Oh the search for the perfect draw-bar. The LION runs Walthers/Life-Like Proto 1000 subway cars. But the couplers leave far too wide a gap between the cars. The designers foresaw this issue and provided a nice plastic draw-bar which one could use to replace the couplers.
But with this was the cars were now too close to make the curves while still wearing their pantograph gates between the cars. They looked fine, but since they were plastic, they could not fold together like the real ones, and so the trains began to derail, and this was far worse than having them too far apart.
The LION removed the offending pantograph gates.
Now this would have worked perfectly if the power car was in the lead of the consist, but when it is pushing the consist the buff forces bring the anti-climbers into contact with each other and the train derails.
Thus began the LION’s search for a better draw bar. Him had used circuit board material in the past and him tried it again. Nice spacing. Hmm… got to flatten the edges a little because it is too thick. Gotta enlarge the hole a little because there is not enough play. Ops, too much that one broke, gotta make another one. These proved to be far too rigid, allowing no up and down movement between the cars, and of course, causing more derailments. I do not have a photo of that one, since it is upstairs, and are still in use, but the quest continued.
And the LION was looking at a terminal loop, the kind used to put on the end of wires. Those would be perfect, exclaimed the LION: just clamp them back to back on a very short piece of wire, but before he went out and bought a box of them, him got a pair form the shop, and much to his unhappiness they result was far too long for any car that the LION would want to run. Heck, they were longer than the original couplers!
LION thought and thought, and thought th
Howdy, Lion,
When is a drawbar not a drawbar? When you can uncouple it without using a screwdriver to loosen a screw.
So, imagine a drawbar of perfect length with four equally spaced holes. The ones on the ends fit the mounting screws. The two in the middle fit/clear vertical pins.
Then, trim off everything past the third hole and make a duplicate. Secure a vertical pin that projects both above and below the drawbar in what is now the center hole of each. Pressing one down on top of the other causes the pins to go through the clear holes, forming a two-part drawbar that can be disconnected by inserting a small screwdriver from the side while both cars remain on the track.
Next, to make the connection at the car end flexible, use a long screw and put a coil spring between the screwhead and the drawbar. That allows a certain amount of ‘wiggle,’ so the cars can track separately without derailing each other.
The design isn’t original with me. Katsumi and Endo were using it on DMU and passenger cars, RTR and kits, clear back in the 1960s. If it was patented then, the patents have long since run out.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Yup… LION has some of those cars and couplers and they were great. Cars didn’t run worth a darn, but the were great models.
ROAR
Why not have LION try making two identical drawbars from .06" styrene, with just one hole to fit the mounting hole on the car. The other ends need to be short enough to leave a space between drawbars when the cars are at the ‘right’ spacing. Now LION just cements a third piece of styrene to connect both drawbar halves. Now LION can make more from this ‘master’ (after you road test it of course!).
-Bob
Why not?
Styrene costs money. Nearest hobby shop is 300 miles round trip, Hobby Lobby in Bismarck is 150 miles round trip, and I have no journeys laid on for this month.
What I really wanted was to mount an itty bitty plug between the cars and to use that as the coupler. Alas the LION has not the dexterity or skill to make that work even if as the network administrator him has any number of such plugs salvaged from dead computers.
Somebody should make drawbars that mate like electrical couplers on transit equipment.
Oh well, the train will run.
ROAR
Is there a WalMart closer? Buy a plastic sign and cut that up. If it’s too thin, glue laminate 2 pieces to make it thicker. Should be a lifetime supply of drawbars plus material for other LION projects.
I wonder if LION ever considered putting drops of super glue on the cardboard draw bars to make them stiffer and stronger?