Coupler Question

[francismaximus]

Ok here goes. I started this year with with "just a train under the tree" for my daughter. When I went Ebay crazy and bought a ton of tyco stuff. I went tyco since thats what I had as a kid. Anyway its only 3 weeks after x-mas I have a 4x8 table in my office trackbed all atlas nickel silver track half-laid down. And a Broadway Limited steam engine on the way. Obviously I'm well past the tyco stage and the 9 Locomotives I have from them and probably 25-35 cars shouldent all go to waste. Are the tyco couplers compatible with any of "the good stuff" the modern companies are using now? And does HO scale offer magnetic release couplers like my old lionels did? And how does that work? Sorry for the winded post, but I am a newbie with ALOT of questions. Now who wants to buy some nice tyco sets?

[MasonJar]

Kadee couplers are the standard today, and they do work with a variety of magentic uncoupling devices. You can convert your old X2F (or horn-hook) couplers on the Tyco if you want. Kadee offers all kinds of plans and different sized couplers to convert just about everything out there.

As for whether you want to do it, that is another matter. As you have already found out, Braodway Limited is light-years ahead of the old Tyco stuff. My advice would be 1) save the Tyco stuff for around the tree, and/or kids, and/or weathering/painting practice. If you can't live with (1), then 2) convert the couplers, but body mount them. I expect that most or all of the Tyco has truck mounted couplers. They will operate much better if mounted on the body of the car. Of course, then you should also weight the car(s) to the suggested NMRA standard to get the best operation.

Hope that helps.

Andrew

What Andrew said, but, thinking cost I would skip any upgrading to Tyco cars. By the time you purchase #5 kadees with boxes and new trucks, for a couple bucks more you could buy a nice Athearns "blue box" or such and have a much nicer piece with a lot less work. Did I mentions it takes quit of bit of time to body mount couplers and new trucks on tyco rolling stock? What I have done to run the old hornhook units is make 1 adapter car from an Athearns Blue Box with a knuckle at one end and a hornhoook at the other. Maybe two if you have a nice caboose. That way you can run your fun stuff with the scale stuff and not spend money upgrading Tyco stock. Fred

[60103]

Kadee has a web site giving the Kadee coupling that should work with whatever rolling stock you have. They have gone to a great deal of trouble over the years to make their mountings compatible with whatever has come up.
Kadee works a little differently than Lionel. The Kadee knuckle move out to the side when the couplings come together, then returns to center. There is a little hook down the knuckle that keeps them from separating. The uncoupling magnet is magnetized sideways. There is a curved metal pin coming down from the coupling; the magnet pulls this sideways and the knuckles rotate apart if the cars a pushed together. An extra feature is that is you pull the couplings apart over the magnet and then push them together again, they don't couple but you can push the cars down the track to where you want them left.

[francismaximus]

Well thanks, I guess after I'm done with my table, (well tracks and basic operation of it) I'll just maybe keep some for decoration, make a small oval on plywood for the tree next year, then auction off the rest, buy exactly what my layout requires.