Dan - really great video. As an amatuer video producer, it seemed pretty clear to me that you carefully scripted your presentation and thought out your videography carefully, resulting in a crisp, clean, professional video. The content is quite useful and provides all kinds of great tips and insights into the world of couplers.
I'm glad you liked the video. I find that writing a script and then recording a narration helps to keep me on point and keeps me from repeating myself. I usually write the script as I shoot, then use the audio as the base and drop the appropriate clips over the talking. I appreciate the feedback! Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi new to the hobby. I’ve been going budget by getting only used stuff. It took a few bad purchases on eBay to make me realize cheap meant “needs work” even when they say “runs great.” But also I didn’t realize I’d get more addicted to fixing broken stuff than running them. So now I look for stuff that need parts and repairs. It’s fun. So it’s content like this that’s allowing me to tune up and fix used stuff back to hobby grade reliability and limiting repair mistakes. 🙏
Love the .010" shim on the B end of the Kato well car!!! This shows how much "excess vertical height" is required so that KDs (as designed in the early 60s) can BOTH center AND be consistently attracted to the KD uncoupling magnet! Note that many recent small-cube neodymium magnets now can ideally fit between the ties and when grouped in 6 or 8 or 10 can work just the same; no real need now to dig or go underground unless you want a 'powered' uncoupler. Whisker centering springs are more stout, more forgiving and "a slight bit more forceful" than than the older 60s era bronze tab ones. Bronze ones will still work but need a more "gentle tweeking" to get BOTH sides and both tabs balanced while respecting their wayward fragility. 85' to 89' cars on a vertical curve at a grade change prefer a gradual, long and smooth transition; in contrast, with an undesirably abrupt, short and sharp grade change, for two 'same-height-checked' couplers, you can really see one coupler head dipping well below the CL of the other on these foot long cars! Standard head couplers with their "slightly bigger face height" are more forgiving here compared to the scale head couplers. Lastly, I like and retain my coupler trip pins too for 99.75% of the time -- steam pilots and some modern, rounded observation cars being the front and rear exceptions. As such, some coupler trip pins can occasionally "rub against and snag the bottom edge" of some diesel snow plows, especially if that particular snow plow coupler was originally mounted with that "tucked-in-tight" look and if that "metal" snow plow was originally mounted "dangerously too low" to the rails. To compensate, I bend the pin so that it goes "90 degrees straight" down for about 1.75 to 2.0 mm "before starting" the curve forward and adjust the tip to barely clear the protruding horizontal KD gauge tab. All metal snow plows get a compromise .030" clearance to prevent shorting on uneven track and accommodate (not snag, not pin) any mating pin. The HO pin arc is a "fuller 90 degree turn" compared to the O gauge pin arc (which stops at about a 45 degree angle). This is because of the mass/length needed for the differing scales and for the differing pin sizes to be 'balance-attracted' to their respective KD uncoupling magnet(s) as Keith and Dale originally tested and designed nearly 60 years ago!
Good information. I find that the whisker couplers usually work better in non-Kadee draft gear boxes than the older style spring couplers. I mostly use whiskers on everything now, but I still have some of the older spring couplers that I save for situations where it makes sense to use a Kadee draft gear box. I have had issues with snowplows, too. My solution so far is to use long shank couplers on snowplow-equipped engines that use aftermarket plows, as this keeps the trip pin on whatever is coupled to the engine from snagging on the plow. It's a compromise but it works for now. Thanks for watching!
I wasn't aware that the Kadee height gauge would be used for checking body height on an HO gauge piece of rolling stock. Thanks for the tip. I hate talgo trucks. Cheers - TN
I know there are modelers who cut the trip pins. Some people cut them off entirely. It's good that the couplers are versatile that way, so people can use them the way they want to. Thanks for watching!
I have some European trains on my layout, but those use tension lock couplers. Since I had some trouble getting tension locks with knuckle couplers, I wanted to swap out the European couplers with metal knuckle ones. I think I’ll test it out with some freight cars before I test it on some of my locomotives.
I have to confess I am not that knowledgeable about European trains. I understand the general concept of the buffers and couplings they use, but I'm not sure how that translates into model form. Good luck with your trains! Thanks for watching!
Thanks Dan - After watching so many of your product review videos, this tutorial is most welcome. I appreciate your clear and concise delivery makes it clear how to work "coupler magic" on my misaligned cars. Both of you stay well.
