Coupler Question


mnbaty

mnbaty

Trainman
Sometimes I have a problem with my 6 axle locomotives forcibly derailing cars and somtimes each other when they are going through turnouts. Would couplers with a longer shank help prevent this? Any recommendations? Currently thes locomotive have the oem couplers installed. Athearn RTR and an MTH SD70.
 
Oh definitely replace them with Kadee couplers. They have standard #5, and a long shank #26.

First try the #5, to see if it resolves your problems. If that doesn't work, try the #26's.

No rolling stock hits my layout without Kadees.
 
mnbaty said:
Sometimes I have a problem with my 6 axle locomotives forcibly derailing cars and somtimes each other when they are going through turnouts. Would couplers with a longer shank help prevent this? Any recommendations? Currently thes locomotive have the oem couplers installed. Athearn RTR and an MTH SD70.
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What radius is your curves and what # are your turnouts? Are these knuckle couplers? 6 axle engines can go around a 18" rad. curve but not coupled to other rolling stock. A longer shank coupler might help. Increasing your curve radii and turnout size would be better if possible. Phil
 
I have been running E8A's pulling passenger cars with truck-mounted couplers around 20" radius curves and through #5+ turnouts with no problems, but if the turnouts form a crossover and creates a tightly curved "S", there can be problems. (I run mostly Athearn 72 ft. passenger cars and Con-Cor shorties, and none of them back up well around curves with the diaphragms touching.)

If you are running 85 ft. cars, passenger or freight, I would strongly suggest trying the long-shank Kaydee couplers. What you might have to do if you don't mind running one car as an idler, is to put an extended coupler pocket/draft gear on one end of a car. If you model a car that had "Cushion Coil draft gear" which extended longer than normal draft gear anyway.
 
A long shank coupler can make a lot of difference on long locos. All my curves are HO 18" radius with mostly #4 Bachmann turnouts. The longest locos I run are Proto 2000 E6's and E7's and Athearn SDP40F's. The E units have swiveling coupler pockets and do fine with Kadee #148's (same as a #5 but with the centering spring built in). The big SDP40F's however are a different story. While they take 18" radius and the tight turnouts just fine they have rigid coupler pockets (no swivel) and need long shank couplers to keep from hauling the end of the lead car off the track going into curves or through turnouts. I try to avoid tight 'S' curves like the plague. The only one on my layout goes to a dead-end spur and was made with geeps and F units in mind. The SDP40F's will go through it but you can see them trying to pull each other over. For this reason they're weighed down with a bunch of lead. The pair of them are just under four pounds and as a result is my best pulling team.
 
Make sure that the coupler trip pin of the first car coupled to the locomotive isn't hitting the snowplow (if your loco as two plows or you're running one in reverse). You will have problems at most radii and turnouts if such is the case.
 
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