I'm in the process of fitting Kadee couplings to all my loco's and rolling stock, and have completed all my carriage fleet with the exception of 3 Hornby lighted Pullmans, which have presently got me stumped! As anyone who has these carriages will know, the original tension lock is fitted to a plastic post, which moves either left or right, dependant on the bogie angle, with a light spring loading back to central position. For the life of me, I can't see any suitable way to mount Kadee's and still give the necessary side to side movement to allow taking curves without derailing or buffer lock, so has anyone else found a way to do this?
                                                  Keith.

Hi Keith,

#451 - extended swing gearbox with medium centerset coupler. 

Alternatively, Parkside Dundas NEM mounting blocks at the ends, BachmannNEM pockets from their NEM couplers, and Kadee #20 NEM couplers.

My hobby shop has some old stock for things like Rivarossi passenger cars and logging trucks that are quite long and pivot, I'll check them out if you want.

Nigel

Hi Keith,
Or just get rid of the mechanism and put a regular Kadee #5 at the end. Adjust height with styrene. The coupler head middle needs to be level with or slightly ahead of the buffer heads.
Nigel

Thanks for that suggestion Nigel,- I'm trying to standardise on No 5's wherever possible, the 451 sounds useful, but finding a UK supplier with those in stock might be a problem! All my other carriages have needed a bit of "cut-and-shut" to the bogies, but as these lighted Pullmans are a bit expensive, I was reluctant to experiment if someone could offer me a quick easy solution. I have a stock of the Bachmann NEM pockets and Kadee 17/18/19/20's, useful to convert some of my Bachmann and Heljan diesels, but the only way I could see of using these on the Pullmans meant the coupling height was way too low, even using overset couplings. I'll look again at using the No 5's, but I think I may need to use styrene to mount the "gearbox" far enough forwards to make the coupling knuckle inner face in line with the buffer face and avoid buffer lock on curves.

Hi Keith,

Are these with an NEM pocket? If so #19-20 should be a straight slot in. My hobby shop has 506-508 in stock, these are meant to attach to the truck/bogie frame of 4-6 wheel passenger stock. Illustrated on the Kadee website under Conversion Kits. Nice long arms that would negate chopping the body up. $4.25-$5.45 + 15.7% tax, PM me if you can't get them in the UK. Having said that, it's easy enough to attach a strip of styrene or brass to the bogie and attach a #5 on the other end. Put the swing mechanism in the storage box.

The only couplers a #5 do not like are the fine scale ones, everything else is compatible. Even then it's only an issue if magnetic uncoupling is used. I prefer whisker types, no messing around with brass spring boxes. A whisker Kadee (14x series) is quite happy in a #5 box.

Nigel

 

Decided to go with your suggestion of the Parkside Dundas mounting blocks for NEM pockets, then use either 19 or 20 Kadee's as I have these already. I did look at a direct order from Kadee for stuff UK stockists don't seem to keep, but postage to the UK from Kadee was ridiculously expensive (getting on for $100 !!) plus of course our UK import tax and duty, which adds around 25% on top, so sticking to standard UK available stock made more sense. Thanks again, Nigel, your advice is much appreciated.
                  Keith.

Hi Keith,

I posted on this some time ago.



This what it looks like on a wagon. The Parkside Dundas block often needs a bit of fettling to get the height right.

Nigel

Hi Nigel.
               Yes, I've discovered the blocks need a bit of trimming to get the height right. I'd not used Parkside Dundas before, but they were quick with my order, so I was able to get on with sorting the coaches. Having removed the mechanism, it still didn't leave an awful lot of room for the block to fit, and cut down as much as possible, even a Kadee 17 still protrudes in front of the buffer faces, meaning that there is a greater than normal gap between each coach, but at least they will negotiate curves without buffer lock or derailing. I may look at alternative coupling types to see if I can close the gap a bit more but still avoid buffer locking.
     Thanks for your help,
                                         Keith.

Keith,have a look at these, easy to make and fit,Ihave them on my coaches, gap gone.
http://www.freewebs.com/barchester/corridorconnections.htm

I like that idea, but I'll have to get the coaches to couple a bit closer than at present before I can have a go at that.
                                                            Keith.

