OK so after the club meet today, I really want to get my loco running. Steve wants to get together once or twice a month and have some operating sessions. I am all for it. It was a great time especially with other operators. At any rate the notion of getting my loco running came up. One problem with my loco working operations on others layouts…I have gone link and pin, so I can’t play. Or can I??? The idea of a transition car came up; link/pin to match my stuff and standard coupler to match normal peoples stuff. So since I am border line schizophrenic…oops I mean a prototypical modeler, and everything I am building is era correct this gives me the opportunity to go outside the box and create whatever the heck I want in car. Since when running, era and scale are out the window I can give way to whimsy. So I am entertaining ideas. I want it to be short that’s about the only requirement.
Look at the Rio Grande, they had idler cars between Standard and narrow ga couplers/cars on dual ga track…
Janey made an early coupler with a link hole in the end of the finger tips 
the link goes in the slot and the pin in the hole…
John
Idler cars were prototypical. Transition cars are a common solution, in the model world, to mate mismatched couplers. So you are not way off in building one.
We did whimsy already this year, there are prototypical solutions for you!
Sending you back on track…
John
No, I don’t want to be on track dang it. Although I do like that coupler with the link hole. This gives me the opportunity to not be prototypical because I wont be hooking up to scale or era correct cars. This gives me freedom to do something I wouldn’t normally do. So get that notion out of your heads.
My first thought was a very short work car. But it could be a flat car with a funky load on it.
Devon,
Here’s a conversion I made for a Porter I kitbashed. I used an Ozark Miniatures L&P socket and a Kadee knuckle that I slightly drilled out and inserted a piece of styrene tubing. The pin is from the Ozark kit.
Here is what it looks like installed. Sorry I don’t have a photo of the link installed.
Hope this helps.
Doc Watson
Nice idea.
Similar to how the KaDee couplers are mounted on the Bachmann Shay. Now why didn’t I think of that?
Here’s what I did for my Shay to accommodate Bachmann or Accucracft knuckles:
Cut the centering mechanism from the Bachmann LS drop coupler…
Glue a small piece of .040 styrene to the top of the shank to hold the plastic section in place…
Remove the screw and grind the shank end to a radius…
Drill out a hole for the pin…
I use a pop-rivet as the pin - easier for old fingers to grab…
After grinding a little more to fit and swing easily…
In place on the Shay…
Alignment with stock Accucraft car…
There is no centering mechanism, it needs to be manually aligned for coupling. It does afford a lot of swing for tighter curves.
Hehe. Great minds think alike. I did something similar with my Shay; now I can take it anywhere and conveniently couple with anything they’re running. I attached a chain to the pin so I wouldn’t lose it.
I have three sets of different couplers: AMS, standard Kadee, and the smaller Kadee.
It’s easy to change between them. But, like Daktah John stated, there is no centering mechanism; not a big deal.
It just required a bit of preparation for each set. Cut off the tabs that hold the centering springs and make the hole a bit smaller to accommodate the pin size.
AMS/Accucraft couplers:
Or even the smaller Kadee:
Now that is a clever idea. Just making a coupler to fit in the link and pin pocket. I might do that.
Yes, it’s a nice simple solution, and one you can use for just about every type of coupler. Well, hook and loop might be the exception.l (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif)
I use a small container to keep the extras in.
Gentlemen,
Time to get this thread back on topic…
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Happy Father’s Day !!
Joe
These are really good ideas in lieu of idler cars. if the car is a small gon, like a Hartland 2 axle, the load could be the other couplers!
I run link & pin on my Ozark Miniature mine cars and use a 2-axle Hartland tank car with a link pocket on one side and a Kadee on the other for the transition to my 44-tonner.
I seem to break a lot of the links. Of course we are hauling gold (painted rocks). They are made of “white metal” and are very soft. Keep plenty of spares around.
You can see it at 3:40.
Todd Brody said:
…I seem to break a lot of the links.
Gee, isn’t that one of the reasons the 1:1 guys quit using them? I hope mine don’t break.
Gentlemen, you’ve shown him nice prototypical solutions. Some of them VERY nice
but he asked for whimsy!
Ah, oh, you are right. My bad.
Now the out house is a good idea. Two holer with moon on the door.
How 'bout a two story two holer?