I have not seen any good quality diaphrams on the market for a while. The last ones that really worked where soft rubber made my a company called MHP. I have used the all plastic ones that you have to assemble that look good but do not really work. I am especially looking for diaphrams for older pullmann and 50’s era passenger cars.
I use the plastic ones from American Limited…they work pretty well.
I’ve tried the ones from Train Station Products. Those do NOT work as well without a lot of work.
Arjay is right on the money here. The TSP working diphragms are garbage as far as I am concerned. I tried the hi-level working diaphragms and was very disappointed (that included a lot of modification and experimentation to try to get them to work).
I have used a lot of the American Limited diaphrgms and have been very happy with them, especially since they expanded on the striker plate styles. You can also try the Hi Tech Details kits, but they are fairly labor intensive, so I gave up them, but seem like good kits if you want to invest the time and money (they also offer many different styles of striker plates).
Here are a couple of shots of cars I did using the American Limiteds…
I would also agree - the American Limited ones are very expensive (in the UK at least…), but are well worth the money.
Brian
PROBLEM IS difference of prototype radii and what we modelers use … in short, We model 85’ cars but not the curves they run on. Our home layouts also space cars further apart (KD#36’s).
THEREFOR Diaphramms are for looks only, and cannot ‘function’ like the prototype. In fact they impede operation on our non-prototypical curves.
WALTHERS has made paper diaphrams for years and has offere rubber ones that do not touch each other. MHP however made extra long ones that interlocked to simulate reality, even if they’re non dimensional.
AMERICAN LTD.has made working models that can slide or separate - depending on car length, distance of separation, and track curveture. These are the best to date, but even they have limits.
WANT to use functioning Diaphrams?: Buy American Ltd., use KD #33’s, and 36’R. curves.
You’ve got to have really large curves to make any of them work. This is how my IHC cars line up going into a 26" curve. I don’t think I’d have much luck with diaphrams.[:P]
You need a transition curve…
David B
That photo is a great example of where transition curves could have helped.
Mark