I have a number of older TYCO frieght cars that I would like to put knuckle couplers like Kadee or accumate on. What’s the best way to do that? (Yes, I know they lack great detail but they have sentimental value.)
I prefer to cut away the Tyco underframe and install a piece of 0.100" by 0.250" plastic styrene drilled and tapped for 2-56 to attach the Kadee couplers to the body of the freight car.
You can see this modification on the Tyco 40 foot gondola below.
I also have a few sentimental Tyco freight cars, like this PURINA car, that I have modified to run on my layout with Kadee trucks/wheels/couplers and better weight.
-Kevin
Kadee publishes a massive what-fits-what list giving the Kaded coupler to fit every piece of rolling stock ever manufactured over the last fifty years. It is on the web, at the Kadee website, printed in the big Walthers catalog, lots of places. For older cars with truck mounted couplers it will steer up to a truck mounted replacement. If you like, you can convert your truck mounted couplers to body mount. Body mount looks better and will back up a train with fewer derailments. Conversion is easy enough, start with a pair of #5 couplers with coupler boxes. If necessary glue a thin piece of styrene to the bottom of the car to support the coupler box. Glue the coupler box to the bottom of the car or to the styrene piece you added. Drill for a 2-56 machine screw to hold the lid on the coupler box. #50 drill to tap the hole, a #44 drill for a clear hole.
I had the clear drill and tap drill numbers reversed. SeeYou190 (Stratton and Gillette) clued me in and I updated this post.
Oops… it is #50 for the tap hole and #44 for the clear hole.
[:)]
Here is a better picture of the coupler box mounting pads I build up on my freight cars. I don’t think this one is a Tyco car, but the method is identical.
-Kevin
You didn’t describe the cars very well. Are these Talgo trucks, with the couplers mounted to the trucks rather than the frame? I had a bunch of them. I decided that coupler replacement would include upgrading the plastic wheels to metal. It quickly became obvious that these old metal trucks weren’t going to allow me to swap wheelsets, so I tossed the trucks, bought Kadee coupler boxes, and replaced the wheelsets with Intermountain and the trucks with inexpensive plastic Tichy trucks.
I used rusty brown primer to paint the trucks.
The products I struggled with most were the 50-ft plug-door boxcars. You can see the method adopted in the photos (click to enlarge).
See below for other models I have experienced.
I do the same proceedure as BN7150. I have tried the Kadee #212 talgo adaptor, using the Kadee #230 insertion pick:
https://www.kadee.com/ho-scale-couplers-c-274_276_284/212-ho-scale-talgo-truck-adaptors-p-320.htm
They worked pretty good, but most of them I ended up using a body mounted coupler.
Mike.
Before you buy #5 couplers take a look at the newer replacement #148 whisker coupler. These newer design couplers are easier to use. Same gearbox.
The #148 is all I have ever used, even on the Talgo adaptor method.
Mike.
It looks like you and I ended up with similar solutions. Nice work.
I am sort-of looking for the set of DC cars myself. I have not bought any yet, but the Superman seems to be the one that is most expensive.
I have found that the whisker couplers, 40 series and 148, do not work perfectly well in the #232 coupler box that is standard to #5 couplers.
The whisker couplers work perfectly in the #242 universal snap together coupler box. They are also good in the #262 narrow coupler box and the #252 small coupler box.
On a couple of older freight car kits I have, the floor was designed for a #232 coupler box using the ears as mounting locations. I found that if I shimmed the sides and bottom of the #232 coupler box with 0.020" styrene, the 40 series whisker coupler worked well. Ultimately, the easier solution would be to use a 20 series coupler in the #232 box.
-Kevin
This is a Tyco (or perhaps Mantua) gondola, with a Kadee coupler, in a Kadee draught gear box, screwed in-place. Another option would be to cement it in place, but that may limit your ability to remove it, if necessary…
As you can see, I’ve also modified the original clip-in truck and the original large hole which accommodates it, in the underframe.
This allows the original truck, which works perfectly well (I’m not a fan of metal wheels, although they could likely be used, too) to be screw-mounted. The sideframe detail is well-rendered, so no need to buy completely new trucks.
With fresh paint and lettering, and a few added details, Tyco rolling stock can fit in fairly well on most layouts…
Wayne
I have replaced #5 Kadee with #148 without changing out the gearbox.
You do have to watch you don’t catch the whisker in the joint underneath the gearbox lid, as Kadee points out.
Correctly installed the whisker coupler works better than the brass spring style.
For the compact gearbox whisker coupler is much more effective, especially if you use the newer snap together gearbox. The old hairspring style of compact gearbox was just a nightmare to assemble and often didn’t work even if you did succeed in fitting it all together. The whisker coupler in the snap together coupler is easy to assemble. In theory , the snap gearbox could be glued in place and still disassembled and reassembled for access to the coupler.
As far as I’m aware, the snap-together draught gear boxes are made from engineering plastic, and while it’s now possible to cement them in place, I like the screw-mount version better, whether it’s the snap-togethers or the older ones.
If you’re replacing a stock draught gear box on almost any HO scale car, using one from Kadee, it’s easy enough to use a couple of suitably-sized drill bits to countersink for a flathead screw that won’t be visible unless the car happens to roll over…
Wayne
Yes, experience has shown me that gluing coupler boxes in place is a bad idea. A screw is easy to install and the right way to do it.
-Kevin
Hello All,
I tried the Kadee TALGO coupler adapter on Tyco 34-foot operating hoppers.
The cars pulled well on straight and level track.
Backing them up, running through the crossover made of Atlas Snap Track turnouts, and pulling them up the 3% curve proved unreliable and a headache.
I then converted the cars to body-mounted couplers and have had no problems.
Just my observations.
Hope this helps.
My testing methodology was a bit simpler:
-
Read what people suggest.
-
Believe it.
I’ve done Tyco hoppers, tank cars, box cars and gondolas, and body mounting the couplers is the way to go.
Thanks for the info.
I hope it helped.
If you have any follow-up questions please do not be shy about asking.
-Kevin
SeeYou190,
For a slightly different project I plan to use the #252 coupler box with #148 whisker coupler,. Question what size screw do I use? Also I’m not sure what you mean by “use a #50 to tap the hole and #44 for the clear hole”. Would yoou please explain how each is used.
Thanks
fisker4JC
A number 50 drill bit will drill a hole .0700" in diameter, and the #44 tap will cut a thread in that drilled hole.
The screw to secure the draughtgear box should be a #2-56.
It’s more likely that many modellers will have a wider range of drill bits, than they will have of taps, for creating threads. I have a fairly good range of both, but for model railroading purposes, there’s usually not much need for the bigger taps.
Wayne