Excellent video, at first I thought "19 minutes to talk about coupler height" but being straight to the point as you were, allowed you to cover WAY more information than I was expecting. Got a subscription from me!
Dan, I recently subbed to your channel as I came across some previous videos of interest, but I gotta say...this video was really fantastic. I know your doing HO scale, but when you did the wheel gauge video and included us N scalers and now another car maintenance video with the coupler height and again included us N scalers, I gotta say thanks. I actually wasn't minding sitting through the HO examples as sometimes we pick up techniques for any scale, but was really impressed when you gave the N scale some time. Glad I subbed, and will look forward to more of your great videos. Thanks for taking the time to make these and share the great info. Cheers!!
I'm glad you liked the video. I actually started in N scale, and have quite a bit of it. When doing something like this that can apply to multiple scales, I like to include a variety of examples. Thanks for watching and subscribing!
A while ago my athearn dash 9 with the stock plastic coupler snapped and jammed into the plastic ties which caused quite some damage to a few freight cars and one of my other locomotive's coupler in front of it. Lesson learned to swap all my plastic couplers with kadee's.
There have been many occasions on my 1:1 gauge railroad that we have had to shim a coupler to make a coupling happen because it was too low. It took more than .0001 of an inch to fix it too! LOL!
Nice video! I've been looking forward to you making this for a long time! I learned a lot of stuff and I'm sure I'll use these techniques in the future!
Hi Dan, Great video, thanks for sharing. Can you show how you deal with the rear coupler pockets on N locomotives, more specifically Kato F unit's, E8/9 units or any other locomotives that have the truck mounted couplers.
Great suggestion! I am already kicking around the idea of doing a part 2 for this one with more examples, so I'll add that to the list. I have a couple of Kato E units that might work for that. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for taking the time to make this video Dan. I always learn a few things from you. Last night I finished watching your video on painting Santa Fe locomotive which was done a number of years ago. I am building an SP. 33c and I’m looking forward to your painting of the four engines you are currently building from the 90’s. Painting the SP red wings will be a challenge for me and I want to see your approach.
Informative video Dan, thanks. I recently got back into the hobby. I find it frustrating though that I spend decent money for rolling stock just to get it on the track and have to buy different couplers on it. I think I will just plan on putting all the same Kadee couplers on all my rolling stock. Seems like NMRA could resolve this problem though.
I'm glad you liked the video. I use Kadees on everything. In some cases that's more of a preference, but I consider it necessary when a model has plastic couplers. It is nice that most HO equipment comes with Kadee compatible couplers now at least. I don't know if the NMRA has adopted or has plans to adopt a new coupler standard. The old X2F couplers weren't great. I remember Kadee used to advertise they were the "standard by choice", and I think that's still true for the most part. Thanks for watching!
I may be a little late to the show, but I appreciate the vid. I bought a Bachmann engine, and its couplers are way too high. Thanks to you, I think I can fix that issue.
Daniel, thanks for the tutorial. I have been using a similar process for my rolling stock. I was especially interested in the 3-point suspension segment as something I should be more diligent about. Hope to see more videos like this one...Harold
These are all great tips Dan! One thing I will add is that it may become necessary on some HO locomotives (Scaletrains and Athearn rtr & Genesis in particular) to have to trim the trip pins back on Kadee couplers because these locomotives have very close coupling clearances and the trip pins could scratch and/or damage details on the pilots. I actually talked about this when I did my review of Scaletrains.com's Operator C44-9W. Be safe and well!
On many of my locomotives with snowplows, I use Kadee long shank couplers in front, otherwise the trip pin on whatever the engine is coupled to will contact the plow. It's a little funky but a compromise that I put up with because I'm still hesitant to junk my trip pins. I have a lot of equipment, and if I changed my mind later and wanted to use magnetic uncoupling it would be super expensive to replace all those couplers. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi I understand that! I actually thought of using long shanks to, but the #158s look so good on these engines. Usually what I do is I'll adjust the trip pin (if necessary) and then trim tiny amounts off of the trip pin until it stops rubbing on the pilots. It's not perfect but it does make difference!
Hey Dan like your videos a ton. Maybe you can do a how to video of weights on models especially for HO, I need a lot of help in this department please thanks!!!!!!!
Great vid on how to adjust and get the right coupler height I was wondering would you do a review on any North American Railcar Corporation products from PWRS
I'm glad you liked the video. Last time I checked, PWRS had an odd system for ordering online that I'm a little unsure about. It looks like they have some interesting stuff, though. Thanks for watching!
