After not being active in the hobby for about 25 years, I have finally got the time and inclination to get back in. Thankfully, I stockpiled stuff over the last 25 years, and don’t have to buy much at today’s prices. I’m not complaining about the expense of the hobby, everything is expensive today. Enough of that.
Although I am still laying track and doing wiring, I occassionally get to run a train, build a kit or otherwise enjoy my hobby time. I have noticed a few things have changed in 25 years (big shock, right?), and thought I would opine here and see if any of you care to chime in.
First thing I noticed was the death (or at least the terminal illness) of the horn-hook (oft mis-named NMRA) coupler (oh yeah, I’m in HO scale). However, the plastic knuckle couplers I have used so far (on RTR cars I bought so equipt) have gone into the garbage. They don’t center right, which cause both coupling and uncoupling problems. I have a supply of Kadee #5’s so I’m all set (I only wish the scale coupler was available when I started “collecting” couplers).
Wheel sets - many cars now come with non-magnetic metal wheels and axles. Wonderful! IMO, that was long over due (as was the use of standard knuckle couplers, but I know the patent Kadee had probably stopped that from happening back in the day).
Uncouplers - I used to use the Kadee electro magnets (mainline and passing sidings) and beneath the ties magnets (dead end tracks). A few months back I somehow got informed about rare earth magnets, specifically Neodymium magnets. I use the 1/8" x 3/16" cylinders and bury them in the roadbed. So far the only issue I have is spotting the cars in the right place to uncouple them (it is fairly critical since I only use two “piles” of 2 magnets each, near each rail, between the ties). I may use some type of optical sensor (a lot of work) or change to walk around control (I use DC).
probably one of the biggest changes since you’ve been away from the hobby is the popularity of digital command control (DCC). Many of us (including me) still use DC control, but as more companies are getting into the DCC act, the features and performance are getting increasingly good, as well as its’ user-friendliness.
As you are in HO, there is so much more available in accessories, detail parts (for both rolling equipment and scenery) as well as raw materials for scratchbuilding and tools. There, of couse have been many many more structure kits available, from beginner to craftsman products.
There are many other changes that have come along that do not come to mind at the moment, that others will likely post here. Its a great time to be in this hobby! The creative possibilities are endless. Have fun!
I guess by that standard I haven’t been active in the hobby either because for the past 15 years I haven’t had a space for a layout, but I have been actively collecting to build a roster, doing research etc., and building kits here and there - is that not active? Anyway, I hope besides the prices your shock has been a good kind, because the rolling stock offered in the past 10 years had been nothing short of awsome, at least for SP and D&RGW fans - PC&F box cars, FMC box cars, Bay window cabooses, Tunnel motors with nice details etc. and much much more!
You make it sound like a bad thing! For many of us, the death of the NRMA horn hook has been a mixed blessing. The best coupler to use has always been and still is Kadee though it’s a small consolation that you can operate most rolling stock out of the box now - but all is not well.
By way of example, I recently pulled out 20 of my Athearn RTR (upgraded MDC) Thrall coal gons and ran them at a modular layout (BTW they are nice cars, but came with McHenry couplers from Athearn). The train randomly uncoupled in different places in the train while being run on a modular layout, exhibiting the reason why Kadee is still the gold standard - the plastic finger that acts like the Kadee closer spring on the McHenry couplers, became fatigued while in storage so the couplers don’t reliably stay closed. I have over 100 of those cars that will all need Kadee’s - I suspected it, but it’s now confirmed and that will cost quite a bit, even in bulk packs. Well, nobody said the hobby was cheap!
Yes, I am familiar with DCC. I have stayed somewhat current by reading, and have been to a few train shows (not many in this part of the planet). DCC is great, buty I have over 200 locos and really wasn’t up to installing all those decoders. I know i could run both DC & DCC, but decided I didn’t want to be distracted by another “sub-hobby”. Besides, I was a techie for over 50 years, and I want a break from electronics [:D]
I know! It’s trully amazing that the hobby can support so many products, but I’m happy it can. One thing I won’t miss is the plaster scenery thing. Although, I may still make some rock castings. Since the trainroom is carpeted, I wanna keep the mess to a minimum.
The X2F coupler was designed by the NMRA as a standard coupler but,the membership never approved the X2F as the standard coupler.
The X2F coupler played a very important part as far as standardizing the couplers manufacturers would use.No longer would manufacturers include couplers in their kits that was incompatible with other manufacturer’s couplers.
The majority of us used X2F couplers back in the day since once properly mounted those couplers worked quite well.
I would say that is quite active. Actually, your experiences pretty much are the same as mine. I said I was inactive, but that really only means as far as building models.
