Upgrading passenger car couplers

I like your article and I would like to know what is the impact on the passenger cars being able to take 22" curves with Kadee # 5 couplers.

I do not have Con-Cor cars but I do have Walther's cars that I think could benefit from a coupler upgrade.

Moe

Coupler upgrade

One quick question

Answered

Don't think full length passenger cars will work w 22" radius.

"I like your article and I would like to know what is the impact on the passenger cars being able to take 22" curves with Kadee # 5 couplers."

I don't think any full length passenger cars will work on a 22 inch radius.  I think that was the reason the Athearn, and Con Cor, and maybe others made 72 foot shorty cars.  Certainly the only way that they would take a 22 inch radius would be with either talgo type couplers or with couplers that were mounted on long shanks that would swing on the same pivot point as the trucks.  Forget any possibility of using any sort of diaphragm between cars.

On the modular club we have a 36" minimum radius, but our old wye that we used to get into and out of the staging yard onto the main had a 26 inch radius and a 28 inch radius, if I remember correctly.  My 85 foot passenger cars with body mounted couplers would often derail trying to get through those "tight" radius curves, and I would usually end up re-railing the cars on the mainline as they came out of staging.  Others with the same problem finally prompted one member to design and build a new wye set with a 36 inch minimum radius to get in and out of staging more smoothly.

Body mounted couplers for pass cars

AMEN to all the points made in the article.   Some added observations:

1.  Number fives have been the staple for some time.  Consider the "new" {relative}  #148's  . The whisker spring  is much more reliable then the copper colored spring,

2.  Consider an alternate coupler choice - :  the long center shaft whisker # 136 .  Mount the draft gear box at the correct height  but move the mounting inwards towards the truck so that the knuckle pivot axis {glad hand, simulated air hose} is immediately below and in line with the vertical edge of the desired diaphragm .  The longer shank provides a wider  excursion distance for the side to side motion which improves performance  on curves.

3.  The tail end of a Kadee coupler height gage when set firmly on your test tract is calibrated to be the deck height for your draft gear mount .  Run your car up to it and you have a fast height ref point for needed shims..

4. If you mount your draft gear box using the center hole a single screw, if loose, allows the box to pivot! Not ideal. I prefer to use the side tabs and tap the body mounting surface with two  080  pan head or flat head screws.  More stable and much lower profile for the screw head.  Many use 2-56 round head screws.  Check it out  the profile difference is noticeable. Also presents less interference with truck motion. 

5. The new "scale"   58 series Kadees are pretty but have a smaller interface and and track work must be perfect with no vertical curves{better know as bumps}.!   The older "148"  whisker coupler has an increased face interface and is more forgiving . 

6. If diaphragms catch try gluing a thin clear piece of styrene on the face of the diaphragm .   One side is enough with fixed consists.

On 1:1 scale passenger cars,

On 1:1 scale passenger cars, the coupler shank is quite long, 5-6 feet or longer, and the pivot point is often close to the outermost axle.  The old Walthers kits with the dummy couplers had the coupler shank about the right size, and the pivot point in about the right place.  The newer Walthers cars with the swinging box-holder are close.  I've gotten a Walthers 85' car (4 wheel trucks) around 18" radius, one at a time, as the body overhangs bash into each other.  Not pretty.

Real couplers don't automatically center, so decide how prototypical you want to be...