My HO-gauge Walthers Superliner cars decouple when passing over the slightest undulation in the track. The shank heights are correct per the Kadee gauge. The problem is that the couplers slide up and down relative to each other because of the lever effect of the long cars, and they slide up or down off their neighbor.
I tried wiring the cars together, but that simply torques them off the rails when passing around even a 60" curve.
If only there were couplers with extra tall sides, the cars would stay coupled. Are there any such? Can someone suggest a procedure for modifying the couplers I already have?
What brand and model of couplers? Are they loose in their boxes or snug so they don’t move vertically? Honestly, how bad is your trackwork? You may find that getting rid of the undulations makes other things work better, too.
They are whatever Walthers supplied, they are snug in their boxes, and the trackwork is good enough that freight cars have no problem negotiating the undulations. Adjusting the flatness of the track with thin cardboard shims fixes some problems but uncovers others – it’s a game of diminishing returns.
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If you cannot fix the vertical undulations, shelf couplers are a good fix.
Is this 60" radius or diameter? I can run full length passenger cars on my 30" radius curves. This is a mix of Walthers, Rapido, and Rivarossi cars. I did replace any plastic couplers with metal Kadee couplers.
I suspect you might have severe bumps at your track joints. When I laid my track I tested with a GP9 and some 40’ boxcars. Larger 6 axle diesel, steam and passenger cars ‘found’ the issues with my trackwork!
I use Kadee #119 Scale Shelf Couplers on all of my passenger cars and they never uncouple accidently and still work over an uncoupling magnet perfect. They’re smaller size is a bit closer to scale too. I started out with the normal size #118 Shelf Couplers and later to the Scale version for aesthetics. Both the #118 and the #119 are interchangeable with regular Kadee couplers.
Put bluntly, your trackwork needs repair. A “slight” undulation will not lift a car enough to uncouple.
If you think you have problems with the Superliners, wait till you try 89’ flats.
You HAVE to go through your trackage and find all the problems. The Superliners are doing a pretty good job of that for you.
Another way to find vertical problems is with a hacksaw blade (you can bend it for a curve). Put the non-toothed side down on a rail. You should see no light underneath. It should not rock. Now try another spot. Keep going. Adjust the track until the blade finds no more problems.
Off topic, but why do you always post that the first few posts will be delayed by moderators? Since the post appears it seems clear that the post has passed moderation. Not a criticism…I’m just curious.
Spammers join groups and then send everyone spam. It happens quite frequently in nonmoderated groups. I don’t know if the have the patience to wait more than 1 or two posts.
I have never gotten spam from this forum. I appreciate that. Getting to 10 posts was no problem for me, but then on the Internet I have a lot to say. In person, I am the quiet guy.
Welcome Waltoney, For me the kadee shelf couplers work just fine for, if that perticular car wants-to-be a peskie 89’ flat or one of those Flexi-Van Mark III and Mark IV flats. Those Mark III have the trucks closer to the coupler ends then the Mark IV so the Mark IV have a greater angle and the coupler faces tend to lift and drop at greater differance and uncouple/slip apart if the track is very so slightly off in level. I like mutli diesel long trains and that equals weight/tonnage, well poundage anyway. Now… those Kadee shelf couplers will give you a fit if you try to seperate two cars by hand and if you have a derailment the whole bunch will follow each other on to the ground. I just can’t say that I have any trouble with my Passenger cars.
I would worry that shelf couplers could lift the end of the cars up enough to cause a derailment.
On the other hand, go ahead. You are in denial over your trackwork, and maybe replacing your couplers to no avail will convince you that you need to fix the track.
Really, nothing will bring you closer to trouble–free operation than trackwork that’s as close to perfect as it can be. And nothing will be as frustrating as tweaking rolling stock and engines to make up for marginal track.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a train of 89’ flats equipped with scale-sized Sergent couplers:
to a Free-mo setup. There were ZERO accidental uncouplings.
The modules were built by 4-5 different people (none of them me) to Free-mo standards. There was a 10 track yard, a double-track wye, a 3-siding turning loop. And more.
My layout is HO scale and I have what I would say is good track work. It is probably far from perfect but I can’t remember the last time I had a derail that I didn’t cause myself by doing something stupid. Even with what I would call good track I still had problems with random uncoupling with longer cars, seldom in the same location. I went with shelf couplers and the problem went away.
All of my freight cars are short (nothing over 50’) and all have body mounted Kadee 58 couplers, I don’t remember having a freight car uncouple on its own.
The random uncoupling was only with my Athearn Streamline passenger cars which all have truck mounted couplers. I don’t have a clue why only those cars would randomly uncouple. I had several Bachmann 85’ cars with the mechanism so that the body mounted couplers tracked the curves. They were the worst for random uncoupling. I no longer have them but not because of the uncoupling, the 85’ cars didn’t look right on my small layout. Ten 85’ long passenger cars are too long for a small 10’ x 14’ layout.
I even tried mounting the couplers to the frames of the 72’ Athearn cars and that made the uncoupling worse.
The Free-Mo standard doesn’t specify a tolerance for the “flat” connection at a module edge, so there could easily be mismatches from exact flatness. I’m really glad to hear that this kind of coupler mitigates the possible problems.
For Free-mo, trackwork quality is not specified in the standards. But people who can’t build quality trackwork either learn how or tend not to be invited back. Or their modules are “assigned” to the branch line.
The “flat” connections at the module ends can be lined up very easily, though it does take a bit of time.
So, yes, there could easily be mismatches. But properly set up, there are no significant mismatches.
As I demonstrated when I ran my train. Using Sergent Type E (as shown in the photo).
It can be seen (though I never used them yet, but someday) that the Sargent couplers have less chance to slip up and down having a more tighter fit between couplers then the Kadees having more slop between knuckle and coupler body. Even with Kadees on a ‘heavy’ train with long cars (double and triple open auto racks loaded with first generation metal ClassicMetal Works vehicles, now they are made of plastic) with out shelfs when taking out slack action a little to fast, the force and slightly sloppy couplers/box and slightly not perfect track at that one particular location you can slip them vertically apart.
Oh, and stay away from those cheap all plastic Kadee look-a-likes, cut off their heads and throw them in a scrap gondola.