Cute animations. Back when I started getting series about couplers in the 80's, most models were kit built so checking and adjusting coupler height was part of the model assembly and preparation for layout running. I've always left trip pins on but bend them up a tiny bit to prevent them from catching on turnouts etc. I've usually used the KD fiber washers to get coupler height up to match. In a few cases I have resorted to bending the shank but not to the degree you showed, only a tiny tiny bit. I've also added a bit of thin plastic to the draft gear box to fix coupler sag. Coupler sag seems all too common. The real pain are the newer Atlas RTR cars which had couple lift which is attached to the draft gear so there is risk of breaking to change out the Accumate for KDs. Filing the boss has always been a practice of mine to stop the rocking - it was just something that was common sense when no video's were available watch. Your video will help a new generation of noobs. All tried and true methods.
I'm glad you enjoyed the cartoons. That is one nice thing about building cars from kits, is that all of the things like coupler height can be taken care of from the beginning. I agree that some of the Athearn cars are difficult to work on. I've had to deal with a few of those. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi Speaking of washers, I've been working on coupler conversions and adjustments on BLMA and Atlas HO TOFC 89' flatcars, which have metal underbodies. They need adjusted up to match the Kadee height gauge, but the Kadee fiber washers hole is too small to fit over the lip, even when reamed out. I'm stuck right now. I'm looking for alternate fiber washers with similar thicknesses but a bit larger, mainly with a larger hole, that will fit over a number of models I have that won't accept the good old Kadee fiber washers. They worked great on the older Athearn kits, but newer models, many which are RTR, they simply won't fit. The hole is too small. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I don't mind if you post a link to the video, or have an embedded link in the webpage. But please don't download it and then upload it outside of RU-vid. Thanks!
So the video was GREAT. I have an old n Scale CON COR PA1 with RAPIDO couplers. Can you help me / instruct me how to remove the RAPIDO coupler and replace with a micro-trains knuckle coupler. The trucks in this model are asymmetric. if you’d like I send you a picture of the 6 wheel truck. Thanks. Can’t seem to find any you tube videos demonstrating this.
I've got two Con Cor N PA-1s that are some of my oldest locomotives. They were the best running N scale engines I had back in the day, and I ran them so much I wore them out. I did convert them to Micro-Trains couplers, though. If I recall there used to be a conversion kit specifically for those locomotives, though I'm not sure it's available anymore. There are some conversion kits that might work, like the one for the newer PA-1s (pn 2000). It has the adapter piece in it that will fit in Rapido style coupler pockets. Sometimes the coupler pockets have a little plastic post that needs to be cut out so that the adapter will fit. I have not tried converting one of these with the newer conversion kit, though, so I can't say for sure if it will work. It might be worth exploring in a future video. Thanks for watching!
Dan, have you ever change or fixed a Tangent rolling stock coupler?!?! Those things seem impossible with all the details with wires and or hoses getting in the way of the gear box. They’re really good, but seem a tad too short, so the layout has to be really level.
Most of the Tangent rolling stock I've seen comes with Kadee scale couplers, which are what I use anyway, so I don't normally change them. I have had to fix the coupler height sometimes. My more recent reviews, maybe over the past couple of years or so, include a RIP Track segment where I do jobs like that. Any reviews of Tangent models that I've done recently should have that, so you can look and see what I did if you want. Cars with a lot of detail do require a lot of care when working on them not to break things. With most Tangent models I don't really mess with the couplers themselves, though. I fix height issues by filing down the truck bolsters or shimming the as needed to get the coupler in the right spot. Thanks for watching!
There needs to be a type of coupler that fuses the shank and loop of a kadee knuckle coupler with the connection point of a tension lock coupler so that I can run some combined trains without issue. ISSUE EXPLAINED: Right now I have some Bachmann Thomas stuff that I'm running but I don't have much TAF rolling stock, so I've resorted to flipping a knuckle coupler upside down and turning the trip pin backwards to hook a chain to it and then coupling the engine to said rolling stock by using a hook that sticks off the back tender. But this has recently caused an issue while going downhill in that it uncoupled itself and left the rolling stock stranded on the top of the hill while the engines ran off ahead of it. Needless to say it caused a minor problem as my system works perfectly well on flat track, but having a dedicated coupler to fix my old ho rolling stock would be a life saver. Or vice versa for the TAF line. I honestly don't know why Bachmann decided to go with that for their coupler type, it basically forces you to buy more of their TAF line or Hornby stock in order to run a halfway decent train. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: I need a tension lock coupler that can fit inside the draft gear box of another train, or a raised knuckle coupler to fit onto my engine. (I've tried to just replace the engine coupler but their height ends up being off, which is what led me to this video to begin with. Trying to fix that height difference.)
