I have fitted Kadees to my A4 and the brake coaches at the end of the rake. The coupler on the A4 is a little "droopy" on mine. I have read comments elsewhere that Hornby NEM pockets have a bit too much play. Have you found this and if so did you add some packing?

David

Ozzie, are you attaching the Kadee's to the bogie or to the body of the coach. If you are attaching them to the bogie can you show a picture so I can see how you did it? Thanks mate. I have the same problem with these couplers. They are toy train material and are an eyesore.

When you buy these Kadee couplers, do you buy a selection of sizes or do you stick to one size?

Ozzie,
Did you have to "pack out" the Hornby coupler pockets? My couplers are a bit "droopy". I have read comments elsewhere that the coupler pocket is slightly on the large side.

David

DAvid, Sorry to take so long to get back but I haven't been paying attention.Yes some of the Hornby NEM coupler pockets do droop slightly. There is very little you can do due to the nature of the pocket mounting. If it does droop slightly I just bend it up slightly sometimes with the application of a little heat but be warned this plastic melts with ease. Other than that the only other trick you can do is to remove the NEM pocket and body mount the coupler.

Ozzie21

Neil, On the Gresley coaches it's a straight swap. Simply pull out the the horn hook and push in the Kadee. These work well with the sprung buffers but the 19's and 18's I have used will still need at least a minimum of 36inch radius to get round. Any smaller of a curve and you'd have to fit a 20 coupler which is the longest they make. On the Hornby BR mk1's with the huge and enormous horn hook mounted to the bogie I removed the horn hook with a razor saw and body mounted and Kadee, number 26 in a number 5 box. I had to do this to get the height to match the Kadee height gauge. Yep I know it's out slightly for 4MM stock but as we are running on 4'2" rails I don't think it matter that much. I'm still refining this as the bogie mount on the Mk1's is pretty rough and I'm thinking of replacing it with a turned brass bolster as the rocking of the bogie can hit the number 5 draft box and derail the bogie.

Ozzie21

Doug, I bought a selection at first in fact all the NEM couplers they make. It took a little experimentation to find what suited best but that is all dependendent on the size of your smallest curve. I haven't attempted any Hornby Pullmans yet as the ones I have still use the older NEM coupler and I think I'm going to body mount these. This again will take a little expeimentation to get the length and height to match the Kadee gauge. I have done a number of Bachmann Mk1's but as theses have rigid buffers and the NEM coupler pock at a differnet height to Hornby using the NEM Kadee didn't work. I had to remove the bogies, remove the swinging coupler pocket, body mount the coupler which ahd to adjusted with plasticard spacers, alter the drag beam by shaving part of it away to allow sufficient clearance for the Kadee to swing. On a couple of the Bachmann coaches, the new Mk1 Pullmans, I removed the buffer heads and refitted them in a compressed state to allow sufficient clearance to prevent buffer locking when going through a 36" curve. When I have time I'll replace these with operating buffers. Also the rigid diaphragms or gangways can be a problem. I'd like to replace these with operating diaphragms but I can't find any apart from US ones made by American limited which are great and I've fitted plenty of them to US stock but they don't look quite right for British stock. But who knows once they are painted up they may look okay. Ohh and I've done a few locos as well, 8F's, Black fives, Princess Coronations, Pricess Royals, 4MT, 5MT and WD 2-8-0. The Hornby ones are mostly easy as it's a straight swop except for the older NEM types on some locos which require surgery to body mount. Bachmann locos it's the same old problem as the coaches as the pockets are at a different height to the Hornby locos, they are almost half a coupler low on the gauge. So at the moment Bachmann stuff runs with Bachmann locos and Hornby with Hornby till I can figure out an easy way to mount a coupler. Might go back to screw and 3 link couplers.

Ozzie21

Thanks for all that info.

The "trend" I am picking up from all the disparate resources I have found it that "body mount" is the way to go with Kadees if a correctly located NEM pocket isn't available.

For anyone that hasn't found it yet, this page on MG Sharp's website has a set of reprints from Modern Railway Magazine on how to convert some UK stock to use Kadees.

I plan to do some more testing with Kadees this week once my current building project is completed. I received the test pack of 30 series couplers last week.

David