Jim, your description of the coupler itself is a Kadee No 4. Properly housed in a proper pocket, it is, IMHO, a much better
coupler than a No 5, or 58. However, you don't seem to have the pocket it requires.
In your position, I'd look for some 78's, which are the Kadee scale coupler with a scale draft gear box. Or at least as close
to scale as you're going to get for now. It does require mounting with screws, so you'd have to be careful with the hole for
that, and not drill up through the floor on the flat car.
What about the trucks and wheels?
SGL
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-----Original Message-----
From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On
Behalf Of Jim Betz
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 8:09 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: [STMFC] Steam Era Freight Car - HO Scale
... as in this -model- might have been around when steam
was still running ... *W*
I have a really old, all metal, Mantua flat car that
actually has pretty fair detail and well done paint and
decals. But it has the really old style Kadees that have a
long, narrow, rectangular slot in the coupler shank instead
of a round hole like a #5 or #58. The paint on this car is
nice enough that I think I'll try to rescue it. The biggest
problem is that it doesn't have a real coupler pocket like a
more modern HO car has - it has a rectangular hole in the end
frame and a hole in the fishbelly center sill - but no
"pocket". So the coupler doesn't sit "flat" it runs uphill
towards the end of the car. I'd really like to mount a
standard Kadee box.
The current coupler is mounted with a screw and washer thru
the slot and no centering/buffer springs - crude but it works
... sort of - nothing to center it if it off line. The
existing 'pocket' is considerably smaller than the size of a
Kadee box ... but the end frame seems to be cast metal and
can be "opened up" with a little care ...
Anybody ever tried to file/mill away the coupler pocket
and install a traditional Kadee on one of these? Can be done?
Don't even go there?
-
Jim in San Jose
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