This is my first post. I am a novice to model railroading, though I’ve had HO trains since I was 5, 50+ years ago. I have good technical skills as I am a piano technician and digital player piano technician. I have an assortment of rolling stock, engines and diesels ranging from new to quite old. The first project I would like to undertake is to get all pieces to become compatible. I’m considering installing Kadee Metal couplers where possible. I see two starter kits: #1030 Starter Pack (Kit) and HO-Scale #13 Coupler sample test kit. Should I purchase one or the other? or both?
First thing I would recommend you do is to go to the Kadee website and look at their conversion charts. They have recommended the “best” coupler number for conversions of a wide variety of rolling stock. For locomotives they even have drawings of the modifications that you need to make.
The Kadee #5 coupler has become “the standard coupler of the world.” They have other catalog numbers for bulk packs. You’d might as well buy a bunch, as they’re cheaper that way.
I personally like the #58 couplers. They are smaller, closer to prototype scale. They are completely inter-operable with #5s.
Others prefer the “whisker” couplers which are a bit easier to install. They, too, are available in the smaller and larger sizes.
But, rest assured that whatever Kadee coupler you buy, you will be getting a quality product.
The Kadee starter packs are rather useless except for finding out which coupler might fit a particular piece of rolling stock or locomotive that a standard Kadee #5 won’t fit. Using those starter packs, after you find what will fit, you then need to purchase a package of that type coupler instead of using the one from the starter pack.
A better option is to check Kadee’s web site against the type of rolling stock you have and its manufacturer.
I like the 58’s, have a few pieces of equipment with them. The club I run have two standards, well 3 standards every car needs to meet. 1. metal wheel sets, 2. Kadee No. 5’s, 3. couplers and trip pins meet NMRA standards. They use the Kadee coupler checker as mentioned.
That said few week ends ago I put a set of Kadee scale shelf-type couplers on an Athearn SW1500. I really like it but still undetermined whether all HO will go with 5’s or these scale-appropriate couplers.
I will say I like the metal couplers better, although appearance wise the McHenry’s I have taken off all Athearn pieces look more realistic. Well, except for the plastic.
The #13 starter pack basically has one of everything in standard HO couplers in it. It also includes knuckle springs, graphite ‘grease’ and a coupler height gauge.
The #1030 includes a smaller assortment of metal couplers, and some tools. If you are going to buy a ‘starter’ pack, I think the #13 may be a better overall deal.
Most of my installs use the #148 ‘whisker’ coupler, and some use the #5. Kadee make multiple variations of the basic ‘whisker’ coupler(short.medium/long shanks and various offsets). If you look around their web site, they have some PDF copies of the various coupler mounting specs. As others have mentioned, Kadee also has a nice coupler conversion web page for many of the current and past HO models.
I basically use the ‘regular’ head coupler - The ‘scale’ head coupler causes too many uncoupling problems at the club(too many bad installs), and any vertical miss-alignment may cause problems. Also, Kadee is not going to produce any of the ‘offset’ heads in the scale line as the shank will be above or below the coupler head in an offset configuration. This was explained by ‘Sam the Conversion Man’ from Kadee a while back.
As recommended, I would also get the coupler height gauge. I would start with a Kadee #5. In most cases, you will be able to make them work. If they don’t, you will have a better understanding of what you need to make it work. Rarely have I needed an offset shank. Sometimes you may need to add the different thickness Kadee washers to the truck bolster, to get the right height.
I just hot a bulk b Pack of #5’s the purpose being to replace the plastic couplers as they break so far only one loco has not worked because it needs a longer shank.
Count me in as a #58 coupler fan, as well. (#158 is the “catwhisker” version - i.e. w/o the copper center spring.) If a car will accept a #5, it will accept a #58.
I agree about the coupler gauge. Most of mine are dead on but every once in a while I’ll have a car where the coupler height needs adjusting. Metal wheels are the next progression after couplers. You have to determine whether or not an older car is worth the conversion (expense) either way.