… what to do about it? Cheap solutions welcome. I intend to put Kadee #5’s in them. Why were these cars made without coupler pockets in the first place?
Not sure as I’m not familiar with the car. Saying that it could be the car was designed to have a coupler/wheelset combo. I had several Mehano (IHC) ore hoppers that came that way and landed up switching bogies out for a better set with steel wheels. I then shimmed, then glued the coupler pocket to the under side of the car. Worked like a charm.
Fergie
If I recall correctly, the car was designed to accept the standard #5 coupler and box as supplied by Kadee.
Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com
Dan thanks I didnt know Kadee also made coupler boxes - duhhh…
All the Stewart (now Bowser) hopper I ever bought came with boxes. They are just
not molded on the underframe like you are used to. They are separate parts included with the details.
Kadee calls the pockets “draft gear boxes.” The price is very reasonable, and they work great. I have an entire fleet of horn-hooks, so I’m going through a lot of these.
One thing to watch out for is the little semi-circular mounting loops on the sides of the boxes. I always mount mine with a 2-56 screw through the center shaft, drilled and tapped into the car body. Once or twice I’ve had to glue them on, but I’ve never used those loops for anything. What I have seen, though, is that they can interfere with the wheels on short cars going around tight curves. I just clip them off with dikes or overkill them with the Dremel.
Some did not come with them. I am not sure what time frame they did this but, I do have a good size fleet of 40’ hoppers that did not come with them and the instruction sheet clearly stated that you had to use the Kadee draft gear boxes…
Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com
send me your e-mail and i have a drawing done in microsoft word showing an expanded view for mounting kadee couplers to hoppers…you’ll also need a 2-56 screw (use the wood screw type not the bolt type…the wood screw type works better because it’s a bit wider than the bolt and stays in place better,) 0.30 styrene sheet plastic, and a 2-56 tap and drill set also made by kadee to mount them…chuck
Dothinker,
Possibly this link will help:
http://www.kadee.com/conv/hocc30.htm
It’s the Kadee conversion .pdf file listing page. Scroll down to the bottom of the listing for Stewart.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543