Horn Hook to Kadee Knuckle Coupler Adapter Car (The Easy Way)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video I show you a quick and easy way to create and adapter car to allow your horn hook rolling stock to work with modern equipment. I give an overview of why I like the Athearn cars and the Kadee couplers. Skip to 9:10 to 15:00 to see the tutorial.
Note: Caboose is Tyco.
All you need is a Athearn Blue Box car and either a Kadee #5 or #148 coupler.
Love that great northern boxcar, I've got several but their both 50' footers and their both the excess height BOXCARS, I've had them over 25 years NOW! Great video, thank you! 👍
Two couplers i avoid like a bad comedy....horn hook and E-Z mate Mk.2 couplers. Those wear out and the coupler heads tend to snap off after awhile. I use as my grandfather used for years...Kadee #5 classic couplers. Many of my Kadee couplers are actual hand-me-downs from my grandpa, that he used since they were first released and still going strong.
My personal favorites are the Kadee #148 couplers. They seem to be a nice update from the standard #5s. I agree the Bachmann EZ couplers are not very good.
@WWIIREBEL All 100% of my old school ''trainset'' cars use kadee knuckle couplers and metal wheelsets.
Great tip. I recently got out my old Train sets, and spent a couple weeks getting all the Engines to run again. Then bought a new engine that had the new couplers. I personally don't mind the old rapido couplers they are too small to worry about them not being life like. They work just fine. I did have one box car that the rapido on one end was twisted and warped and would not stay connected. The other end was fine. So your watching the video I took a look at it and the Coupler cover just popped right out with no problem, so I got to get one of the new couplers to pop in it and the Box car will make a good transition car for the new Locomotive. The Box Car has a nice weathered and unique color so will be easy to pick out. I also have a 7 or 8 passenger car set, so will make a transition car out of one of them. Thanks for the video.
I love having an adapter car. Like you said, I usually dont see the coupler, so why spend hundreds to upgrade them all. I have about 3 adapter cars and a caboose to cover all situations. Thanks for watching. :)
A good majority of my old hook and horn couplers have been upgraded. Those that haven't have been phased out. Granted however my collection was rather small to begin with so it wasn't much to upgrade. Plus I was just reusing the McHenry couplers that people in the local train club were tossing. Now I'm going back through my collection and slowly upgrading anything with EZ-Mate and McHenry couplers to Kadee scale head couplers.
I use # 148 couplers on Athearn cars. The little brass coupler spring on Athearn is just a little to high. No worry on those with 148s Easiest solution for Athearn cars.
For truck mounted couplers use Kadee #28 that was specially made for that purpose.
This is great ... thanks! I bought a few classic Tyco freight cars for next years Christmas train setup and right now I don't have anything to pull it. If I can't find a working Tyco Chattanooga locomotive, I can do this.
@crashryanphoto I suggest you use the Kadee #28 couplers that was specially made for truck mounted snap in couplers.
I’ve got like 9 of those 4 bay hoppers, in all but purple and green colors
There's another Kadee coupler set you overlooked called #28 that was specially made to fit on ''Talgo'' trucks.
You should have done a#148 switch of couplers as well. I learned that you can replace old trucks called "talgo" trucks with #148 couplers and talgo adapters. If you can, see if you can find a video on this process!
I have been Modeling For Awhile I have modified Maybe a few otherwise I have hornhook And Knuckle Engines. So I like em Both. I don’t have Any issues I like them As is.
Lots of cars that I just dont want to incur the expense to upgrade.
You have demonstrated why I throw out every slotted screw I ever encounter. I have thousands of button head Allen socket 2-56 x 1/4” long machine screws 🤣 to replace those British crappy screws !
I hate the slotted screw heads. I swap them out for Phillips head when I can. Didn't know they made them with an Allen head. Like those even better. Much harder to strip out
The taglo adapter kit by Kadee has an adapter in it the will eliminate the slack of your cars coupler.
Just getting into this. Question. Why do the manufacturers not label or stamp their cars? I’ve purchased several cars from eBay of different brands. But I don’t believe any of them are marked.
