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On Athearn cars the highest point of those coupler springs won't allow the Coupler "cover" is what call them, to seat properly and you don't hear it click into place. I only use #148s
Super. I still use eight different couplers on my railroad, including Kadee knuckle, X2f hornhook, (And store bought radial versions of both for the trolley line, which has 4 and 3/4 inch radius curve (Eldon) paved street trackage & freight.) Mantua loop, Maerklin Relex, Link and Pin, Proto 2000 universal couplers, 8 European scale hand screw couplers, (Imported crane car, boom car, tool car, plus bunk car and caboose Kadee knuckle to Hand screw coupler conversion cars. I don't uncouple them very often.) and Walthers cast metal dummy knuckle couplers. I also have a piece of scale size chain with scale size hooks on each end, just in case. This provides for some interesting operation, especially outside as some couplers don't like the snow, and requires a number of coupler conversion cars to keep things operating smoothly. I may be the only model railroad in the world that can couple one of my railroads locomotives to any HO scale rolling stock ever made, and it is nice to buy a used car and be able operate it without having to do surgery on it first. I bet not many of you have seen a Mantua loop to Maerklin Relex, or a Kadee Knuckle to Link and Pin coupler conversion car, and not many modelers still operate a Kadee Knuckle to X2f hornhook coupler conversion car anymore. I have one short section of yard track that has an electrically operated uncoupler, a manually operated uncoupler, and a Kadee uncoupling magnet. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.
Glad to see that other people are thinking in the direction that I am for adding scenery! This video would have benefited from examples of your natural materials in-situ on the layout, though.
In really hot climates ie( Western Australia) unless your layout is in a steady temperature room the foam can shrink or expand a bit depending on heat (38-45 degrees Celsius) and the ballast starts to crack off…. Something which I’m discovering other people are experiencing in extreme temperature countries which leads me back to using cork again.
thank, you for youre helpful video.👍 starting my second ho- scale train layout. i, have never used cork roadbed before. but on my second train layout im. going to use cork roadbed for sure this time. thank, you again.👍👍
One of the biggest tricks is to get Kadee's to match the height gauge. Even some of the highest quality top shelf rolling stock such as Moloco, Athearn Genesis etc. often still need the coupler height tweaked to match the gauge.
I like to use Bachman's track in the background and hidden areas because of the sound. Makes a pleasant whoosh and a perfect clickty clack. Cork also has a job to do in ballast roadbeds and evening-out little variations. Once the cork is set, I run a plainer over a few times. Never even considered not using cork. I'll have to think that one over.
I save all my beer cartons and cereal boxes to use in modeling. My foam board structure will receive a cardboard roof with some tissue paper for the roof and painted black to look like a mopped tar roof. I kinda like your shingled roof and I may try my hand at that as well. I make my own ground flocking and my own rust powder by soaking 0000 steel wool in a quart jar with vinegar and stick it in the kitchen window for a month. After it turns to rust I pour the mixture into a flat pan (my old stainless 11x14 photo processing tray left over from my darkroom) and stick it in my closet for a couple of weeks and wait for it to dry. After it dries, I pulverize it into a fine powder with a single edge razor blade and store it in little snuff tins. Use it just like any other weathering powders or chalks. I get women's eye makeup at the dollar store and use it for weathering as it sticks better than any powders I've ever used and you can get just about any color under the sun + it only costs $1.00. Cheers - TN
I just sorta finished my first scratch build of an HO brick house and when I get my brick sheet tomorrow, I'll finish it. I'm presently working on another one built of foam board. I plan to use board & batten for the outside made from cardboard and then painted with my airbrush. The brick house I'm almost finished with is a wood structure made from an old English Leather cologne redwood box I've had for years. Decided it's time to use it for a building. I'm using Tichy Train Group windows and doors and along with my brick sheet I ordered some laser cut wooden windows with the sticky backs from Rail Scale. Thought I'd give them a try. After much swearing & cussing I finally assembled a Tichy Train Group flatcar. I saw a video of the assembly and really liked the under frame brake detail (which no one will ever see). I followed the instructions to the tee and wish I hadn't. After installing the stirrups in a previous step I broke every one of them off while installing the extra added bronze phosphor wire grab irons. If you ever build this kit install the stirrups as the very LAST step! I did end up making some stirrups out of staples from a desktop stapler that were the correct size for my HO scale model. I think I spent as much time chasing small parts across the floor as I did assembling the model, LOL! After finishing the assembly I painted the whole underside rail brown and hand painted every board on the deck a different shade of brown mixing the acrylic paint in a small plastic communion cup as I went along. It came out looking very realistic and believable. I did weather the trucks, wheels and the Kadee couplers. Cheers from eastern TN
Just popped up and glad your site & info are shared..so much recyclable materials come into one’s house as well as the material from outside.. subscribed to follow
Thanks for your POV on this, it helped me with my decision. Just getting back into the hobby after 40 yrs off. I've planned but not built my layout yet. To me, the 4-5 mm thick cork for HO looks almost unrealistically tall. I'm planning to use cork, but found a happy medium: I've bought 2 mm thick rolls from an arts & crafts store. Half of my layout is modeling a CSX yard and sidings in my area. The whole DCC control & sound thing was a major surprise when I discovered that - I had old Tyco DC stuff when I was a kid! Already bought an NCE Power Cab and 2 Walther engines w/ DCC & sound.
