Replacing the old horn hook couplers

[Balrog21]

Does anyone know of an articlel somewhre or a video that shows how to replace the old horn hook couples to the EZ-mates or Kadees? I have about 15 to convert over and really dont want to botch any of them. Thanks in advance!
Best,
Bal

[Jerrys HO]

Bal

This link will help. I have upgraded a few like this.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,18567.0.html

Jerry

[rbryce1]

Wow, I've been going through that for a while now, and from what I have found, there are about as many different horn hook coupler configurations as China has rice (do they still do rice?).

Kadee does have some description pages, videos and a really good selection of coupler conversion kits with a good description of how to do it.  If you get lucky and the whisker coupler will work, either the Kadee or the E-Z Mate will work, but if you need a coupler with some endurance, I hate to say it, but the Kadee steel couplers have it all over any plastic coupler.

Some only require a collar to increase the size of the center hole to where a Kadee or EZ Mate will fit right in.  Others require more, and some you just cut off the existing truck mounted coupler and install a new draft box.

One advantage with Kadee is they do have offset high and offset low couplers if you have a need to raise or lower the coupler height to get it to match the correct gauge height without shimming or shaving the car.

For me, I really evaluate the value of the car in relation to the cost and difficulty and success of converting.  If it's a quick conversion, that's OK, but if it takes a lot of customizing, I need to convert it from plastic to steel wheels and it is a very common car to start with, some I just put on EBay and sell it, then put that money into another car I don't need to invest a fortune into with the possibility of it not working right in the end.

Some cars I really like enough to go through the cost and work and keep.  Pretty much your call.  I would identify the exact coupler mount I have to deal with, then check out the info on the Kadee sight and look for videos on youtube.com, that's pretty much what I've been doing.

Hope it helps some, good luck.

[Jerrys HO]

I agree with rb as I replace the couplers withKaydee #5's as they have the draft gear boxes and lids. Like in jonathans post if you have talgo trucks cut the coupler box as close to the truck as possible. I use the Bachmann wheels to replace the plastic ones.
I have found a lot of my old Athearns just need couplers  and wheelsets changed. For the couplers I use the Kaydee #158.

http://www.kadee.com/

Jerry

[Balrog21]

Thanks for the links and the vids. Yeah the cars I have are very sentimental to me. They're old IC and ICG cars. Where I live, McComb,MS had the largest car repair yard between New Orleans and Memphis, TN. Sadly most of it **** down in 1987. The old car shed is now a loading center for wood hauling. But back on it's heyday I watched many an ICG engine and car go north and south along those rails and yard. My son got his first train set for Christmas and I loaded up on as many IC and ICG cars as I could find. Yet most have the old horn hooks. I will be doing another vid here soon showing the lot of ICG cars I obtained along with a few old engines and some new ones. I'm most excited about a brand new out of the box athearn engine set one powered and one dummy. I also found a guy to convet it over to Dcc and sound for only parts cost
Thanks again for allthe help!
Best,
Bal

[rbryce1]

Another option, if this is not a problem with you, is to convert one or two cars over to knuckle couplers on only one side, and use it as a conversion car.  If you viewed the video of our Christmas layout on youtube, the center train, which has the Christmas freight cars, is just that.  The engines have knuckle couplers, the first box car has a knucke coupler on the front and a horn hook on the rear and the rest of the train is horn hook couplers.  The tank car (which it displayed that it was full of egg nog!) had knuckle couplers, but were a quick changeout to convert to horn hook, as I wanted it near the rear of the train.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7f7VUhL7Gs&feature=youtu.be

[Balrog21]

Yeah, RB I thought of doing just that!

[richg]

One fellow in our club converted a car to horn hook one one end and Kadee on the other end.
At his home layout he had to be careful as horn hook cause issues when backing a train. He had to keep his rolling stock properly weighted to reduce derailments when backing.

If you do a lot of coupler and truck replacement. Get a 0-80 and 2-56 tap and drill set with two pin vises, plus hardware. Micro Mark has a lot of good train tools.

Thin styrene is good when you have to lower a coupler.
Kadee red and gray washers if you have to lift a car a little higher. I try to avoid that though.
Use the three point suspension method when adjusting the truck mounting screws.

Rich

[Joe323]

I am thinking of creating one of those dual coupler cars that wouuld allow me to run a CSX caboose curently sitting as a show queen but not worth the bother of converting either.

[Doneldon]

Balrog-

All Kadee couplers come with good, clear directions.

                                                                       -- D

[jward]

the nice thing about the conversion cars is that they allow you to convert the horn hooks to knuckle couplers at your leisure. you don't have to choose which style to run because you now have a way to run them both.

some horn hook cars are more trouble than they're worth, especially the ones with truck mounted couplers. conversion into good running cars often involves more than just a coupler change. you may have to build a pad to mount the coupler to, replace the trucks or at least the wheelsets, maybe even fill in the holes the older trucks were mounted to and dril out new holes to accept screws....

figure about $5-6 per car to convert if you want to do the job right.

[Balrog21]

thanks for all the advice. A vid hopefully is coming tomorrow showing the layout and cars me and the little one got for Christmas.

[Doneldon]

Balrog-

What Jeff said about cost is about right if you must replace everything. Couplers and
wheelsets would be more like $3-4; couplers only less than $2.

                                                                                                                    -- D

[utdave]

i use like others    kadee on one side and horn on the other  its alot easier.  i found a special clean out tool for wheels  it reams out the inside on the trucks  to make them roll alot more easy  i forgot who made it   but it does wonders on those plastic wheel trucks  and allmost makes a perfect rolling stock car.   Dave

[Balrog21]

one of the people I bought from off of ebay made me this great video of changing out couplers. Just wanted to share it with everyone. Hope this helps! It helped me a great deal!
Best,
Bal

http://youtu.be/D263XrpQHMk