Thank you for the video and info, but I don’t understand how an adapter car can prevent other cars behind it that have horn hook couplers from uncoupling. Let’s say the adapter is either the second or third car behind the locomotive, won’t the sixth and seventh car, etc still be susceptible to uncoupling simply due to have horn hook couplers? Thank you.
The main purpose for the adapter car is to sit between cars with knuckle couplers and cars with the old horn hooks. The way it's most commonly used is to allow you to use all your old rolling stock with new locomotives without have to do a massive upgrade to knuckle couplers. Here is how it looks on my layout sometimes: modern locomotive with Kadee coupler then an adapter car then all the rest of the cars and Caboose have horn hooks. Hopefully that helps.
Thank you for the explanation.
I have always enjoyed converting this old stock to Kadee (mostly) knuckle couplers. I would use it as the opportunity to also fix stirrups and add some weight to the cars. Horn hook couplers are the worst thing to ever happen to HO model railroading.
I like to pick up those old Athen blue box and roundhouse freight cars. They're very easy to update. I like to put Kadee #148, intermountain metal Wheels and a little extra weight. Run like a champ.
I think that caboose is a Tyco as well. i had one like that with one of my sets as a kid.
Thanks for that ...
Do Athearn Roundhouse models have the same coupler system as the regular Athearns?
I think they do. But won't swear to it.
I have a small fleet of converter cars. Leave running options wide open for me.🚂🇨🇦
They do come in handy.
I do not know if they make t now but Katie used to make an adapter that would fit inside the truck mounted coupling box that would make the number 5 fiit more snugly I don'tI use it myself thoug... Oh if you wonder why they called them horn hook couplers holding it up just right and you will see the head of a mountain goat ram..,... But you might already know that...
I also like to paint my frames a galvanized gray I know nobody sees it but I like it anyway....
I paint the weight flat black. No one sees it, but cant stand leaving it silver. lol
If you are going that far with the aethrin car it's a good idea to sand down the weight and rust proof it... Because rust can do a nasty number over time...
Rust can be nasty. Once i remove the rust I like to basically do what you were saying. Give it a light sand and hit it with flat black rustolium. Dont know if that is rust proofing, but I like the look.
side cutters...cut horn off and they mate to knuckle couplers just fine. takes 2 seconds
Thank you for the info.
How do I just change the couplers on one car?
In this video I'm just showing how to convert 1 end from the old horn hooks to current knuckle couplers to serve as an adapter car. If you don't need that just convert both ends and not just one.
@@VintageRoadRail Sounds simple enough. This video is a life saver. I have tons of old Roundhouse Boxcars just waiting to be build and I didn't know how to install couplers until I watched this. Thanks!
ATHEARN “BODY MOUNTS” you speak of are simple to upgrade to KD#5. HOWEVER:
SOME ATHEA ROLLING STOCK HAS “TRUCK MOUNTED” Couplers .. HORN type.!!
THE TRUCK MOUNTED ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO UPGRADE TO KD#5’s. MUST MODIFY THE BODY TO GLUE ON A GEAR BOX, CHANGE THE COUPLER, SNAP ON A LID … OR THE COUPLER HEIGHT WILL NOT ALIGN. COMPLETE NUISANCE
I have never run into any Athearn cars with truck mounted couplers. I'm not saying they don't exist I've just never run into them. However I have run into many older cars with truck mounted couples. I don't use #5s on those. Like you said it's a major pain.
Why make a conversion car just swap out the old couplers for mew ones
You can do that. But if you have a bunch of old cars from the 70's and 80's from Tyco, Life like, AHM and the like, then you may not want to put Kadee couplers on those cars. So you use an adapter/conversion car to sit between your loco with modern knuckle couplers and you old horn hook rolling stock. I used an Athearn car in this example becasue it dont get much easier. For anyone with Athearn, Roundhouse and similar cars I would recommend installing Kadee. Its quick and easy.
@@VintageRoadRail yes it would be expensive but if you want to operate your railroad realistically it pays off. Switching with horn hook couplers is near impossible.
@VintageRoadRail you don't need a conversion car for old tyco use the taglo by kadee . You pop the old horna out snap the kadee in place twist the taglo to secure the kadee couplers ready to go