I'm sure this gets asked regularly, so one more time won't hurt....
am considering converting much of my loco fleet (Aussie RTR stuff from Powerline, Lima etc) to Kadee couplers (not because I have a layout at present, but because they look much better on display in the cabinet!), so with an eye to the future, what minimum curve radius will this restrict me to, if I want to run say multi Powerline G classes with Kadee couplers?
Many thanks, Craig.
-- Craig Haber snipped-for-privacy@harnessnet.com.au Thought for the day: "Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."
Mark, I have never been able to understand why anyone would go to the trouble and expense of fitting Kadees, and then cut off the uncoupling pin, when the whole point of fitting Kadees is to have reliable "hands free" coupling and uncoupling.
If all that is wanted is scale looking couplers that don't need to be coupled or uncoupled on the layout, why not use "dummy" couplers, they are nearer scale size and much cheaper.......
I have seen numerous "sets" of carriages over the years with Kadees fitted within the set, and all the pins carefully trimmed off...... It can't be for scale appearance, since permanently coupled sets were normally coupled by short links.......
I look at this sort of thing and shake my head in bewilderment.....
DPC James McInerney
STOP! In The Name Of The Lore!
At
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, homepage for "Lambing Flat" my HO NSWGR branchline, includes information on the full size NSWGR.
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the "Rurr Valley Railway", my G gauge West Coast of Tasmania garden line or
I suppose it comes down to personal preference. I wouldn't describe fitting Kadees as any trouble. They're just a drop-in fit into most of the models I have. As to expense, that is a judgement call. I'm more than happy to spend the money on them in preference to other, similiar products which I regard as inferior. I have tried some of the plastic varieties available, but was unimpressed with their appearance, performance and durability. By comparison, I have some freight cars that date back to my teenage years(!), the Kadees on which are as good as when they were first installed.
Kadees with the trip pins removed still couple reliably. I prefer to uncouple using a manual tool, a method I regard as far superior to the "magnet two-step". Again, this is a choice influenced by my preference for shelf layouts, where the reach-in distance makes manual uncoupling practical. The tool can be as simple as a bamboo skewer. And unlike the magnets, it can be used at any point on the layout.
I have only one short rake of passenger cars that remains permanently coupled, and this does use dummy couplings in conjunction with working diaphragms. Otherwise, the operating scheme for our layouts has never incorporated fixed formations of coaching stock. It was quite common for US passenger trains to be frequently re-marshalled throughout their journeys. There were no freight cars appropriate to my era and locale that were permanently coupled.
Having fitted all of my stock with uncoupling levers, and the appropriate air/steam/signal hoses, I became increasingly unhappy with the appearance of the trip pin. I reasoned that since I didn't uncouple using magnets, there was no need to keep them. So off they came.
But I agree that the de-facto standard #5s are overscale, which is why all my future purchases will be the new #58s.
Magnets can be used anywhere on the layout, you just plan for it. Your magnet 2 step only applies when re coupling over fixed magnets, uncoupling using magnets is visually as per the prototype . The so called 2 step does not exist if your magnets are mechanically raised or lowered, or you use electro magnets. The fact is using a telephone pole to uncouple is unprototypical. Using KD's and magnets is the best system in use today that does not require expensive decoder operated couplers.
So why is your passenger train a fixed rake. How unprototypical. What a hypocrite you are expert. You have criticised others for doing the same in the past. If you used magnets you could operate your passenger train as per prototype, hands free. Smart move, cutting off the uncoupling pins expert. How do you cope with the fact your air hoses are not joined prototypically? The train brakes should be on.
How anyone can "plan" every single possible location that one will ever need to uncouple over an entire layout, and provide a magnet there, is utterly beyond me.
If you CAN do this, I'd say you've missed your vocation. Leave the university immediately, because a man who can see into the future as you apparently can is wasting his time in academia.
The Kadee coupler has the capability to be pre-uncoupled. That should allow you to push wagons to any point where they need to be separated from any reasonably sited uncoupler. That just leaves uncoupling of wagons pulled to their desitation to be catered for.
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