Which dome, one of the coachs or the full length lounge? I just got a note from my vendor that said my sets were in. So I should get them in the next few days, but I wasn’t expecting any work other than just lubing the trucks and throwing in Kadee’s. Even that is a lot of work on 40+ cars. How did you adjust the height?
Simon, the couplers had coil springs. Aside from some being missing, this isn’t my primary complaint. The centering springs are not accurate out of the box, and the cars mostly won’t couple together on a straight without guidance from a tool. The springs can take an even worse set if the cars are left on a curve.
These couplers also are not very sturdy and a minor impact can spring one, trashing it.
Gandy Dancer, the car that is too high is the 9039 Vista Dome Coach. I had to use KD’s with underset heads to make this car work, and the heads are still a little high.
Manufacturers seem incompetent when it comes to passenger car couplers. Those on my Bachmann heavyweights (articulated with lever arms) had too much vertical play. I decided to replace them with body-mounted draft boxes since I had adequate track radii. The articulation scheme used by later Rivarossi and Walthers cars works better, but not with couplers having plastic centering springs.
The 4 wheel trucks on these cars roll reasonably well. The 6 wheel trucks on some Walthers heavyweights I bought about a year ago have a lot of friction, and I tried lube and tuning without much luck.
The Branchline heavyweights have the best trucks I’ve seen yet, as well as the best detail. Of course, the detail stuff is pretty delicate and I had to learn to handle them with care.
Hal
To borrow a phrase from some younger modelers; KADEES ROCK!! I still have cars with the Kadees that I installed on them in 1982!! And they’re still going strong. I’ve had to replace a couple of springs, that’s it. I’ve NEVER had anything fail.
Hal,If the coupler on the 9039 is still a little high, could the car be lowered on the trucks without visual or appearance problems, or would it take a different coupler mount or mount shim to get the coupler to the proper height…Also, how would you rate the wheelsets that are on that car…To me, those cars are like waving a carrot in front of a Great Northern Goat…Definitely a great looking set…BDT
I have some pinless Kadee K couplers (salvaged, with permission, from another modeler’s scrap box when he converted to MK’s in the early '60’s) that still perform as designed. I use them as ‘inside’ couplers on cuts that aren’t intended to be broken up - they push-together couple just fine, and aren’t affected by track magnets.
I have a few early MK-4 couplers, still in service on cars I built shortly after my choice of prototype became set in concrete. Except for a few knuckle spring losses, they have performed well for 40+ years of nearly continuous service.
I have MKD-5/10 couplers on kitbashes that started life as Athearn BB kits (and still have the Athearn frames at the ends) which have been in service since the early '80’s. A couple of ‘heritage’ (club heralds) BB cars have had them even longer.
A high percentage of my freight cars have truck-mounted MKD-6 couplers which are actually body mounted! Four wheel cars, just like Thomas’s, “Troublesome trucks.”
If you get the impression that I insist on using Kadee couplers, you’re right!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
EVERYBODY has a ‘bottom line’ - what they are willing to pay for any given item.
Kadee - for manufacturing.
Manufacturers - when using someone elses product.
You - when spending your money.
CHOICES, CHOICES!
You want Kadees? Buy em. ($.75ea - Cheep). Or, is it you just want them for FREE?
(They come on InterMountain cars, not Athearn).
Keep all your McHenry couplers and store them in a box. Then when you have a box full sell them on ebay. You never know what you moght get for them.
-Smoke
Shucks. You realize a good Empire Builder will have three such cars in it. I got one “set” in each color so I’ll have to be messing with 9 cars… grumble grumble.
This is a very accurate description of the situation for us. I love Kadee couplers, and I would love to put them on our models, especially the new whisker scale-size couplers, which drop right in to our coupler boxes.
But if I did that I would have to increase our MSRP by about $5 - remember we have two pairs of couplers in every box: a short shank scale coupler installed on the model and a long shank regular coupler to use if you have tight curves. If my cost increases by x dollars, my distributor price will have to increase by that amount just so I can break even, which means the retail price increase will be more a lot more than x.
It is much more economical for you to swap out our couplers for a pair of Kadees if you want to, especially if you buy a bulk pack. That way you can choose which type of Kadee you want - not everybody wants a scale coupler and not everybody wants a #5. It probably takes longer to open the box and remove the passenger car from the plastic wrap than it does to swap the couplers.
Best regards,
Jason
BDT, the trucks have feedthru screwheads that wipe against pads under the car floor for lighting. It would be complicated to shim or otherwise adjust the car height if you still want to install lighting kits, more work than I’d like.
The metal wheelsets seem OK, reasonably free-rolling.
Gandy Dancer: maybe my dome car is an anomaly, but seems unlikely.
In other respects, I like the cars quite well. My two minor nitpicks would be that the diaphragms, while they work well, don’t look real. And there are no pipes or cables on the undercarriage. These are very well done on the Branchlines, as well as the trucks being very free-rolling.
