i have question for intermountain ho bi level auto racks. would anyone what type of coupler they used? i bought few bi level auto racks and having problems with curves. i know coupler is kadee kind and i think it long shank type not sure?
If the one’s you have are the one’s discussed on this Forum site. I believe I would not even get involved with them, especially price wise. They say IM does not give a minimum radius either. Long shank Kadee may work, but have no experience with the cars.
http://atlasrescueforum.proboards.com/thread/1825/reactions-intermountains-auto-rack
Good Luck!
Frank
I haven’t bought any Intermountain autoracks yet, partly due to all the bad reviews regarding the warped etched metal side panels. But I do buy lots of freight cars from Intermountain, and they all come with Kadee couplers - I suppose it’s just a matter of which kind they install in the autoracks. Like any model, you should check the height against the Kadee coupler height gauge to make sure your couplers will all operate well, not drag against turnouts or come uncoupled when track is uneven.
As far as minimum radius goes, most 89’ HO freight cars really need around 24 or 26 inches minimum to operate well, but they don’t look very good even on 28 or 30 inch curves.
The Intermountain auto racks are proabably meant for a minimum 22 or 24 inch radius curve, even though they don’t say that. Three members of our club have the HO scale auto racks from various manufacturers, and they can barely make it around our layout’s 22 inch minimum radius curves. Anything smaller and they would probably derail.
Raptor, sounds like the other posts in response to your question are on the money, particularly with regard to small radius turns. I’m curious though, what problems are you actually having? Are they derailing? Are they uncoupling on the curves? Are they uncoupling from each other or from other cars in the train? I have no experience with the Intermountain auto racks, but I do have a lot of experience in dealing with longer freight and passenger cars, such as the Walthers Goldline flatbeds, Walthers auto racks, Rivarossi passenger cars, etc. What I have learned, in addition to what the guys mention previously, is that if you have any uneven track or trackbed, such as where you may have seams in the cork or whatever roadbed you use, those differences in elevation can cause those cars to uncouple. As one end of the car goes over even a gentle rise in elevation, the other end dives a bit. The extra length of the car, and increased distance from the trucks to the couplers seem to cause a lot of unintended uncoupling. Add a curve to the mix, and/or increasing elevation, you’ll have trouble. Although riogrande5761 confirms that all Intermountain auto racks are in fact Kadees, double check and make sure they are Kadee. Once I got most of my track work flattened out, the next item I discovered was that I would have a unusually high amount of discconnects between cars when a “non-Kadee” coupler was involved. Hopefully this helps - I love to talk about trains.[soapbox]
actuly i have an S curve on my layout. right now i have consist autorack then contaner cars then autorack then contaner cars and so far it workers good, but little odd but i don’t mind. i had to do s curve on my layout cause of piller. and all my track is e-z track. but i’m still thinking about adding long couplers to autoracks down the road unless the autorack have long couplers added arighty. i took apart autorack coupler box to add ring engineer end of train device. but coupler was to short.
That S-curve is your problem. The ends of the auto racks are pushing sideways in opposite directions as they go through it because there’s not a long enough straight section between the curves. Try putting a straight sectioin of track between curves and that should solve your problem.
In the long term, passenger cars will have the same problems as the auto racks if you don’t correct your trackwork.
S-curves are a major issue to watch out for. John Armstrong discusses the evils of S-curves in his book track planning for realistic operation.
I’ll agree that the S-curve is the major part of your problem.
My min radius is 28". My Accurail open autoracks are all equipped with Kadee #5s and have no issues. Longer shank versions will help, but may not be enough to deal with the S-curve.
well after finishing my layout i try again with autoracks all together and it seem to work fine, it bit better now and while i was at it i try my bachmann mckinley explorer railcar set and they seem to run fine as well. i think for the autorack they have limit. if anyone has any intermountain auto racks and runs them on 22 or 26 inch curves it leans to one side. look under the car the wheel trucks will hit that support beam.