I put body couplers on quite a few older type truck coupler rolling stock before checking their alignment with newer rolling stock. All the old stock are about a 1/16" too low to couple evenly with the newer stock. I can’t raise the couplers as they are flush against the underside of the rolling stock. I can buy off set couplers but this would be expensive. I could buy larger wheel sets (also expensive). Or I thought I could just run the older rolling stock in their own consist but this would complicate switching operations.
Any other ideas on the most cost effective method of aligning all couplers to the same height?
The right thing to do is to set up all your engines and rolling stock to the accepted standard, and the Kadee gauge is the best way to do that. Otherwise, every time you add a new car or loco, you will have to change that to your coupler height.
In your case, the easy thing to do is just buy a couple of packs of Kadee’s fiber washers. They make 2 thicknesses. Remove the trucks, add a washer or two and the car will sit just a bit higher.
Thanks for jogging my memory. I am familiar with the fiber washers but my brain this early was only thinking about raising the coupler, not the whole car.
Low flying couplers are not uncommon. I just put a couple of washers under the trucks to boost the car up a tad. #6 flat washers from the hardware store work just fine. You will find that nearly all the older Athearn blue box cars are low until you put washers under 'em.
As you adjust your coupler heights, be sure that you are bringing them to match an accurate gauge, rather than just some other car. The NMRA gauge has a coupler height hole. Nicer are the Kadee gauges with a coupler and a little shelf to check the glad hand height.
Incidently, if your glad hands are striking rail on turnouts, it’s a good bet the couplers are low. Kadee is pretty careful about setting the gladhand height properly. Rather than just bending up low gladhands, it’s worth checking the coupler height, and adding washers as required.
I’ll take the liberty of making Georges link live. It’s well worth a look, even just to refresh the memory banks. http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Sometimes the washers are a good way to resolve the coupler height issue but at times they can result in a decidedly odd looking car, like it is standing on tiptoes. The washers can also lead to a bit more car wobble than you’d otherwise have. Another reason not to use washers is if you want, say, all your passenger cars to be the same height as they are on the prototype and only some of the cars need washers.
For some cars it is possible to scrape out more of the underside where the coupler box rests (sometimes some of the car end has to be carved away as well) and thus raise the coupler a little bit, enough to meet standards.
But if you do enough Kadee conversions you find yourself needing the offset shank couplers (both higher and lower) anyway, so I simply try to have them onhand.
I have a more mixed experience with Kadee gladhands, perhaps because I’m in narrowgauge and use a lot of 714 Kadees. You have to install the gladhand yourself, pushing it into one half of the coupler. Even when fully seated and the coupler mounted per the gauge heightwise, the tip of the gladhand is right at the minimum deck height. When you have lots of vertical curves, it’s almost inevitable it’ll snag somewhere eventually.
My practice is to give all these snugging up with the gladhand pliers to ensure they’ll clear.
Standard gauge Kadee, for the most part have the gladhand installed at the factory. There likewise seem to be set at the minimum, but the whols system is less sensitive than narrowgauge is so you can often get away with ignoring it. I still tend to take a slight squeeze to bring them up just a little.
So the gladhands are generally in spec, but just barely. Most layouts aren’t quite as good as the Kadee factory in hitting the marks, so will likely require raising the tip of the gladhand just a nudge for certainty.
My experience with the KaDee “gladhands” is they are not all created equal.Some will be just fine some are way to low.This really is not a problem for me since I don’t use uncoupler magnets before the car goes in service they get clipped off.
I do the same thing with my Micro Trains N and Z couplers.It simply prevents a lot of frustration.
After I body mount, I plug the huge Tyco truck mounting hole with a plastic sprue. Drill for a 2/56 and self tap. Then I place the top of a number 5 Kadee box on top of a BB Athearn truck. This is usually pretty close in height.
If the coupler is too low, I add some washers. If too high I file the mounting area down and recheck.
Once the height is correct, I permanently glue the Kadee box in place and adjust the truck pivot tension with the screw.
What you end up with is a Tyco which tracks like a BB.