I am scratch building some 1:20.3 US boxcars and I am building the bogies/trucks as well.
I am after some feedback or opinions from people about whether to mount the couplers on the bogie or the boxcar body.
Any experience using either method i.e. pros and cons will be welcome.
Posted on a few forums
the sharper your curves are, the less recommendable body mounted couplers become.
Yes, truck mounted couplers are best for tight curves. But they can be problematic on long trains and for backing strings of cars through points.
Body mounted are better for long trains and backing maneuvers, but they don’t work well on tight curves.
I have truck mounted on my cars, and I do run 18 car trains on my 9.5 and 10 foot diameter curves. I have no problems with them. But I also don’t do much backing up of my trains, and so far, no switching maneuvers.
The length of cars and the sharpness of your curves will determine how well the body mounts will work for you.
I have always used body mounts on any and all cars primarily because I have never seen a coupler welded to a set of trucks in the real world, however that doesn’t mean there isn’t one out there somewhere(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif).
Really though, if you have reasonable curves, say 6’ radius or larger and standard cars in 1:22 or 1:20 body mounts should work well. Just get or make a gauge and get every coupler on every car the exact same height, that is critical for good operation.
I once built a combine that was a little longer than normal in 1:20 scale and had trouble with it causing derailments on my tightest curve, about 6 foot radius, so I mounted the KD coupler box so it stuck past the end beam about 1/4 inch and used a single bolt so that the coupler box could pivot a little from side to side. That was just enough extra allowance to make things work just fine.
Have fun building
Rick
Coupler-mounts are very simple for LGB and USA Trains cars. Body mounts are not. No doubt, I’d love to go the Kadee body-mount route for my collection of LGB and USA Trains cars, but it would require a major production effort putting them on. And a lot of extra time, which I don’t have much of.
Thank you all for the advice I now have enough info about the pros and cons to make a decision.
Michael Kirrene said:
Coupler-mounts are very simple for LGB and USA Trains cars. Body mounts are not. No doubt, I’d love to go the Kadee body-mount route for my collection of LGB and USA Trains cars, but it would require a major production effort putting them on. And a lot of extra time, which I don’t have much of.
Yes, and the Bachmann Big Haulers also don’t have pads for mounting body mounts, at least the ones I owned didn’t, when I made the decision to go truck mount. I didn’t want to go through all of the engineering to body mount couplers. I wanted to run trains, now! So I went with truck mounted, and as I said, it hasn’t caused me any issues. But then I am mostly a roundy roundy guy.
A suggestion, when giving advice or experience it will help Graeme if you mention your track curvature (diameter or radius), scale, length of cars, and length of train you are pulling.
For example Joe swears by body mounts, he runs 15’ diameter curves, narrow gauge, all cars 30’ or so.
On the other hand, Greg has all kinds of trouble with body mounts, he runs (or tries to run) 30 car trains on 8 foot and 6 foot diameter curves and he bought those cool USAT well cars and 60 foot box cars.
Just trying to help couch success failure into the actual environment.
In my case, minimum diameter 10’, long trains 40-50 cars, but all 40 footers with maybe only 5 50 foot box cars, tank cars weighted to match boxcar weights, all Kadee and there are some steep grades, 3.5%
Greg
My RR had 4.5 foot radius curves at the minimum. I run mostly 1:29 equipment. All cars have at least one Kadee body mounted coupler. My goal is to get all of them with two Kadees, but budget you know. My short cars run on about 3 foot radius curves in big esses. I body mounted Kadees on all of them as well, with no trouble running.
I don’t do any switching and no backing up.
But when the real RRs go to truck mounted couplers, so will I.
I have found truck mounted couplers work best when using heavy metal wheels.
LGB and Trainli have plastic centers with rims and are light weight compared with the solid brass USA trains metal wheels.
On a 4 axle boxcar the weight difference is easy to feel just by picking up these cars.
My short HLW kit cars have the USA Train wheels with body mounted Kadees and tun on a 29 inch circle with no problem.
I have found that when you need a shim these fit the bill!
Just the right thickness!
Gee, that’s what I use to pack the ballast between the ties with. Them things have a lot of uses. I just wonder, how much do they cost? (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
When I get them, they are free. Of course, I’ve just bought a gallon (or more) of paint!
After the last fiasco, I no longer buy paint at the big box stores.
Dick Friedman said: But when the real RRs go to truck mounted couplers, so will I.
Time to go! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)See photos here http://www.wdlr.org.uk/tracks2trenches/site/?p=211 here http://www.wdlr.org.uk/wdlr/blog/?p=182 and here http://www.wdlr.org.uk/wdlr/blog/?p=190
I have been using body mount couplers on all my freight for the last 3 years. I have 8’ dia, curves and have no problems even when backing into the porch where they are stored.
Actually, backing up trains is where body mounts “shine” and truck mounts derail.
Greg