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of experience with tension lock style couplers. I have a Bachmann Thomas but no rolling stock for it. Nichole also has a Bachmann Hogwarts Express set, and that's about it. Kadee has the 141 coupler which has a long underset shank, and the 147 coupler which has a medium underset shank. It looks like they can be ordered direct from the Kadee website if you can't find them elsewhere. I'm not sure if it would be helpful for your situation but they also have the 17, 18, 19, and 20 NEM couplers for European style equipment. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the tutorial Dan. This really helped me out since I have a lot of locos and cars with low or high coupler height. I have one question though. Who made the atsf 3751 model behind you? If it was brass , who imported it?
I'm glad you found the video helpful. The O scale 3751 is a Sunset / 3rd Rail model that I got used a couple years ago. It is brass, and my only O scale steam locomotive. Thanks for watching!
Very useful Daniel, as I have just started to add KDs to my kit built European wagons. Do you know where I can source just the draft gearbox pockets as I have acquired a pack of 25 pairs of Bachmann EZ Mate couplers that I wish to incorporate into them. Cheers
Kadee offers several styles of draft gear boxes. If you look under HO scale couplers on their website you can find them. I only use Kadees, so I don't know how well they'd work with Bachmann couplers. Thanks for watching!
Hi Dan. What coupler would you recommend in N scale for prototypical size and performance? I've seen several reviews that the MT true couplers wouldn't actual couple at slow speeds. Also, any recommendations on metal wheel sets for N scalers? Thnx!
As much of a stickler as I am for detail, I have a bias toward good operation over appearance. I have regular MT couplers on the vast majority of my N scale rolling stock. Some people use the Z scale MT couplers, which are slightly smaller. I have tried the MT scale sized couplers and found that they seem to work okay to keep a train together (though I didn't try enough of them to test a long train), but are impractical for switching. Coupling and uncoupling are difficult. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. I really like the Fox Valley metal wheels. I've converted most of my Micro-Trains cars to use those. I like them better than the ExactRail, InterMountain or Atlas wheels. The Fox Valley wheels have a nice appearance, are well made, and are very consistent in quality. Thanks for watching!
>A lot of the Kadee couplers are now plastic, and not that easy to bend. >Scale size Kadee's don't couple as reliably as #5s since they are narrower. Since they are not as high, they tend to uncouple more often--some railroad clubs have banned them. >While Kadees are the best, Accumate couplers are downright dangerous. They will uncouple inadvertently and don't delay-uncouple at all. I've had break-in-twos with them on downgrades as cars bunch together.
I don't use the Kadee plastic couplers or Accumates. I haven't had any trouble with the scale couplers as long as the heights are matched. I don't have a big layout now but I have run some fairly long trains at club layouts over the years. I guess we'll see when I get mine going. Thanks for watching!
Hobby stores that stock model train parts should have them. You can also get them from many online stores that specialize in model trains, like Model Train Stuff. eBay is another good resource. Thanks for watching!
It's a personal preference, but I try to avoid them if at all possible. They tend to move the coupler head up and down quite a bit, sometimes more than is actually needed. The coupler shank is also off the centerline of the coupler. I've used them more in N scale, rarely in HO. Thanks for watching!
So i have a wagon has both couplers that are too high to couple with anything. I have been trying to fix it for 6 months now and i dont know what to do. You could almost fit a whole other knuckle coupler in the gap its that high. Does anyone have any tips?
That sounds pretty extreme. It's hard without seeing the car, but I can offer a couple general suggestions. Can the car be lowered? It sounds like that's too much of a difference to be able to accomplish that by filing the bolsters, but that's where I usually start. If that isn't practical, can the coupler draft boxes be removed and re-mounted on some kind of a spacer, maybe a block of styrene plastic? That would lower the coupler boxes without having to lower the whole car. There are also offset shank couplers that can be used in extreme situations. I try to avoid those as a rule, but sometimes it's the only practical solution. Good luck with your model and thanks for watching!
All good. I have been able to fix it a bit. But its still high but can run with everything else. I might see if i can lower it but if i cant i might stick a bit of plastic in between. I got it in a kit and it didnt come with a whole box. Instead i got a small coupler thing i could just stick on. Its a good model though. Thanks for the tips!