Have two trains of four cars each. Only flaw is the couplers are way too long. The rounded ends of the cars should be nearly touching to where the couplers shouldn’t even be visible. Some cities permit passengers to pass from one car another. The models are seperated by a scale 3 1/2 foot gap . . . pretty big leap for a guy on crutches. Any thoughts on tieing cars together without standard couplers? Ol’ Paul
Hello Paul,
Calling Broadway Lion, This is a job for the Broadway Lion.
Paul check out posts by Broadway Lion," Lions with cameras" among them and his website. He is a subway modeler and has attached his units with draw bars.
Good Luck,
John R
You could replace the junk couplers with short-shank Kadees, or use drawbars. Eventually, the cheap plastic couplers will fail anyway, so you’ll have to do something.
Be careful, though, if you have the newer sets with end gates. If they get too close, you may find they hit each other on tight curves. I have one of the original pre-Walthers sets that came without end gates, and I added that detail from Images Replicas. These are slightly larger than the ones the cars now come with, and I recall having some problems of this type.
SUBWAY TRAINS!
Yup, you have come to the right LION.
Each car comes with alternate couplers, and a draw bar. There is only one draw bar and busing in each car kit. Lion uses a part from the Kadee coupler box to fashion a second bushing. It works perfectly.
The LION also connects the cars together electrically. 48 wheel pickup, plus a lighting circuit.
These are the older cars without the pantograph gates. With the drawbar brings the cars closer together but the pantograph gates break off on the curves. LION puts pantographs only on one car for each connection, but of course keep both of them on the end cars.
The LION runs six car trains, it works out to be almost four feet long. LION built a foam cradle to carry the assembled train from the bench to the layout.
Works fine.
ROAR
Great answers, men . . . Very helpful . . . thanks for the responses. You folks must be city kids, like myself. LION, you said there’s a drawbar included with the models? Must look for that . . . haven’t noticed. Could fashion them with a piece of brass flat I suppose. Would be nice to find vinyl of soft plastic pantograph and just stick 'em together. Growing up in Boston, the motorman used to step out there to open & close the doors. T’anks again Paul D
There is a little round hole in the foam packaging with a bit of plastic wrap stuck in it. Pull that out and you will find a pair of X2F couplers and a draw bar with a bushing.
ROAR
Something that I mentioned to a friend. Having ridden the New York City subway “Red Birds” and their related cousins (all of the IRT cars from the R12-R33) as a kid during the 1960s and early 70s, I still so vividly remember the sounds they made. Hearing the air brakes being engaged and released, the ICC brake applied at the end of a train’s run where you’d hear a very loud “CHAAAAH!” sound, the compressors kicking in and hearing them pump up the compressed air supply for the brakes, and hearing the wheels squealing loudly through curves. Ironically the only sound I found a bit strange and at times annoying was the tyical IRT horn, which depending on the condition, at times sounded similar to the “canned horns” that fans use at sports events.
I’ve commented that it would be cool to have a sound decoder that had the specific sounds of the RedBirds. Contrary to popular belief, although most of the RedBirds sit at the bottom of the ocean, the MTA did preserve a group of classic subway cars and still runs them as specials, charters, or museum runs. So recording these sounds may still be possible for editing and use in sound decoders.
Are you a Boston kid? I lived at the end of a bus line in Belmont, the other end of which was Harvard Square, then 9 minutes to Park Street on the subway. Are you talking about the old Osgood-Bradley cars from the 30s? I rode a thousand miles on those things. I’ve got pictures but I can’t insert them here. Include an email if you’d like to see some.