Quote from: meneelyt on December 15, 2011, 07:18:16 PM
Oddly, my tender (which is generally higher than the others) came with a "centerset" coupling, and all the cars have "overset" couplings... Seems doomed from the start...

And, problem solved! I took an "overset" coupling from one of the cars and put it onto the tender (replacing the factory's "centerset" coupling), and now it works great - just runs and runs. I'm very happy!

I am confused about why Bachmann set it up the way they did. But the train looks great running through those houses!

Thanks,
Tim

Hang on - some more staring at the Kadee site made it all make more sense. I just panicked.

Oddly, my tender (which is generally higher than the others) came with a "centerset" coupling, and all the cars have "overset" couplings... Seems doomed from the start...

Tim

Thank you all for the help, and especially for the encouragement. "Running those trains for hours" is exactly my goal!

Given that a) these Bachmann couplings don't impress me and b) I have a total of eight couplings right now, the idea of switching Kadee is appealing.  And I really like the idea of buying a gauge - I'm an engineer, and I'd like to set them correctly. However, I see a bewildering selection of HO couplings on the Kadee web site, and the cross-reference guide doesn't list my train. Is there some standard I should assume?

I guess maybe I should go to my hobby store and see what they sell...

And by the way (or maybe not so much) there's enormous variation in the height and shape of the trip pins. I haven't had the courage to grab them with two pair of pliers and get them further up off the track - but that looks as if it as serious potential. 'Course, I'd like to have that gauge to know how high it should be...

Thanks,
Tim

Hi,

We bought a "Home for the Holidays" Spectrum On30 set for running under the Christmas tree, mixed in with my wife's ceramic houses. It's running on the oval EZ Track from the set, plus another loop added using 44561/44562 turnouts. The track is on a sheet of plywood (covered with felt) and as far as I can tell is perfect - no noise when the engine runs over any of the joints.

The problem is the cars won't stay coupled to the tender, or to the front of the engine, or (rarely) to one another. I've tried the passenger cars individually and in sets, on the back of the tender and front of the locomotive - and they'll run for about one loop, and then the cars come off. It's not always in the same place, just random.

When I put the tender and the cars on a "test track" on a counter, it seems that the tender coupler is higher than the car couplers. In the worst pairing the two have about 50% "overlap" - about 25% of the car coupler is hangin' out low, then 50% engagement, then 25% of the tender coupler stickin' up high. Other pairings are better, with perhaps 75% overlap. The car couplers are pretty close in height to one another - and in fact the usual failure point is between the tender and the first car.

Is there an adjustment I need to make, or anything I can do? This all looks like plastic or as if it's contained within plastic, so I don't see what I can bend.

(In case it's not obvious, this is my first train in anything other than "O".)

Thank you,
Tim