Grandson wants grampa to get his HO stuff out of the trunk

[coldstorage]

 Here's my problem, my sets have been in the trunk since 1977. I have the old brass rails which I will be replacing with flex track. Engines were pronounced dead a few minutes after taking them out. These sets were starter sets from Tyco with Cox trailing cars which are still good for now, I ordered 2 Bachmann freight engines which run good. Now the problem is my old cars will not hook up to the new engine, this is not going to be a 23456789 thousand set up. I just want to make a little boy happy. Is there any couplings I can change just on the lead car so I don't have to change the next 20, Thanks a bunch

[rich1998]

Make one car have a coupler to match the new loco and the other end of the car have the old coupler, probably the horn hook coupler. Put a Bachmann coupler on one end of your old boxcars.
I think that is what you mean. Get the sake size coupler and you should be ok. There are different brands and opinions.
I had a friend some years ago who did that.
Over the years a few I have read did that with a large fleet of horn hook cars. They wanted to run trains and not worried about what others thought.
As the Bach-Man would say, Have Fun.

Rich

[RAM]

A Kadee #5 should work on Cox freight cars.  Tyco is a different story.  some thing you might try.  Cut the horn off the coupler and see if it will connect to the Bachmann locomotive.
You really don't have anything to lose.

[Trainman203]

Yes, the old couplers can be pruned down to match the new engine.  If you get new cars you can prune more old couplers to mate with the new,

Wise choice ditching the old engines for new.  Your car wouldn't start after 42 years inactivity but it's incredible what people expect from these trains.

[bbmiroku]

It should start with a bit of TLC first.  But in the meantime, ordering new engines will be for the best.  The Kadee website will have which coupler you should buy and how to install them.  Sometimes the directions included with the coupler are too generic to be used, so download the Acrobat files to be certain.

[rich1998]

There was a thread I think in the HO forum a few years ago about trimming a horn hook coupler to match either a Kadee or Bachmann type coupler. The OP might search for it if he ever comes back.

Rich