Hi Guys
I have been replacing my freight car fleet with Kadee Couplers and Im finding that the coupler pins are catching on my turnouts how do I go about fixing this???
Thanks agian
Jeremy
Oh yes , those pesky pins.
On my equipment, I have actually had to trim the pins off carefully and gone to manual uncoupling on a staging area. The pins are there to look like the hoses between cars but for model performance, they suck and trip on EVERYTHING between the rails. I am glad you brought this up because like you , I have been replacing my couplers ,alot from the hornhook days and some kadee that just don’t fit. I am really having the best luck with Bachmann so far . But I am sure that is up to debate.
Jeremy;
First get a Kadee coupler height gauge or equivalent.
Make sure the head is at the correct height; adjust the car height, and/or use an offset shank coupler to make this right.
Last, use trip pliers to adjust the pins per the instructions with the height guate.
Nigel has the right formula.
You can buy a special pair of pliers (actually made for bending electronic parts leads) the will make it easy to adjust the trip pins on Kadee couplers.
Try looking at Micro Mark (hobby tool company) for the pliers.
Dave H.
You can also get the trip pin pliers from any model railroad dealer as this item is in the Walthers catalog.
nfmisso has it just right. You gotta cover the fundamentals: car height forst; cplr ht next; pin hook clearance third.
Vertical curves enter here. I built too abrupt a change from level to upgrade. Rolling stock went up OK but often coming down, the too abrupt (to be honest ANGLE) change
would catch those pins.
Some useful answers here, thanks one and all. I have found a bit of difficulty with tripping over coupler pins, but I’ve found a careful tweak with round-nose pliers gives enough clearance. Trial and error, with plenty of the second one!
The pins must not extend below the railhead. You can bend them up carefully with a pair of long nose pliers. Kadee makes a coupler height guage so that you can insure that the couplers are at the correct height and the pins do not extend down too far. A cheap solution is simply to place a piece of .030 styrene across the rails and check that the coupler pins clear it.
nfmisso’s program works for me. I also find that Kadee’s fiber washers work great for raising the car to bring the coupler head up to proper height.
In addition to using the fiber washers to raise the car, don;t forget the Kadee couplers that have the offset heads. Kadee is not just #5s. Plus, sometimes the car is at the right height already.
It cannot be emphasized enough – coupler height accuracy is key to not only keeping Kadee pins from hitting rails at turnouts and crossings, but also to having the delayed action work right and keeping the cars coupled. (The same is true for horn hooks but few adjust the height of those and when they switch to Kadees they are not used to worrying about ecact height)>
Dave Nelson
Jeremy,
The most important investment, when I started converting my fleet, was the coupler height guage. There were less derailment and uncoupling accidents due to the differences in coupler heights. There were a number of great suggestions on shimming and using the over (and under) shanked couplers.
My rule of thumb is this. If the couplers are less than a half coupler height apart, I would use the shimming techniques. If there is more than a half coupler height difference, I would use the appropriate over or under shanked coupler and doing the additional shimming or filing that is required.
It is important that the coupler have very little up and down play. This can happen when the coupler box is not attached securely to the car body. The symptom usually is that the coupler will nosedive into the turnout. You can always remove the cast on coupler boxes and replace them with the boxes that come with the Number 5s.
As for replacing truck moumted couplers, al la Tyco et al, there are two strategies. 1. Cut off the truck box and mount the couple on the body. Or 2. Use the Kadee 20 series pieces to secure the coupler in the Tyco box. I have found that the number 5 or 28 coupler will be at the right height if the wheel sets are replaced with Proto2000 33" wheels.
It is tempting to lets some cars through without checking them, but in most cases they will cause some problems.
If you are not going to use magnetic uncoupling, you can cut the trip pins off, but I would recommend against this. You never know if you have the opportunity to take a piece of equipment to some one elses house, or a show or whatever. You do not want your equipment to be at a disavdantage when it come to operations.
Good Luck.
Micro-Mark now sells a new coupler height gauge that works with most automatic couplers - this might help with the height situation.
Hopefully, the special pliers will help with the catching problem!
Also, check your frogs, etc. at your switches for levelness.
I have has this problem with the coupler pins catching on turnouts as well. I tried to bend the pin up slighly but did not want o damage to coupler so I just trimmed th epins back a bit. A have had the most succes withth bachman ez mate couplers.
ShaunCN
My coupplers hit the track because i tried to put ez-mate center shanks on my tyco loco but the hole in the couppler was bigger than the tyco couplers so they are too lose. Are there adapter rings, or something?
asdelan,
Check a Walthers Catalog or the Kadee website. Kadee provides detailed information and parts for converting specific cars to their couplers. As posted in prior replies, buy the Kadee Height Gauge. It appears that most contributors on this specific topic learned as I did, the hard way. A few dollars spent now to get the right tools for the job will pay off huge dividends with future trouble free running. It is a good practice to check all rolling stock periodically for adjustments and to check new cars prior to them being put into service. A small Gray kadee fiber washer is often the difference between a reliable fleet and a fleet that will have numerous unwanted uncouplings. Kadee also sells trip pin pliers that allow you to set the couple pin to the proper height. This too can be checked with teh Kadee Height Gauge.
**asdelan-**Get a peice of styrene tube 1/8" O.D. and 1/16" I.D. Cut off peices about 1/16" long and glue these onto the Tyco pins. Then mount the coupler on those. The old blue Q-Tip tubes worked great for this, but I don’t think they make those anymore.