…except that I am absolutely clueless as to what I should do, truck or body mount? My smallest curve on my layout is eight foot diameter. For the most part, on that line, I run freight trains; standard box cars, stock cars, tankers, and gondolas.
So…advice? I’d like to be prototypical and do body mount but is that feasible with eight foot curves?
Mark, I have been converting everything I get to Kadee’s since I started in the hobby last year and have been doing body mounts for all of them and have not really had any issue on that diameter and even slightly smaller. The only issue you may run into is if you have tight switches where I have found the metal piece underneath can catch on things and cause a derailment but that can be fixed if you bend it up some.
Mark
Go with body mounts when ever you can.
Body mounted work better than truck mounted.
I cut the metal piece off.
No sense having it to snag on things if your’e not using them.
Mark, I think that 8 foot is do-able, especially if the 8 ft diameter curve is infrequent. Where the body mounted coupler shines over the truck mounted coupler is in backing moves. If you are shoving more than one or two cars, the truck mounted coupler is just not able to handle the weight, and will lead to derailments.
About the only truck mounted couplers I use are on USAT cabooses, and the union rules on the WI&M do not allow our crummies to be used for pushing cars during switching moves, it upsets Sven and Ollie, the conductors, who are usually napping.
Mark do keep in mind though that you have the Kadee height measuring unit as you will find on some cars that you need to create spacers to ensure proper heights as not every car was designed to handle the Kadee body mount couplers.
Mark only question I have is with the tankers as if they are the USA 55’ modern tanks you will have issues with body mounted 830’s as the wheels will rub the sides of the draft box. I have 9’diameter min and I had to really shave them down and sill have some rubbing but minor.I also have very very minor rubbing with the AML PS2 hoppers however this is extremely minimal.
If you decide to run passenger cars in the future I don’t think you will have any issues with body mounts as the trucks are further forward and you can always clip the outside of the draft boxes for more coupler swing.
But as suggested by all means body mounting is better than truck mounting. Also as suggested you will want a height gauge as well, for consistency.
BTW we love pictures here!
Guy, thanks for the affirmation. I have every intention of getting a height gauge as well. Looking forward to getting started. Recently went on disability for the summer due to surgery, so this is gonna be a whole lot more fun than sitting on my keester watching movies and cable news. (which I’ve HAD to do for the past month while initially recovering)
Oh, and David, they’re Aristo single and three dome tanks.
I’ll take plenty of pics and post as I progress
Mark. The KaDee gauge, for large scale, will tell you if the coupler is at the correct height. As for the trip pin, get a piece of 1/8th inch thick strip-wood, and use that to make sure the trip pins are at the proper height. Low hanging trip pins will cause you a lot of frustration.
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5185/5674181166_5e36987bfd_z.jpg)
And, as many have said, body mount couplers are best. I wish I had gone with body mounts when I started. But since many of my cars werent set up for body mounts, I took the easy way out and truck mounted mine.
Mark, you can also buy pre-packaged shim packages from Kadee to put under your couple box to bring it to the correct height. All of my stuff has 830 body mounted couplers or in some cases like the Bachmann log cars I use the 835 couplers. They have a smaller box for mounting, they just don’t swing like the 830’s.
Chuck
If you think you may have wheel rub on the gear box, shave the two outside mounting holes off and use the two center holes for mounting. (I’ve even dremeled a notch into the gearbox to allow wheel clearance.)
Mark I just did a bunch of aristo three dome tanks cars. You can use the 831 or 907 couplers but you need to take out a bit of the plastic lip on either side for it to seat the body properly but when you do you only need to drill for one screw in the back and you are all set.
I am finding the 830’s do not care for the LGB 1600 switches.
Be mindful of “S” curves with body mounts, especially with longer equipment. You’ve got a little more side-to-side play with the 830 (G-scale) couplers as opposed to the 820 (#1 scale) couplers I use, but it’s just something to keep in mind if you’re running modern mainline 1:29 (aka “really friggin’ long”) stuff. Where you can, use #6 switches for your passing sidings.
As others have mentioned, the disadvantage of the #830 draft gear is that it’s pretty wide, and sometimes you’ll have wheels that rub against the sides on tighter curves. In most cases, you can grind away what gets in the way. You’ll be surprised as to how little of the draft gear actually has to stay intact for it to work. You could go to the shorter draft gear, but I’ve never been a fan of their limited side-to-side play. Again, it’s probably exacerbated in my case by using the smaller couplers, but still. When you can use the longer draft gear, do.
Later,
K
I have always cut the trip pins off my Kadees. You should have few problems body mounting your Kadees even though I truck mounted all of mine. They are a great company to work with. i’ve used Kadees for nearly 50 years. That was in my HO days!
KaDee’s, yes I like them but the RR I operate on use Truck Mounted Bachmann Couplers so I use those. Now as to body mounting, I set up a 3 car set (house cars) and ran them all over the CCRy with no problems. I did not do any reverse movements!
My problem is a suitable uncoupling device! Any ideas?
Paul
Paul, most folks use a long flat blade screwdriver. I prefer a long, number one Phillips.
anyone had luck taking the truck mounted couplers and body mounting them? I understand you probably loose coupler swing.
Steve, i remember seeing on one of the websites where uncoupler was made out of a piece of twisted brass that was attached to a rod?
I have heard of folks using bamboo skewers to open the KaDee couplers. I have used a screwdriver, and a KaDee tool that I was given at a train show. It looks like a pen, with a plastic arrowhead at the end. The arrowhead is inserted between the couplers and twisted and the couplers open. But, in large scale and HO, I have better luck with lifting the end of one car so the one coupler lifts clear of the other. Its cheating, but it works best for me.
John M. said:
anyone had luck taking the truck mounted couplers and body mounting them? I understand you probably loose coupler swing.
Truck mounted couplers have a large offset, to bring the coupler head up to the proper height. If you were to body mount a large offset coupler, you would have have to mount the coupler draft gear box very low. That would require a large shim
In my picture, the height gauge used a body mount coupler, so the coupler shank is in the middle of the coupler head. The coupler on the car is truck mounted, so the shank is below the coupler head.
