 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion Groups General ModelsRailroadsRocketsRadio Controlled Air ModelsHelicoptersLand ModelsWater ModelsModelGeeks.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Model Forum / General / Railroads / March 2007U.S. Hook & Loop Coupler Source
My grandson has a Bachmann HO/OO "Gordan" and "Gordan's Express" passenger cars, 3 coachs and a brake coach. He's allowed to run them on my layout when he visits, but lately he's been asking to put the cars behind the Walthers Trainline 'Southern' FA/FB set I have for him to use. The problem is the Kadee couplers on it don't work with the hook & loop couplers Bachmann uses for some idiot reason. Does anyone know of a source for hook & loop couplers that will connect with the Bachmann "Thomas & Friends" HO/OO cars, but fit a "standard" draft gear box? Bachmann sells a 3/pk of their couplers, but they're designed for the T&F cars, not regular draft gear boxes. I want to be able to switch back to the Kadee's without a lot of hassle when he decides to run non-Thomas cars, and modifying one end of the FB to mount the Bachmann couplers would prevent that. Anyone else been through this and found a solution??? Len "Len" <lwnieman@bellsouth.net> wrote in news:ONjOh.1549$78.522 @bignews1.bellsouth.net: > My grandson has a Bachmann HO/OO "Gordan" and "Gordan's Express" > passenger cars, 3 coachs and a brake coach. He's allowed to run [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Len Those of us who live between two coupler styles inevitably get (make) a coupler conversion car or two (to use both sets of couplers). I'd look to convert a hopper car (or a troublesome truck) in your case to use the standard KD couplers on one end and the hook and loops on the other. Puckdropper  SignatureWise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it. To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm > My grandson has a Bachmann HO/OO "Gordan" and "Gordan's Express" > passenger cars, 3 coachs and a brake coach. He's allowed to run [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > connect with the Bachmann "Thomas & Friends" HO/OO cars, but fit > a "standard" draft gear box? Sorry, but no. There is no such item. > Bachmann sells a 3/pk of their couplers, but they're designed for > the T&F cars, not regular draft gear boxes. I want to be able to [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Len Puckdropper's is the only feasible one. It will mean sacrificing one of the Troublesome Trucks. Remove the hook-and loop coupler, glue a plastic pad of suitable size and thickness to the truck, and mount the KD on it. Make sure that the KD is at the proper height above th rail. HTH SignatureWolf "Don't believe everything you think." (Maxine) How about a transition car, KD on one end and hook and loop on the other. I put KD's on some four wheel UK cars that work quite well, just remove the hook and loop and glue the KD to the floor of the other car. Roger Aultman > My grandson has a Bachmann HO/OO "Gordan" and "Gordan's Express" > passenger cars, 3 coachs and a brake coach. He's allowed to run [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Len > My grandson has a Bachmann HO/OO "Gordan" and "Gordan's Express" > passenger cars, 3 coachs and a brake coach. He's allowed to run [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > connect with the Bachmann "Thomas & Friends" HO/OO cars, but fit > a "standard" draft gear box? How thorough a solution do you want? The hook and loop couplers are, I think, a fairly standard European coupler. The problem is that no USA equipment is designed to be converted to that type of coupler. If these are in fact standard European couplers, then KD makes a coupler that will convert most standard European coupler boxes. You could make a transition car out of a standard European freight car or what have you, but that means trying to find someone in the USA that has such a creature in stock, and it means having another piece of equipment kicking around. What I would probably do is experiment with a piece of wire, such as a paper clip. I'm guessing that you could come up with a shape that would loop around the KD coupler and provide a little bit of a hook into which the loop part of the loop and hook would couple. <_O seems to me like it would work, where the < is a formed hook in the end of the wire, the _ is a short straight section of wire, and the O is a loop that goes around the kaydee where the air hose joins the coupler. I suppose that you might be able to do something similar with a much smaller wire formed hook and a piece of fishing line or similar small string of some sort tied around the coupler as well. Signature-Glennl The despammed service works OK, but unfortunately now the spammers grab addresses for use as "from" address too! e-mail hint: add 1 to quantity after gl to get 4317. > > My grandson has a Bachmann HO/OO "Gordan" and "Gordan's Express" > > passenger cars, 3 coachs and