Absolutely the good kind. And it wasn’t a total surprise as I was buying things, reading mags & books, participating online, etc. I model the Canadian National family and when I started (back in the early 80’s) you could count the CN plastic models on your fingers (and those were usually “imagineered” or fantasy paint jobs). Now there are a bizillion if them, most of those are fairly accurate and available in a variety of paint schemes. It’s all good.
[quote user=“riogrande5761”]
First thing I noticed was the death (or at least terminally ill) of the horn-hook (oft mis-named NMRA)
You make it sound like a bad thing! For many of us, the death of the NRMA horn hook has been a mixed blessing. The best coupler to use has always been and still is Kadee though it’s a small consolation that you can operate most rolling stock out of the box now - but all is not well.
I meant no disrespect to Paul Mallery and his diligent committee. I read somewhere that the actual X2f was never built by any manufacturer, that they each came out with a variation of their own. FWIW, I am a life member of NMRA and fully support the work they have devoted to Recommended Practices and Standards (I have 3 HO scale NMRA gauges lying on my train table right now). All that said, I am still happy the defacto standard has finally been adopted by the hobby. If memory serves (and it doesn’t these days) Kadee was developing their early magnetic couplers almost simultaneous with the NMRA committee’s work on the X2f. I realize the X2f was a much more affordable coupler and that was most likely a prominent factor in its development. Economy of scale (i.e. size of market, not ratio of sizes) and relative costs (an extra buck for couplers is not huge when the model costs 40 bucks) probably helped the hobby toward adopting the knuckle coupler.
BTW, I spoke to Paul very briefly while he was teaching at LSU. I wish I could have spent way more time with him. He is one of the pioneers.
Hah hah, and I was being a little tongue in check about active! I wasn’t actively running trains past 15 years and that was not a good thing!
Anyway, with what Rapido is up to in recent years, you should be getting really happy since crazy Jason has been pumping out Canadian accurate models recently! I’d like to get one of the nice gondola’s but spend my pennies a few other things and didn’t have money left over - the Rapido gon’s aren’t cheap, they are actually similar or higher than Tangent!
I agree, I just can’t afford to upgrade all my rolling stock at once, it’s going to take some time! But thankfully, quite a bit of what I have purchased in the past 10 years came with KD’s stock - but that still leaves all my Atlas, Athearn and Walthers which is still a couple hundred cars!
eBay has taken its toll on me too. Although I like to model specific prototypes, I also was a collector. I mainly collected factory decorated Canadian National stuff. Since I live in Louisiana (before CN bought the IC no one down here carried much CN model stuff). Since much of the pre-1990 CN stuff was released only in Canada, and that was about 2000 miles away, I was having a hard time finding those models. Then, in 2001, I got involved with eBay. I sold a lot of unwanted stuff, but mainly bought tons of stuff. These days eBay seems to be quite anti-seller in its policies, and so many items are grossly overpriced, so I haven’t been active there much of late.
I can see the attraction of DCC, but since I tend to go overboard, if I got into DCC I probably wouldn’t do much modeling anymore[:)]
The major change I see is that 25 years ago if you wanted super detailed rolling stock it was brass or do it yourself, now I can buy RTR that is better looking than what I could do, and I have skills. Locos were the same thing. Even 25 years ago code 83 was becoming the code of choice and as for couplers, Kadee #5 was the choice and had been for a long time but they didn’t have the clones. Hobby paints have become, overall, less toxic too and better glues.
Very true. I used to take great pride in taking a Life-Like or Tyco tank car, add metal stirrups & grabs, file down parts of the frame and bolsters (to make them not so bulky looking), add various vents and valves and then custom paint and decal them. Guys would go nuts trying to figure out what brand they were! Another favorite of mine was to modify AHM/Model Power “Fat Albert” tank cars into “shorties”. I also did this with the Athearn long tank car. By the time I was done adding parts, couplers and decent trucks & wheelsets, the cars cost me around 20 - 22 bucks each (back in 1988). Now you can buy nicer cars off the shelf. But as they say, there is a lot of fun in building the models too.
After not being active in the hobby for about 25 years, I have finally got the time and inclination to get back in. Thankfully, I stockpiled stuff over the last 25 years, and don’t have to buy much at today’s prices. I’m not complaining about the expense of the hobby, everything is expensive today. Enough of that.
Although I am still laying track and doing wiring, I occassionally get to run a train, build a kit or otherwise enjoy my hobby time. I have noticed a few things have changed in 25 years (big shock, right?), and thought I would opine here and see if any of you care to chime in.
First thing I noticed was the death (or at least the terminal illness) of the horn-hook (oft mis-named NMRA) coupler (oh yeah, I’m in HO scale). However, the plastic knuckle couplers I have used so far (on RTR cars I bought so equipt) have gone into the garbage. They don’t center right, which cause both coupling and uncoupling problems. I have a supply of Kadee #5’s so I’m all set (I only wish the scale coupler was available when I started “collecting” couplers).
