Couplers for Mantua 0-4-0


I

ianc

Member
I bought a nice little Mantua Shifter which runs very nicely. The only problem is that it's got Kadee couplers. I have nothing against them, and someday I might convert everything, but at the moment everything else has the standard plastic couplers, and I 'd like to convert the Mantua. Problem is, the couplers aren't attached to the truck, but to the bed of the loco (front coupler) and tender. That works for KD couplers, as they have the swivel built in, but the others don't - they depend on the truck for the swivel. And the front Kaydee coupler is so low that the horn hits the track at crossings and turnouts. Any solutions?
 
I did the opposite conversation, along with DCC. Personally, I'd leave the kaydee coupler on it and cut the line that protrudes downward.
 
ianc said:
I bought a nice little Mantua Shifter which runs very nicely. The only problem is that it's got Kadee couplers. ... everything else has the standard plastic couplers, and I 'd like to convert the Mantua. Problem is, the couplers aren't attached to the truck, but to the bed of the loco (front coupler) and tender. That works for KD couplers, as they have the swivel built in, but the others don't - they depend on the truck for the swivel.
Click to expand...
On the shifter, even the X2F front coupler would have been mounted to the frame. It should just be a matter of getting an old set of couplers and dropping them in the box that now holds the Kadee. However having said that, that unit is supposed to have a Kadee #37 and I'm guessing the reason it is so low is because the person who converted it used a #5 instead. There was a whole cult of #5 only people out there for a while. Finding an X2F with the same height offset may be difficult. They are used on the Rivarossi 4-4-0 but that has a different mounting hole.

Perhaps this ---> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mantua-814-1X-Passenger-N-M-R-A-Coupler-Conversion-Kit-/291521566995?hash=item43e00a1913

Or these -> http://www.ebay.com/itm/MANTUA-TYCO-2601-NMRA-HORNHOOK-COUPLER-PAIR-FACTORY-ORIGINAL-PARTS-HO-SCALE-/331429065815?hash=item4d2ab63457


For the tender it should be a matter of replacing the truck with one that has the Talgo style coupler on it.
 
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Another option is to use a car with a Kadee on one end and a horn hook on the other as an adapter car. Put it right behind the locomotive.
 
Hard to imagine anyone still using X2F couplers ,but to each his own. As said the easiest way would be a conversion car with a x2f on one end and a kadee on the other.
 
flyboy2610 said:
Another option is to use a car with a Kadee on one end and a horn hook on the other as an adapter car. Put it right behind the locomotive.
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Thank you all for the assistance. For the time being, I think that's what I'll do. The tender trucks on the Mantua have a somewhat odd mounting, and I doubt that I'm going to be able to find one with an X2F coupler. The Victoria and Sidney, which I'm modeling, typically ran a consist of two passenger cars, a box and sometimes a small caboose, so I can put a box right behind the tender.
 
I have an 0-6-0 shifter, its been modded with a NWSL motor and gears. The front coupler originally had the horn hook, but drop in #5's wont work. Too low. It has to have one of the other couplers that has a rounded back and a raised knuckle.
DO NOT SWITCH IT TO YOUR PLASTIC KNUCKLE COUPLERS.

http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page37.htm

you want this coupler, front and rear.
 
dinwitty said:
I have an 0-6-0 shifter, its been modded with a NWSL motor and gears. The front coupler originally had the horn hook, but drop in #5's wont work. Too low. It has to have one of the other couplers that has a rounded back and a raised knuckle.
DO NOT SWITCH IT TO YOUR PLASTIC KNUCKLE COUPLERS.

http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page37.htm

you want this coupler, front and rear.
Click to expand...

AS far as I can tell, that's what I've got. The rear one is fine, but the front one hits turnouts. But I don't really need that one, I don't think. On reflection, I think I'll convert to Kaydee. I don't need many - I've been thinking in terms of the 40 or 50 pieces of rolling stock I've got, due to buying mixed boxes of stuff, but I'm never going to have more than 12 pieces on the layout - the Interurban ran two Brill suburban units with a baggage car; the V&S had three steam loco's, one McKeen gas electric, half a dozen assorted flat, box and tank cars; the Canadian Northern Pacific ran a McKeen gas electric, and might have carried some freight.
 
getting a KD coupler gauge is valuable, I've done club work which requires let me emphasize... RELIABLE ... operation. Anything thats so frustrating is a coupler system that does not work. If you plan to switch/couple with the front coupler you need the 37.

If I recall right the original horn hook coupler had a raised hook design. I've trashed it or it may be laying in my parts stuff.
One of the model magazines had an article how to remotor/re-coupler etc an 0-4-0 Mantua shifter, I followed that advice on the 0-6-0. Great runner now. That was done in the mid 80's, all metal it pulls long strings of cars.
 
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