For those that care…
Bachmann announced a “new” 1/29 coupler at the National Train Show. $50 for 6 pairs… Makes Kadee’s look cheap. I wonder how many more mystery products will come back from the grave.
Photo from the MRH Train Show Thread.
From my early days in this hobby I, like a lot of others I suspect, had the usual mishmash of 1:29 or thereabouts Aristo,Bachmann Big Hauler, USAT and LGB stock. All with their stock supplied knuckle couplers fitted, as opposed to the ghastly looking hook and loop ones. The only ones that never seemed to work well with others were the…the Aristocraft ones. So this reissue may have its uses if you need for repairs or want to convert the rest of your stuff to run with what Aristo stock you have, find on Ebay or still lurking in the stores.
Then again you could get the odd Kadee to replace and do the job or fix yourself a neat “translator” wagon to do it too (an Aristo 20ft gon’ with different couplers at each end is what did for me) . Or go the whole hog, as I did in the end, and switch to 1:20.3/Fn3. Problem solved, at an ongoing price (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
I think the Aristocraft type couplers are the WORST looking couplers out there. JMNSHO (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
For a quick useful adapter freight car I use the LGB orange girder/1 foot track (300mm) pair of cars.
You can mount different couplers on each end and just turn the car 180 degrees to get the other coupler type as the track/girders couples the pair together.
They show the head, but Aristo couplers originally hdd a shank attached to the head. Without that, how useful are these couplers?
Max Winter said:
From my early days in this hobby I, like a lot of others I suspect, had the usual mishmash of 1:29 or thereabouts Aristo,Bachmann Big Hauler, USAT and LGB stock. All with their stock supplied knuckle couplers fitted, as opposed to the ghastly looking hook and loop ones. The only ones that never seemed to work well with others were the…the Aristocraft ones. So this reissue may have its uses if you need for repairs or want to convert the rest of your stuff to run with what Aristo stock you have, find on Ebay or still lurking in the stores.
Then again you could get the odd Kadee to replace and do the job or fix yourself a neat “translator” wagon to do it too (an Aristo 20ft gon’ with different couplers at each end is what did for me) . Or go the whole hog, as I did in the end, and switch to 1:20.3/Fn3. Problem solved, at an ongoing price (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
I agree they don’t play well with others, but they have usually been the best hold of the bunch
Strange offered without the shank, since if you mount them, there is no centering mechanism for the coupler.
Many people like the Aristo coupler since they have the “shelf” below. This stops overriding and keeps trains coupled even on very rough track.
Of course there is the other side of the coin, derail or topple one car and the rest of the train follows suit!
Greg
Greg,
When I first saw the photo, I too thought something was missing. Thanks for picking up on that. Meanwhile, I’ve got 10 sets of Kadee couplers waiting to be installed with Burl’s draft gear.
Since there is no Aristocraft product requiring new couplers, I expect B’mann is offering replacements that can go on existing shanks. Pull the pin, give the centering spring a shot of lube and replace the heads.
Beats cleaning the grit out of the old ones, if the money doesn’t bother you.
Bachmann apparently uses the former Aristo knuckle coupler on the Eggliner they now sell.
-Ted
Probably should make that plural, there were two more mentioned in their New Arrivals Emailing.