I bought a bachmann 0-6-0 recently ( I have a budget guys ) and the front coupler is fake.[|(] The fake coupler is also considerably smaller than your average coupler. Is there a quick, easy fix for this? I am new to model railroading so I wont know how to do anything more complicated than installing a new coupler.
Pull the new coupler out of it’s socket. Cut the wide end off a Kadee #5 so it has the coupler and straight shank. Carefully drill the coupler socket so it’s wide and deep enough so the Kadee shank will fit. Put in a drop of super glue gel then slowly push the coupler shank in.
JW…you make the assumption that he is in HO.
What scale are you working in?
David B
I checked the Bachmann site. The 0-6-0 and 0-6-0 saddle tank are produced only in HO. But who knows, maybe they made one in another scale earlier.
It is always difficult when you don’t have the actual engine in hand or have experience with it. Sometimes the cast plastic coupler on the pilot is at least a separate casting held in place with a small pin or screw. In that case it is sometimes possible to modify a working coupler, by drilling a small hole in the shaft, and slipping it right in. it it can move a little bit side to side it is still usable even if it does not self-center. I remember an old metal switcher where I ended up gluing bits of rubber band to the sides of the coupler shaft to give a little bit of give and a little bit of self centering. If the cars it was coupling with had a normal draft gear box, it worked ok.
Dave Nelson
Welcome aboard! [#welcome]
Now is a good time to acquaint yourself with one of model railroading’s fondest traditions - the Local Hobby Shop, or LHS. Tell us where you live, and someone can suggest a good one for you. They’re not quite a common as Starbucks, unfortunately, so some driving may be in order.
A good train shop in the neighborhood is a real blessing. A lot of them are run by people with a real love for the hobby. (Must be that, because they aren’t making much of a profit.) Take your engine in, and they can likely find the right Kadee replacement, and show you how to mount it.
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Bachmann makes an 0-6-0 in N scale. It is in their standard line.
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Who said anything about a saddle tank? Last time I looked, the HO scale version of the Bachmann saddle tank had operating couplers on both ends.
It does NO good to give ANY advice unless you have ALL the info you NEED.
David B
I have one of those, acquired used. It’s HO which I assume yours is too. The previous owner secured a Kadee #5 coupler to front of the frame, underneath the factory dummy coupler, with a small machine screw. No centering spring, which is a problem. I may redo that sometime.
The general purpose answer to your question is to look on the Kadee website for the coupler conversion list. Here. Kedee makes an huge variety of couplers to fit anything made in the last 50 years. The Bachmann 0-6-0 is in the list, with instructions for warping a #34 coupler into the pilot and an # 33 coupler into the tender. Some filing, drilling, and hacking is required, but it’s plainly doable.
As a general rule freight cars will take a #5 Kadee coupler. Locomotives and passenger cars are all over the place. It’s possible to warp a #5 into anything with enough work. But I find it much much easier to obtain the special Kadee couplers called out in the conversion list and install them, rather than bulling ahead with a #5 conversion.
Check your P.M.
Give the guy a break, fellows. Here’s a little info, if it’s HO.
There are several problems you’ll have to surmount if there is no easy Kadee kit. First, you need to attach it at the proper height (check that carefully). Glue doesn’t work well for me and couplers. I prefer a 0-80 screw.
The trick is to find a solid piece of the front deck to use the screw to attach the coupler box. It’s often thin. You’ll almost always end up breaking through it with your drill. Unless you have a blind tap (for tapping a hole that doesn’t go all the way through a material), you’ll have to do that to tap it anyway.
Cut the screw off flush and paint is one way to deal with it. I just happen tp be working on a Westside HOn3 D&RGW C-25. It happens to have an air cylinder on the front deck to operate a flanger, I drilled through it to get a good solid mount, using the drilled and tapped cylinder effectively acts like a nut for the 0-80 screw. You could also pull this trick with a tool box or other item to hide the screw end.
Once you have the height right, you also need to check placement fore-aft in relation to the pilot, especially if you plan on using delayed coupling. The pin that hangs down needs to clear the pilot. Likewise, the car coupling to the loco needs its pin to clear the pilot. Adjustments may be necessary, just take this into account in planning your mount. You can also just cut off the pin in such cases, but that tales away delayed uncoupling (which I don’t bother with, so works for me).
Good luck!
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Are you getting my PM ???
Yes, I got your PM.
David B