a few of my permanently coupled sets. Set the couplers together in alignment on the bench and apply some JBWeld to the knuckles from the bottom. Kadee has short, medium and long shanks, so it’s easy to get the length you want. For added realism, I add a set of airlines mounted under the couplers that are actually connected together at the gladhands !
Mark.
airlines connected together at the gladhands is a very nice addon …
Thanks for the great idea Mark!!! I like that much better than a Mel made drawbar!
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
ROAR
Thank you gentlemen for the ideas.
I may be changing the topic a little but I personally would never use draw bars except were the prototype does, and the only example of that I know of is the early FT. I mean this as no offense to anyone holding a different opinion but I will always use standard couplers even if I will always run a set of locomotives together. It seems to me to be more lodgical and more prototypical and more flexible, especially in the case of a failure in one locomotive of a set.
If anyone has a different opinions please give me your reasons, I am very iterested to know why!
I use drawbars between some A-B F-unit sets, but I also use them on my old MDC (now Athearn Roundhouse) “Michigan” iron ore cars, connecting them in groups of four. Although there is a prototype precedent (DM&IR four-unit “mini-quads”) I mainly did it to allow the cars to be closer together - even with short-shank couplers, the cars were very far apart. I just made the drawbars out of fairly thick styrene and drilled holes for the screws.
Accurail (I think still) makes dummy couplers whose head is almost exactly the same size as a Kadee No.5. I think they list them as being for unit tank trains, but I use on my Walthers ore cars - groups of four cars connect to each other with the dummy couplers, but the “outside” two cars have a Kadee on one side.
Not sure if they do now, but the first runs of Walthers HO “Minnesota” ore cars came with dummy couplers that fit together very tightly, essentially forming a drawbar, but one that could still be separated.
I run 4 sets of powered E-7 AB locomotives with drawbars, I never disconnect them. Two sets have DCC sound decoders and two sets are DC and all four sets are wired together for rail power pickup.
I run a second B with all four sets as a power unit for my passenger car lighting connected with couplers, no drawbar. The first and second Bs have a power pig tail connector for rail power as well as the DCC function wires for lighting control. All of my passenger service is ABB for normal configuration for both streamline and heavy weight consists.
The two DCC equipped sets use the lead engine equipment number for the B unit. The B decoder Function F4 controls the passenger car lighting on and off. The DC lighting B units have a latching reed switches in the center of the roof to control the car lighting on off in DC mode with a magnetic wand.
Mel