a brake coach. He's allowed to run [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > coupler. The problem is that no USA equipment is designed to be converted > to that type of coupler. The fixed hook/lifting loop coupler is the NEM standard - equivalent to NMRA. Brawa sells LifeLike in Germany under their ownbrand-name and make a simple NEM 362 pocket which fits into the body mounted Lifelike pocket and takes any of the European NEM 362 mounted couplers as well as the Kadee NEM pocket couplers and the Bachmann British bedhead/lifting hook coupler. The Brawa catalogue number is 0999. If that all got confusing =8^) the Brawa item is the NEM coupler box mounted on a short shaft with a widened bit having a mounting hole and two horns right at the end, sweeping forward, that fits into the usual Kadee #5 style coupler pocket that you find on most US wagons. Regards, Greg.P. Greg Procter <procter@ihug.co.nz> Thou doghearted puke-stocking. Thou bawling poor. Thou senior-junior. Thou base foul stone falsely set., ye snickered: > Regards, > Greg.P. Hello, Mister Procter. I hope life finds you well, hale and hearty, sir. Signaturealt.usenet.kooks "We are arrant knaves all, believe none of us." Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1 [129] Hammer of Thor: February 2007. Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker: September 2005, April 2006, January 2007. Vescere puter subgalia meis. "Now I know what it is. Now I know what it means when an alt.usenet.kook x-post shows up." AOK in news:ermdlu$nli$1@registered.motzarella.org > Greg Procter <procter@ihug.co.nz> Thou doghearted puke-stocking. Thou > bawling poor. Thou senior-junior. Thou base foul stone falsely set., ye [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Hello, Mister Procter. I hope life finds you well, hale and hearty, sir. Not exactly - and you? Greg Procter <procter@ihug.co.nz> Thou poor gallant knave. Thou manic, saucy busy-meddling fiend. Thou muddle-mettled insatiate and luxurious woman. Thou nauseating rebel's whore., ye wailed: >> Greg Procter <procter@ihug.co.nz> Thou doghearted puke-stocking. Thou >> bawling poor. Thou senior-junior. Thou base foul stone falsely set., [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Not exactly - Oh, that's no good. Nothing serious I should hope. nospam.nospam.nospam@gmail.com if you want to chat, or maybe catch up. > and you? Better than I was last week, mate, but not as good as I'll be next week. Signaturealt.usenet.kooks "We are arrant knaves all, believe none of us." Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1 [129] Hammer of Thor: February 2007. Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker: September 2005, April 2006, January 2007. Vescere puter subgalia meis. "Now I know what it is. Now I know what it means when an alt.usenet.kook x-post shows up." AOK in news:ermdlu$nli$1@registered.motzarella.org > Greg Procter <procter@ihug.co.nz> Thou poor gallant knave. Thou manic, > saucy busy-meddling fiend. Thou muddle-mettled insatiate and luxurious [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Oh, that's no good. Nothing serious I should hope. It's a bit complicated - this isn't the right forum. > nospam.nospam.nospam@gmail.com if you want to chat, or maybe catch up. Does that work? > > and you? > > Better than I was last week, mate, but not as good as I'll be next week. Ahh, the old - getting better- syndrome! > -- > alt.usenet.kooks [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > alt.usenet.kook x-post shows up." > AOK in news:ermdlu$nli$1@registered.motzarella.org [...] >> The hook and loop couplers are, I think, a fairly standard European >> coupler. The problem is that no USA equipment is designed to be converted >> to that type of coupler. > > The fixed hook/lifting loop coupler is the NEM standard - equivalent to > NMRA. [...] The Thomas & Friends line is based on Bachmann's UK outline models. Bachmann does not use the NEM hook-and-loop, nor does it use an NEM coupler box on this line. Bachmann uses its own version of the old Hornby/Triang hook-and-loop, which is more or less compatible with Hornby's updated version of the same coupler. Neither are compatible with the NEM coupler. IMO, Both Bachmann and Hornby would increase their overseas sales if they adopted either the NEM box and coupler shank standard, or the NMRA box and Kadee style shank. As the original post shows, people do want to run all kinds of trains on their layouts for all kinds of reasons, and easy changing of couplers would be more than a little helpful. HTH SignatureWolf "Don't believe everything you think." (Maxine) > [...] > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Wolf I was responding to the statement before my text. I haven't seen the Bachmann "Thomas" rolling stock but as I didn't make any statement in regard to those I don't see why you are responding as though I did. Most Bachmann British model rolling stock is now fitted with an NEM pocket, but there are