I often have locomotives and freight with varying degrees of coupler height. Most of the time it is a non-issue but sometimes they need to raised or lowered to be closer to NMRA ride height. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to do this. I’ve been to Caboose Hobbies here in Denver but the Kadee shim solution is unbelievably confusing to me ( I went to public school…LOL). Is there a simple easy to understand way to make these type of adjustments? I feel rather foolish even asking this question. Thank you in advance. Walter
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This answer assumes that you are using all Kadee type knuckle couplers and are modeling in HO scale.
The first thing that you should do is get a coupler height gauge. Kadee makes one, and most modelers that I know use it. (Both in HO and N scales.)
Now you should go through all of your equipment and check the coupler height. Some will be OK, some may be high, and some may be low. You want to adjust all the couplers to match the height of the gauge.
Locomotives are the hardest to adjust, and may require a coupler change. Kadee make under-set and over-set couplers just for this.
As to your cars, most coupler height adjustments are made by lowering or raising the car on the trucks. If the couplers are low, add washes between the trucks and the car. Kadee also sells very thin washers for this purpose. If the coupler is high, you can do one of two things: Sand down some of the bolster that supports the trucks, or replace the coupler with an under-set type. Then you may have to add a washer to raise it up a little bit.
The coupler box shims can be used to lower a coupler only if the coupler box is removable from the car. Most boxes are molded right on the chassis, thus you can’t use the shims.
If you have some Athern cars, make sure that the metal coupler box cover is tight up against the coupler box. These tend to come loose sometimes and drop down, thus lowering the coupler, or even having the coupler drop out of the car all together.
A few days ago, I posted a how-to on installing a Kadee #5 coupler on a freight car. It includes some to the things you are asking about. A few pictures may help
Assuming you are modeling in Horribly Oversized-Scale and, therefore, have body mounted couplerst to raise the coupler you need to raise the underframe above the trucks through the use of shim washers on the truck bolster effectively raising the underbody – and the attaqched coupler pocket --above the rail; to lower the coupler you need to raise the underframe above the coupler pocked through the use of shims between the underframe and the coupler pocket effectively lowering the coupler in relation to the underframe.
Piece-a-cake!