Kadees vs "The Claw"


L

Laidoffsick

3 Railer
Yes, Kadee couplers will couple up to the 3 rail claw and function with the 3 rail electro coupler. A video discussing the compatibility of the Kadee couplers and the claw, along with the Kadee between the rails uncoupling magnet.

[YOUTUBE]dQPsTQRxlYo[/YOUTUBE]
 
Cool video. I have been on the fence for converting my 3-rail cars (about 30 of them) to Kadees, but the 3 locomotives I have were my only holdup. I wasn't ready to let go of the uncoupler. Now I know I can convert the cars and leave the locomotives alone.

It would be nice if Kadee made some shelf couplers for tank cars in O.

Just a question, why do you keep your 3 rail wheels? Is it because of your tubular track or reliability or expense or what? I'm keeping mine since I use the Lionel Fast Track.
 
Ya know, I have asked my self that same question many times. I have run 2 rail cars (all the weathered cars i sell on Ebay) on the layout to test out the compatibility, as well as my 80' overhead loop in the bar and gameroom. I have found that with my Gargraves track, "running trains" is not a problem on either layout, but operations wise, switching cars does cause a problem. The 2 rail wheels do not like "shoving" (being pushed instead of pulled) through the Ross turnouts, they always want to pick the switch at the frog and derail. Orignally I had planned to swap everything out, and just buy 2 rail cars when I could, but with the Gargraves/Ross combo, I just can't get consistent performance for incident free switching.

I have also run Kadee equipped cars in between cars with the claw in several spots in the train. You just have to make sure that the kadee equipped car/cars are plenty heavy (many Lionel cars need extra weight) as the truck mounted claw will derail the kadee equipped in curves. I use stick on wheel weights to load em up (slightly higher than the NMRA standard) and everything stays on the rail.

I've never used Atlas track so I'm curious as to how the 2 rail wheels act on Atlas 3 rail turnouts. The Kadee couplers make a huge difference in visual appearance IMO. Closing the gap between cars also helps in getting a better "spot" at the industries too. My ice house platform will now hold 4 full cars instead of 3 1/2.
 
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Thanks. I have some Weaver cars, and don't like the way the coupler sits on it (unlike the Atlas O ones) and thought that I'd like to convert them first. I do have a Lionel PS2CD 4427 covered hopper that took a 3' plunge and bent the sheet metal bolster on the truck, requiring me to replace the trucks. Well, Lionel's replacement trucks now (the roller bearing type) have a longer coupler shank (like what they put on their 60' boxcars) and it looks funny next to the other covered hoppers. Therefore, I've got more incentive to change out my couplers.

I didn't know all that about the two-wheel O wheelsets.
 
The problem with 2-rail wheel sets on 3-rail track is the size of the gaps betweent the rails and frog point. Scale wheels have a different flange to flange distance than the 3-rail flanges. There wheel sets Walther's used to offer for their 2-rail trucks were in-between the current scale and 3-rail wheel sets. They were made to run on code 172 rail but had closer to scale tread and flange thickness. IMO they were a good compromise to the wheel sets Lionel used and the current scale wheel sets now offered on the 2-rail equipment. They worked good on the Lionel O-72 switches or even the old Atlas #3.5 switches that came out in the early 1970's. I think NWSL still sells wheel sets that match them.

Greg
 
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