Wheel sets - many cars now come with non-magnetic metal wheels and axles. Wonderful! IMO, that was long over due (as was the use of standard knuckle couplers, but I know the patent Kadee had probably stopped that from happening back in the day).
Uncouplers - I used to use the Kadee electro magnets (mainline and passing sidings) and beneath the ties magnets (dead end tracks). A few months back I somehow got informed about rare earth magnets, specifically Neodymium magnets. I use the 1/8" x 3/16" cylinders and bury them in the roadbed. So far the only issue I have is spotting the cars in the right place to uncouple them (it is fairly critical since I only use two “piles” of 2 magnets each, near each rail, between the ties). I may use some type of optical sensor (a lot of work) or change to walk around control (I use DC).
Thanks for your post. I’ve been back to HO trains for 3-plus years and yet overlooked prior posts on magnetic uncoupling options. I included two Kadee undertrack magnets in one of two yards but did not pick good spots, so I plan to pull them out. I have on hand some of the undertrack electromagnets but don’t want to tear up the track. It’s on cork but not yet ballasted. And I prefer to avoid the visible aspect of the between rails, above ties long fixed magnets. So (after finding and reading some relevant threads) I’ve ordered some cylindrical 1/8" x 3/8" magnets to try in the between ties, 3-pair arrangement. I like the idea of the easy addition, though I will give it a try first on a test track piece.
I’m going to look at these as well. I have a few spurs where the track is layed right on the plywood with no roadbed. Using an undermount would require mortising the plywood and if I was going to do that, it needed to be done before the track was ballasted. It would be a mess to do that now. The cylinder magnets do seem like an inter
I do the same. If I ever get back to selling off my unwanted trains on eBay or (more likely) some other site, it will be better to have some type of knuckle coupler than the old horn hooks on them.
I have a few of the whisker couplers, and will buy more as I run out of #5’s. I have already used some of the whisker types on some old Atlas (Roco-made) S-2’s. Man, replacing the couplers on those guys was a chore. There is a piece below the coupler pocket (part of the pilot) that makes installing an old style Kadee quite challenging because the spring coupler and draft gear box cover must all be held in alignment while you insert the friction pin into them (with that piece of the pilot fighting you all the way).
[quote user=“jecorbett”]
I have no experience with either electro-magnet uncouplers or those rare earth magnets. I did discover that putting KD undertrack uncouplers on the mainline was a mistake in that it was causing much unwanted uncoupling. I have since removed them and now only have them
On cylinder (vertical beteeen the ties) uncoupling magnets, I found older threads that elaborated via the following google search. Sorry if not a clickable link, as I seem not to understand how to insert those successfully. EDIT: seems Insert/Link works whereas a direct right click / Paste does not (latter just looks like text).
That should work out pretty well, I think. If I knew (when I ordered my magnets) that I needed 3/8" (height) magnets, I would have bought those instead of 3/16". As it turned out I found I needed a minimum of two 1/8"x3/16" magnets stacked vertically, and two columns (of two stacked) along the inside of each rail. You have to make sure that the poles on the same side of the track match (i.e. both North or both South), and that the stacks on the opposite side of the track have the opposite pole facing up. I hope I didn’t confuse the issue there, I know I didn’t explain that well.
I decided to only use two columns on each side of the track (rather than 3 to 5 as others had done) to try to keep false uncouplings to a minimum. The obvious downside is that the cars must be spotted rather precisely or they won’t uncouple. Your choice of using 3 columns should make it easier to uncouple cars.
BTW, I found the magnets worked well if the top of the “stack” was slightly (less than 1/16", probably less than 1/32") above the ties. This places it well below the point that it would hit couple trip pins or other low-hanging parts.
I also saw a video in which a fella in N scale drove screws under each rail (obviously doing this while laying track so he could mark the location, remove the track then drive the screw) then let the magnets attach to the top of the countersunk screws. Seemed like a lot of work to me. I’m not sure why he did this, maybe the screw intensifies the magnetic field like the Kadee under tie magnet does (the steel plate that goes below the magnet).
Thanx Paul. Seems most of this Neodymium magnet thread has been covered before. As always, the computer will find whatever you want if you ask it the right way (therin lies the problem)[:P]
I too have learned you cannot copy/paste links or phots/drawings in these forums. So much for univaersal standards!
For many of us, the death of the NRMA horn hook has been a mixed blessing. The best coupler to use has always been and still is Kadee though it’s a small consolation that you can operate most rolling stock out of the box now - but all is not well.