Freight cars w/ Kadee #5 couplers attached.

freight

Why does it matter what # they are, if they are already attached?

He might not be aware that there are other couplers in the Kadee range, or he might want all his stock to have the same # to standardise on shank length, knuckle size and position.

Why dump the cars? Most cars can have Kadee couplers put onto them without any serious changes and it is always possible to cutoff the old coupler pocket and apply a new pocket to the car. I'll note that replacing the couplers is a lot cheaper than replacing the cars.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

I guess I didn't make myself clear. My eyes are 78 years old and my hands shake and there's no way I can do any, "MODEL RAILROADING". I built the layout and the track, and debugged the track and am ready for scenery. Now I have eight freight cars, two with McHenry, 4 with different types of the standard basic couplers, and a few which I can't identify. I am not about to retro-fit all the cars. I can't and I don't want to. St Vincent de Paul will get them and I'll start fresh. This way I can enjoy my trains before I'm 105 years old, and still struggling with retro-fitting freight car couplers.

Now, can someone answer my original question?? Where is the best/cheapes/most reliable place to by cars with KADEE #5 couplers on them. Does only KADEE make such cars?

Thanks so much for your interest and help!!

Mike Picture Rocks, AZ

Hi Mike:

As far as I know, only Kadee sells cars with Kadee brand couplers already installed. They are expensive, but if I'm not mistaken they are not really standard #5 couplers, but are equivolent for operating purposes.

That said, most other brands of ready to run cars come with Kadee compatible couplers installed, but they are McHenry or Bachmann brand couplers, often without the coil spring on the knuckle. They will work fine when new, but may get stuck in the open position after some use.

I haven't bought any rolling stock for about 2 years, so I am open to corrections, but if you want genuine Kadee couplers, I think you have to go with Kadee rolling stock. Even for the price, they ARE very, very nice models.

Best Regards,

DAve

I can relate to that. I find I need my optivisor more and more to do any kind of HO modeling. However I am not sure that buying new rolling stock is the answer. All the knuckle couplers, Kadee, MacHenry, Bachman, and so on will intermate properly, IF the couplers are all at the same height. You want to get out your NMRA gage, or a Kadee coupler gage and see which cars are high and which are low. If the couplers are not at the same height, you will have random uncoupling as the train moves about the layout. Cars with low couplers can be shimmed up by placing an ordinary #6 flat washer (available at any real hardware store) under each truck. All the Athearn blue box kits need to be shimmed up. When you think you have the couplers all shimmed to the same height, run the train by slowly and eyeball each coupler. If you see a hi flyer or a low flyer you have found a car that needs work. Kadee makes couplers with long shanks, special coupler boxes, regular shanks, all plastic couplers, couplers offset high, low or none. They all intermate properly. The #5 is merely a Kadee with no offset, a medium shank, and fits into a square Kadee box or most freight car coupler pockets. I use #5's on freight cars, and the recommended Kadee for locomotives and passenger cars.

David Starr

Kaydee doesn't sell couplers to manufacturers wholesale. They got burned a few years ago when they did and the manufacturer they sold to cancelled the project and dumped the couplers way below wholesale.

I'd suggest finding someone to help you with installation. Try a local hobby shop or a model railroad club. I've included a list of urls for Model railroad clubs in Arizona.

We're model railroder, we're always glad to help a fellow modeler. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone.

Eric

Mike wrote:

"I guess I didn't make myself clear. My eyes are 78 years old and my hands shake and there's no way I can do any, "MODEL RAILROADING". I built the layout and the track, and debugged the track and am ready for

scenery. Now I have eight freight cars, two with McHenry, 4 with different types of the standard basic couplers, and a few which I can't

identify. I am not about to retro-fit all the cars. I can't and I don't

want to. St Vincent de Paul will get them and I'll start fresh. This way I can enjoy my trains before I'm 105 years old, and still struggling with retro-fitting freight car couplers.

Now, can someone answer my original question?? Where is the best/cheapes/most reliable place to by cars with KADEE #5 couplers on them. Does only KADEE make such cars?"

No. But Intermountain, Atlas, Walthers, LifeLike, Athearn and others make ready to run cars with KD clones attached. These cars are not cheap, ranging from $20US and up per car. OTOH, if you allow for inflation since the 1950s, they're bargains compared to what you got back then at what were much higher prices relative to income.

NB that the #5 in KD #5 refers to the coupler shank. Different KD numbers have different shanks, and some have overset or underset coupler heads as well.

The KD clones started appearing when the Kadee patents ran out. The first clones used plastic fingers as knuckle springs, and these were, um, unreliable, shall we say. Since they have all gone to coil springs, they are as reliable as KDs, and for ordinary layout use are more than adequate. MR ran some tests, and found that when loaded to the 4 to 5 pound range, KDs did outperform the plastic clones. There were some differences in coupling range on curves, too, but all couplers have problems coupling on curves (even the prototype.)

Have fun!

This company sells cars with knuckle couplers at a discount, some are KD equiped others have accumate compatible couplers. Roger Aultman

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Mike, Just about everything I know of comes with Kadee clones other than the Kadee models. Maybe you can buy some Kadee's and get someone at a hobby shop or club to help. If you find some modeler's in your area I'm sure you will have no problem getting assistance. Keep in mind that even though Kadee's are the best thing going they still need a little graphite or an occasional adjustment so if you can find someone near by that can help you out that would be best thing to do. They don't even need to be a Model Railroader to put couplers on for you if you are there to tell them what to do. If all else fails you might send your cars to me or someone else closer here on the group. I'd be glad to help out. Bruce .

While not cars BLI engines now come with Kadee couplers.

Sorry, but you didn't mention that you're at that age where things like that are difficult to do. You might want to then go to eBay and become a big buyer of cars and locos. I just recently sold about 50 cars on eBay and they sold from between $3 and $25, depending upon the car. All of the cars had Kadee couplers and metal wheelsets and were in excellent condition.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Oh, forgot to mention that I'm in your age range. Fortunately, my hands don't shake yet but the eye problem is noted. That can be cured to a degree with the use of an Optivisor to get a better focused image of what you are doing. The eyes just don't focus anymore which means that you have to use auxialary optics to do the focusing to where you need it to be.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?