Coupler Questions.


N

Nightwing

Member
I am running two HO trains, one with horn hook couplers and one with knuckle couplers. The horn hooks run all day long and hold together. The knuckle couplers are troublesome. I have cars from different manufacturers that have their own version of a knuckle coupler. Coupler height varies, sometimes identical cars from the same manufacturer. I bought the Kadee sample kit hoping to identify exactly what I needed to upgrade. I was able to find one Kadee coupler to replace one that broke. The others are useless to me.

What is the preferred coupler mount...frame or truck? I have both and can't tell a difference if one performs better than the other. The stumper is when you have a coupler that is too low. Haven't figured out a fix for that yet.
 
The best is to mount them on the body of the rolling stock. The motion of the truck will cause up and down movement of the coupler.
 
Click on "Coupler Conversions" on top left for the list of the different couplers for different car & loco makers. My preference is for the whisker couplers because they drop right in. And yes, get the coupler height gauge. Kadee also makes that gauge in plastic now so it can be used on powered track w/o causing shorts.
 
Nightwing said:
What is the preferred coupler mount...frame or truck?
Click to expand...
The prototype is body mounted. For that reason alone most people prefer body mounted in HO. I use body mounted on my HO scale equipment and truck mounted on the G-scale. I used to have N-scale that was mostly truck mounted.

I have both and can't tell a difference if one performs better than the other.
Click to expand...
Depends on what you call performance. With truck mounted couplers the coupler follows the center line of the track so one does not have nearly as much issues with coupling cars of different length, coupling on curves, and accidental decoupling or derailing on "S" curves. Unfortunately with truck mounted couplers the longer/heavier the train gets the more the trucks are forced to bind in the curves. So if one doesn't have long and heavy trains and are operating on sharp curves and/or sudden grade changes then truck mount will probably preform better. With body mounted couplers the stress goes through the body of the car and the trucks only binding effect is the minimal amount caused by the weight of the car the truck is mounted on. Body mounted couplers can pull longer and heavier trains and back up better especially through complicated trackwork. Plus if one cares at all how the cars look compared to the real ones body mounting is the only way to go.

The stumper is when you have a coupler that is too low. Haven't figured out a fix for that yet.
Click to expand...
With body mounted couplers just put a washer/shim on the truck and raise the whole body. Or Kadee makes underset shank couplers that compensate for a coupler that would otherwise be too low.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top