I too loked at shipping Kadee's direct from the States, for the same reason you did Keith - lack of anyone stocking anything beyond the "common" couplings but was also put off by the absolutely crazy postage costs.

I did contact Kadee direct but they couldn't do anything about either the postage or the lack of stock levels.  A very helpful guy nevertheless but he wasn't the "man at the top" ………….

I'll have to get a few bits from here and a few bits from there - additional handling costs but I can't find an alternative.

I've recently found that the cheapest place to buy the standard Kadee No 5's in bulk packs of 20 pairs seems to be Hattons, although postage is apparently £4. As I'm looking at buying another Heljan loco from them shortly, I'll get the rest of my Kadee's at the same time and save separate postal costs.
           Keith

I think they are the cheapest Keith but I need some other Kadee stuff as well which they apparently don't stock.  Maybe we should just stick with TL's ……………..:roll::roll:

Igot most of my stock of kadees from MG SHARP they are the main importers for kadee
:thumbs;-):cool:

They will be one of the companies I'll buy from Owen.  The problem is, the price !!!  A packet of couplings from Hattons (2 pairs) is between £2.90 and £3.50, depending on the type but from MG Sharp, they're all £4.10 ………………

I suppose you pays your money and takes your choice ……….;-)

I live about 15 miles from Sheffield, where M G Sharp are situated, but from what I hear, the current business owner has little interest in model railways, (not enough profit margin!) the shop is seldom open, and I read on other forums that customers have had various problems recently such as non-delivery of orders, difficulty in getting refunds etc. so I'm not inclined to put any business their way, as I can do without the hassle. As a previous customer of Hattons, Rails, Trackshack etc. I can't fault their service, and prices are pretty competitive,- if they aren't stocking the items I want, then I try to use alternatives that they do stock wherever possible, or pay up, smile and use the more expensive shops if I really MUST have a particular item!  I do wonder though, why Kadee's direct shipping charges are so highly priced. I was quoted over $98USD for 4 packs of 20 No5's and 10 packs of No242 'gearboxes'!!!
                                               Keith.

Interesting comments about MG Sharp Keith - I might give them a miss although they seem to be the only place I can find one of the items I need outside of the States ………..

I have no idea why Kadee have such ridiculous shipping charges - maybe they don't want to be bothered with "furriners" ……….:roll:

…………and of course, on top of the shipping charges, there is the small matter (at least in the UK) of import duty and tax, which adds almost 25% onto the total (including shipping) cost, making a truly outrageous price tag. I appreciate that there are no "cheap" hobbies these days, but there IS a limit, especially as many of those in our hobby are 'of pensionable age', including myself!
                            Keith.:roll:

250 gm first class packet from the US is $9.60. That's a lot of Kadees. That $90+ is a Priority Express rate. Sheer laziness for not checking the rates.

Kadee #17-#20 are $3.76 a packet from the supplier I use (Modeltrainstuff.com), bulk pack of #5's (no draft box) 20 pairs $19.99.
They ship international, have an automatic USPS calculator at checkout, you have to register.

I'm quite happy to source and ship the odd 2-3 packets at cost, especially if I am going to a show, which avoids mailing costs to me. Next one is in August. PM me.

Nigel

Hi Nigel.
            Just been on the "Modeltrainstuff" website, and worked out a price for 4x No11 Kadee's (20 pairs of No5's) and 8x No 242 Kadee's (10 pairs of 'gearbox's), giving me enough complete coupling assemblies for the rest of my rolling stock. Total including post worked out at $151.03, which equates to £96.69. Our wonderful Post Office charges us £8 for the privilege of 'handling' our overseas mail, and then our equally wonderful UK Revenue and Customs adds almost 25% onto that total in import duty and VAT, so a grand total of around £130.85.
           If I buy the same amount of No5's from Hattons, it's 4x £16.50 + £4 delivery, the No 242's I can get from P & H Models, 8x £2.50 + £3.50 post
(Hattons don't list the 242's). A grand total of £93.50, so you can see that despite Kadee's high shipping cost, it still doesn't make financial sense to import direct unfortunately.
          Up until 4 years ago, I had a Cruiser motorcycle, many accessories for which I sourced direct from the US at very advantageous prices, but at that time, Sterling was very high against the US dollar, postage and also import duty was much less…….would that it were the same now!
                   Keith.