Older cars and couplers

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

      Having just skim read the threads on this subject I may have missed something,  but I think Plasser is both right and wrong at the same time.
The couplers he has are not by KD,  but from IHC.  They still offer this hybrid couple on many of their new engines today.   I think my two 2-10-2s came with them on the tenders.

Bob

[Len]

Bob,

You're right. IHC calls them "Magic-Mates". They look clunky, but they do what them claim to do. I used them on a couple of 'transition cars' when I first started switching from horn-hook to Kadee's. They also work okay with the Kadee #212 Talgo Adaptors for truck mounted coupler boxes.

Len

[rikc9]

Here is a link to IHC and Magic Mates.
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=121O4330H93R31B3X798640090N109

A suggestion to some is to learn to search the 'Net and post the links. A picture can be worth a thousand words.

rikc9

[Stephen Warrington]

  The IHC ones are the ones I mentioned in my first post on this thread. I have them on my old timer work trains and a few other 40 foot cars. They also work well on older Bachmann spec passenger cars when the coupler boxes try to droop. just use Magic Mate-Kadee combos.

Stephen

[JWBDolphins]

I have some old Tyco cars I've been converting from horn-hook to Kadee couplers.  I've body mounted some (probably lean more towards that in the future), but I've found that truck mounting works best for the rolling stock that I have when I use Kadee #27 couplers.  They match the closest to the Kadee Coupler gauge (something else I would recommend getting).

Also - it took my 44-year-old eyes a long time to figure out what 2 pieces of plastic to cut out of the Tyco truck mounts.  They are 2 tiny tabs on either side just inside the front of the truck mount.  Make sure you get All of them removed - the brass spring will move in the "box" freely when they are properly cut out.  (I hope that makes sense, once you try a conversion hopefully you'll see what I mean).

[kevin2083]

one thing I noticed about cars with truck mounted couplers is that they tend to derail when at or near the front of a train going in reverse, so body mounting seems like the best solution.