Hal
I frankly would be pleased if Rapido Cars did come pre-installed with Whiskers. 5 dollars? Sure why not? It will either happen off the bat with Rapido or it will go to Kaydee. On my railroad that 5.00 is already spent.
There are a few things that I dont compromise on and Kaydee products happen to be one of them. Now, when I survey the massive numbers (To me) of plastic couplers that will fail and need replacement in my 100 or so peices of rolling stock I can see right away that it will be a very large part of my hobby budget. No problem, it is a oppertunity to get the stuff into standard and those peices that fail to pass the gauge will either be fixed or turned into parts.
I consider that as a customer, the products made in the hobby all compete for my dollar. Those that take the time to make quality and trouble free (Mostly) items will most likely get the sale the rest will stay on the shelf. So, please. Consider the kaydee and dont waste my time with el-cheapo wanna be’s… not at the today’s MSRP’s that are out there.
If it means actually exporting a ship full of Kaydees to China and having Quality control people install them correctly… so be it.
In my world, as long as it’s a knuckle coupler, it’s good!
I agree–Kadees never fail. Bachmann EZ mates, and McHenrys do.
I don’t like the ones that have the plastic wiper that act in place of a spring.
The only couplers I buy (besides Kadees) are couplers that are plastic, but have metal springs.
If you guys don’t want yours, I’ll take em!
Phil
I was not trying to inply in any way that you were trying to skip the steps of ensuring standards compliance on your model raiload. I was trying to demonstrate that I to an frustrated with the same problems and have avoided them by mainly sticking to a Build as much as possible polocy. This does not bother me as I like to dig in and work on
Heh heh seems like only yesterday when the FIRST thing you did to a new car or locomotive, kit or RTR, was remove and toss the horn hook coupler. How we longed for the situation we have today, with Kadee knockoffs that are, at least compatible. Now you can at least run the car before deciding to change the couplers or wheels.
What I find with Walthers passenger cars is that I have to tinker with them, both the couplers and the trucks. When adjusted enough they seem to work OK. My commuter bilevels were just not running well at all especially through crossovers and super elevated curves until I noticed a thin metal shim around the truck bolster that was distorted and needed to be tamped down a bit. Then they ran fine – but NOT before I had relayed a far amount of track figuring that my tracklaying was undoubtedly the problem (actually a pretty reasonable assumption …). That said it might actually be helpful to lay track so that it accepts your worst cars.
On my layout passenger consists will basically stay coupled and not be broken up and re arranged, at least not very often, so some of the virtues of real honest to goodness Kadees (which remain by far the best in my experience) might not be as important as on freight cars and locos. Time will tell. Kadee makes a great product and I do not think the explosion in the number of available knock offs has hurt them a bit – indeed I suspect killing off the horn hook once and for all has been good for Kadee.
Dave Nelson
I still cant believe that people expect everything to be perfect out of the box. I seems to me that “effort” is being taken out of this hobby.
Changing couplers is a 2 minute job, MAX. And a final check before the rolling stock touches the layout rails is a must…but again this takes “effort”.
As a Canadian Modeler, nothing is available to me ready for running on the rails, nothing. If its a locomotive, there is usually major bashing involved to make it even close to the prototype. Take the SD40-2 for example. You have to change out the nose, rear light, front and rear handrails, anticlimber, ditchlights, anticlimber liftrings, plate pilot, bell relocation, sinclair antenna, accurate paint…).
Changing out couplers is a nominal thing…a nessesary skill in our hobby. If you cant handle that aspect, then there are others that are much more involved.
David B
Customizing a piece of rolling stock is half of the fun of this hobby or any hobby.
What makes my blood boil is supplying junk just because it was done before and couplers are a prime example.
(quote)
BECAUSE too many “modelers” use too sharp of curves that don’t work with prototypical-length cars.
IE: ‘TOY-LIKE’ curves with ‘non’ toy-like cars. The NMMRA (who?) recommends curve radius of 3X the length, An 85’ foot car measures about 12", and 3 X 12 = 36"r. (6" cars X 3 = 18"r. ).
What’s in your wallet - er on your layout?
DON’T blame the Manufacturer. YOU picked your track ,and product. Hello! You cannot repeal the laws of Physics.
Good couplers wouldn’t be too expensive. The problem with the poor ones is the plastic springs which fatigue, often before you open the box, always if you leave them pushed against a track bumper between monthly operating sessions.
The last couple Life Like Proto 2,000 (Which is Walthers now) cars I built have bronze centering springs but plastic knuckle springs. A pair of E-Z couplers in the same junk pile, I think from an Atlas car, have metal knuckle springs but plastic centering whiskers.
It manufacturers can afford one or the other, it would cost a tiny amount more to do both at once. From there it is just a matter of setting fine tolerances.
Yup thats the one and only thing we smart Red Sox fans can agree on with dumb Yankee fans.[;)]
-Jake
Here here!