Can you show how you get the LEDs to change from red to green? I only know how to make one light up at once. Not alternate colors depending on the position of the switch motor. Thanks
Personally I'm a fan and defender of the McHenry - I find they just tend to work the best and as a bonus they look very prototypical too. Plus, I've never had problems using them with Kadee couplers, so there's just really no downside in my opinion besides the fact they're plastic, so they might not be as strong as some other couplers, but to be honest if you're pulling something so hard the coupler snaps you're doing something wrong anyway.
I model in HO scale, started layout #6 about 9 years ago and the base is 3/4" plywood and 1/2" Homesote. There is zero noise except my layout is modular so there are lots of 'clickity-clacks'. On previous layouts I used plywood and cork, or foam sheets (which reflected and amplified all noise) The foam was removed in short order as a 'FAIL". I am considering layout #7 because I want to double track the main (195 ft) and use N scale cork on the main to visually represent the 'high iron'. But, how did you transition from cork to no cork, as in main to non-cork sidings?
I'm looking at changing my manual tycl couplers to kadee ho couplers I'm wondering if these couplers are compatible for use on tyco Mantua rolling stock
I myself use mostly vintage Kadee #5's (from when they were first introduced (courtesy of my late Grandpa). I DO however use a few different types like the old AHM universal couplers as a means to pull consists of freight or passenger that still have the old horn hooks and or knuckle couplers . And i even have a mixture of the way more older couplers that Wm. K. Walther's had available from 1947 through the 1960's ,used on my older wood/metal coach kits. All in all, everything i use is miles better than those fragile E-Z Mate couplers that "Botchmann" uses.Those always broke too often.
I was using Kadee #5s for years, but recently I saw a video on RU-vid where the person was using Kadee #148 whisker couplers, and they seemed very easy to install. I ordered a pack of 50 and used them to replace older couplers. I just ordered another pack and will use these to replace more #5s. The extra piece on the 5s does wear out after a while, so these are a great replacement coupler.
Cork for roadbed is a good idea for main line trackage especially if you are using foam as your main layout deck. A 4x8 sheet of foam with track laid directly on it make a nice LOUD drum head. Adding the cork helps to reduce that drumming noise. Foam works best if supported from below with some plywood, thickness of your choosing. That also helps to tamp down the drumming. Switching areas that are normally slow speed areas on a model railroad don't benefit as much from the use of cork to dampen sound. One other point about using cork and foam, plan to glue the cork to the foam and the track to the cork. Each layer of adhesive also tends to dampen the sound and also holds the cork+track structure in place better. Why worry about the sound of drumming? If you have sound in the engines you are running, it is more brilliant in sound if it is not competing with an uncontrolled or unplanned background noise. The sounds you want work better if applied against silence. As for the visual nature of cork road bed, look to your prototype. You may find that the standard thickness cork used with HO track is not actually as thick as your prototype's road bed. You may need to add thickness beyond the usual 5mm or "1/4 inch" (which is really now days only 3/16") to your track structure. Also, remember to sand the cork road bed to smooth it our before laying track. Sand the edges of the roadbed profile too so that you don't have cork showing through the ballast when you finally put that down. One final tip: when laying cork road bed, don't end both sides of the road bed strips at the same place. Have them lap each other. You will find this helps you create smooth curves and also would create as many humps in the road bed you will need to sand away. If working with HO flex track, over lapping the rail joints has a positive effect on laying track helping to keep track kinks out of your work.
It isn’t train noise, road bed is all about an acoustic barrier between the trains and the wood of the benchwork. Without the acoustic barrier you hear the wood reverberating not the lovely sound of the wheels. Good video, Rob
Haha nice one. Thanks for that you little thespian 😂. I’m just getting into the new Hornby TT120 where the trains make their own individual sounds and are controlled by Bluetooth using a smartphone/tablet. Cool. Your video has helped me immensely as I now realise these trains will mask a lot of the background running noise that sounds like a skateboarder 😂 So I’m thinking of laying a thin layer of cork board over the entire baseboard and then on top of that laying individual track bed of cork or something 😊 I like the idea of other sounds. Like bells from a church the birds chirping kids playing in a park. 👌 Muchas Gracias mr Bard 😅
