Hi all, still relatively new here and need some guidance…
First, I purchased this set used off of ebay:
Then, separately I purchased the matching obervation car
Only later did I realize its got the wrong coupler. The first 4 cars have horn hooks, while the new tail car has knuckle.
I have both types of locos to run this set with so not a big deal either way. I was thinking simple path was simply to replace the knuckle coupler (pictured below) with a horn hook. but then maybe I just replace all with kadee 148’s mounted directly to the car?
In the photo I posted in the other thread about Rivarossi trucks, you can see that I used McHenry snap in knuckle couplers. Plastic, yes, but they’re fairly reliable.
I too use McHenry couplers on my Rivarossi cars. I’ve never had one fail in well over ten years. Make sure you get the right length, there are several lengths available and they just snap in.
In my experience, and others may disagree, assuming you go the truck-mounted coupler route with Rivarossi/AHM or IHC cars, I suggest adding weight to the cars right over the trucks as this seems to improve keeping coupler height where you want it. Otherwise they have a tendency to sag (whether you switch to knuckle couplers or keep the horn hooks).
Body mounted couplers on these scale-length cars need a considerable minimum radius that few have.
In the long run, you’re probably going to find that the horn-hook couplers are much less reliable than knuckle couplers. The McHenrys aren’t very expensive, I would just replace all the horn-hook couplers with McHenrys now.
This set has the original factory horn hook couplers.
This car has the Kadee replacement which is an adapter with a Kadee #5 installed in it. These are a lot of work to install.
Instead of cutting away part of the original coupler mounting I prefer to simply replace the original couplers with McHenry #52 couplers which snap into place without any cutting or damaging the original mounting. Just pop the old coupler out and pop the replacement in.
You should replace all of the hornhook couplers with the McHenry #52 couplers.
ok thanks all. To start I ordered just a set of 2 McHenry #52 couplers to see how easy it is. I have mostly older locomotives that have horn hook couplers (working with stuff from my childhood that I’ve restored for now). I think long term I’ll replace all of them with McHenry knuckles and maybe leave one car as a transition to horn hook for my older locos.
Also great point about adding weight over the trucks.
Again, thinking long-term, you may want to convert your old engines to Kadee couplers. Horn-hook couplers became essentially obsolete around 1960, although some manufacturers continued supplying them with cars until Kadee’s patent expired around 2000. The Kadee No.5 generally is a “drop-in” replacement if the horn-hook is located in a coupler box.
As far as installing the McHenry’s in Rivarossi cars, it’s pretty easy.
Grab the horn-hook coupler and pull it out.
Grab the McHenry coupler and push it in until it snaps in place.
Thanks wjstix. Eventually I will plan to do that. Just a few months ago I unearthed my childhood collection from 40 years ago. With that said I assumed it would be tricky since I need to account for all of the different styles, etc.
But you’re saying the No. 5 is a drop in if the horn hook is in a couple box? Every time I read Kadee instructions it seems to detailed and complicated.
To me and many other people changing out couplers is an interesting and fun part of the hobby. Having working couplers improves everything.
Kadee #5 or the more modern Kadee #148 will just drop into Athearn blue box kits or other cars with body mounted coupler pockets.
Some Athearn locomotives require #21, #22, #27, or #29 with under or over set shanks to make them the proper height. It does start to get complicated but with experience you can figure it out, or just ask people here.
Many people use #26 in the front of Athearn locomotives so the coupler will clear an after market snowplow.
For cars made by Tyco or older Bachmann cars, or any cars with truck mounted couplers you can replace the couples with Kadee #26 which will be inserted into the truck mounting, or you can cut off the truck mounting and glue on a #5 in a box to the body. You will need a piece of sheet styrene as a spacer to make the coupler the correct height.
For old time freight cars made Rivarossi/AHM you can use McHenry #56 which are similar to McHenry #52 except they are shorter.
Rivarossi, AHM, and IHC passenger cars are very underweight. In stock condition, they tend to wobble over turnouts and rail joints with gaps.
Just an additional suggestion, in case you haven’t cosidered it:
After replacing the couplers and installing metal wheels on the trucks, another simple step that I take is to add BB pellets inside of the pockets of the car’s floor (which are the tanks that you see on the underside). After making sure that the pellets are flush with the floor, I cover them with Elmer’s Glue. Once dry, I install a one piece AHM interior (painted) and re-assemble the car. Weight and rolling qualities improve nicely!
For additional weight, flat steel bars can be added, but in my case there was no need to. [;)]
I have a bunch of Rivarossi/AHM cars I bought for a “rainbow train” project, and I’m converting them to body-mount.
I think I tossed most of the original horn-hooks but I might have a few floating around that I can send you. If you’re interested, email me – webmaster at pmrrc dot org – and I will see if I can find any. For the record, I agree with everyone above, knuckle couplers are better.
Speaking of weight, if your cars don’t have interiors (some Rivarossi cars came with a one-piece plastic interior with seats and such), you might want to get Palace Car Co. kits for adding them. A really nice thing is the floorpiece they use is a flat metal weight that fits directly into the car, and increases the weight considerably. Over the weekend I just used one of their kits to add an interior to an old Rivarossi heavyweight coach, easy and quick.
p.s. I dug out the kitchen scale yesterday and measured, the Rivarossi coach by itself with no interior weighed 3.1 oz, the floor weight with the seats and passengers attached was 3 oz., so 6.1 total. (That’s with it still having the original plastic wheels, I would estimate adding metal wheels would add another quarter or half ounce.)