two distinct types, one correctly placed and the other mounted several mm too high. The NMRA box won't work properly with European stock as it is too high to fit under a European buffer beam _and_ most European stock has buffers which means that the average US coupler won't operate with sufficient space between the vehicles. Regards, Greg.P. [...] >> Wolf > > I was responding to the statement before my text. > I haven't seen the Bachmann "Thomas" rolling stock, but as I didn't make > any statement in regard to those I don't see why you are responding as > though I did. I saw a confusion between the standard NEM hook and loop coupler, and the style used by Hornby and Bachmann (which is a narrower version of the old Triang/Hornby coupler.) That's all. On the Bachmann/Hornby coupler, the hook points down, and lifts to slide over the loop. On the NEM coupler, the hook points up, and the loop lifts to slide over the hook. You can couple the two, sort of, but they don't like each other. On T&F, Bachmann uses wider couplers than on its other equipment. Eg, on the Hogwarts Express, Bachmann uses the narrow hook and loop coupler. It doesn't use the NEM coupler box, though. BTW, Bachmann's NEM shanked knuckle coupler has a 14mm shank according to my ruler, so it will easily clear the buffers. Kadee offers NEM shank couplers in 8.63, 10.76 and 11.68mm lengths. Both are underset. These are clearly aimed at modellers of European equipment. HTH SignatureWolf "Don't believe everything you think." (Maxine) > BTW, Bachmann's NEM shanked knuckle coupler has a 14mm shank according > to my ruler, so it will easily clear the buffers. Kadee offers NEM shank > couplers in 8.63, 10.76 and 11.68mm lengths. Both are underset. These > are clearly aimed at modellers of European equipment. I've seen a few conversions of European layouts to Kadee couplers. The reason that I was told for these conversions had to do with Kadee couplers operating a bit more reliably (in the opinion of the layout owners) and the fact that while Kadee couplers don't look realistic on European equipment, they certainly look a lot more railroad-like than the giant hook and loop couplers. So, in certain cases it can be done and has been done. Signature-Glennl The despammed service works OK, but unfortunately now the spammers grab addresses for use as "from" address too! e-mail hint: add 1 to quantity after gl to get 4317. > > BTW, Bachmann's NEM shanked knuckle coupler has a 14mm shank according > > to my ruler, so it will easily clear the buffers. Kadee offers NEM shank [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > So, in certain cases it can be done and has been done. Bent paper clip connectors or tying ones rolling stock together with thread will also work in certain circumstances. Don't generally recommend using Kadee couplers (and/or their copies) to European modellers, because while they are excellent couplers that work well, they are generally incompatible with European (excluding British) rolling stock. Regards, Greg.P. > [...] > >> Wolf [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > the style used by Hornby and Bachmann (which is a narrower version of > the old Triang/Hornby coupler.) That's all. OK. I tried to make a statement that stood on it's own about NEM/European standard couplers. Britain of course has always been separate from "Europe" and it's railways/model railways/standards/lack of standards predates Britain's entry into the EU. It's model railway standards are separate from Europe. Bachmann does the hobby a disservice by calling the British couplers "European" in the US catalogue. > On the Bachmann/Hornby > coupler, the hook points down, and lifts to slide over the loop. On the [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > couplers in 8.63, 10.76 and 11.68mm lengths. Both are underset. These > are clearly aimed at modellers of European equipment. The point here is that, with the exception of British loose coupled goods wagons and "Buckeye" coupled carriages, all buffer equipped rolling stock operates with adjoining buffers touching and in compression. Running _models_ with sufficient space between buffers to allow for one's minimum radius curves places them at toy-like distances apart. Unless one operates a completely straight track layout a European Kadee equipped train is going to look toy-like. Kadees on close coupler mechanisim fitted rolling stock is a disaster waiting to happen if train lengths go beyond 5-6 vehicles. Regards, Greg.P. > [...] > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > -- Wolf, I agree completely. Since there doesn't appear to be a simple solution to my immediate situation I decided to take the direct approach. I picked up a 2nd Trainline 'Southern' FB unit, and I'm going to hard mount a Bachmann Thomas & Friends hook & loop coupler to one end. I'll just swap FB's when my grandson wants to put Gordan's coaches behind the diesels. Len |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.