Closer Coupling of my F units?


N

NP2626

Guest
What Couplers are you guys using to closely couple your F units? I used Kadee's recommended type, however, they still did not pull the locos together, the way they are in reality. I want to put some Diaphragms on my F-7 A-B-A set and I need them closer together! Thanks for your help!
 
Mark: Who is the manufacturer? Kadee, sells a coupler designed for close coupling of Stewart F units, that may or may not work on others. Athearn's old style BB F7s are difficult, you almost have to re-engineer the product to get the 3 scale foot separation that is mot desirable. Kadee's short shanked couplers do not, in themselves achieve the desired result, as you have discovered.

Boris
 
Mark, this has been a frustration of mine for a long time. A lot of the problem is where manufacturers locate the stock coupler pockets in order to allow the truck to swing. I have tried to install the shortest shank couplers that I can find to get the units as close as possible. The A-B-a consist is as close as I could get them.


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Diaphrams have been installed and it looks decent. 6710C is an Athearn Genisis unit and the two to the right are Stewart units.

I was very happy to see how close that the Walthers Mainline A-B units are right out of the box. I don't know if there's enough room between them to install diaphragms.

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It can be frustrating.
 
In the past, I’ve made drawbars for close coupling the F units. One F has a permanently mounted drawbar, the other has a pin I made from a 2-56 screw to match the hole in the other end of the drawbar. It’s not ideal if you don’t want semi-permanently coupled pairs, but it does work a lot better than most solutions using real couplers.
 
montanan said:
I was very happy to see how close that the Walthers Mainline A-B units are right out of the box. I don't know if there's enough room between them to install diaphragms.
Click to expand...

Chet: Those Walters F7s look great as is. Most of the railroads found that diaphragms were an expensive nuisance, and removed them from cab units.
They were mostly for appearances, since it didn't matter to management that a brakeman or fireman would get rained upon.

Boris
 
They are old Blue Box Athearn units. I will use a Draw Bar for the two powered units and figure out some way to close-up the distance with between the powered "B" Unit and the Dummy "A" Unit.

Chet, who made your Fs with the Lowey Paint Scheme?
 
The F-7 6701C is a factory painted Athearn Genisis unit. Paint was a perfect match for the Walthers passenger cars. 6502A and the B unit are from Stewart with the Kato drive. The paint on the Stewart units were so far off, I had to custom paint and detail both of them.
 
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