I recently purchased 8 smoothside Union Pacific passenger cars from IHC,I’m not sure which Jay Bee Coupler pads are the correct ones to fit these cars,to get proper spacing, can someone please help! I already removed the IHC plastic trucks and couplers and installed the Walthers metal silver trucks to match Union Pacific colors. Thank You,Tony.
Don’t know if they’re the same but I’ve been told by someone who knows that for my IHC heavyweights I need the Jay-Bee catalog # 110 for baggage and RPO and #111 for the rest. This is the standard 8-car set from IHC.
[#welcome] to the Forum Tony
I think Jim already answered your question.
However, I was wondering what is the minimum radius can the cars operate on with body mounted couplers? I have the Rivarossi N&W set I might want to convert.
MY Rivarossi and IHC cars work on 26" radii and #6 crossovers with Body mounted #38’s . For sharper radii I’d suggest #36 (longer shank). Why 30 series? Better side/side play and 2 different height adustments, something other KD’s don’t have.
I also recommend JB #111 pads (and A Line 1/2oz.weights) Plus trucks with metal wheels for IHC. Why not just any wheels? Some IHC cars came with NEM wheels, others with NMRA. Good luck.
[#ditto] plus:
What’s the advantage of better side to side play? One is it facilitates operation of Kadee uncoupling/delayed coupling feature. If you intend making up your passenger consist in your passenger yard the 30 series will be a definite aid.
Jon
Hey Tony,
I just finished converting a whole fleet of these IHC passenger cars, perhaps you have read some of my postings on other threads concerning similar topics. Here’s what I did; I used the afore-mentioned #111 JayBee Coupler Mount Pads; these work great; however, in order to use them effectively you will need to do some sanding on the sides of the pads in order to fit them in between the central “ribs” of the car. The package recommends that you use a number 8 or 16; but ,for this application, I would definitely go with the 30 series couplers for the above mentioned reasons. Now, in my experience here’s what I did to get the proper height. 1st use a Kadee Height gauge, 2nd the Kadee coupler I used is based is not on the overall height of the car, but whether the operation of the head is hampered by the diaphragm of the car, so what I used is a #36 coupler and I mounted it in the second hole, as the mount pad has two holes.
Now, I considered using the special 110 mount pads for the baggage cars but did not really spot any clearance problems to necessitate this, plus Walthers was out of stock at the time. Next, you mentioned that you bought the Walther’s Trucks, which are one the best investments you can make for these cars because of the added weight, realism, and the insulated 36" metal wheels.
For the proper coupler height you can use two different methods: (1) take a size10, 6-32 Pan Head style screw available at any hardware store and some size M3 metric washers; these will fit, but just barely; trust me. Why not a size 6 standard ? They are too wide and thick for what we’re doing believe me I learned the hard way. These screws will fit snugly into the holes used for the original mounting pins without any added drilling. You will, however, have to remove the guiding pins and that are around the mounting hole in order for this to work. I suggest using a Dremel Tool or a file if you’re the patient type. Place the screw through the mounting hole of your Walther’s Truck now pl