advice needed for Bachmann Couplers

[Anonymous]

I run all Bachmann rolling stock with 1 bachmann 4-6-0 and 1 lgb 0-4-0 porter. My problem is that the cars uncouple at random times and places. I've tried everything that I have heard to correct this but nothing has worked (yet). Any advice would be greatly apreciated...
Eugene

[toenailridgesl]

Eugene,
Bachmann couplers work fine if your track is reasonably flat but they dislike vertical transitions, ie sudden up or down tilts. The older couplers were sloppy but the later (brown) ones are excellent.
There's an excellent thesis on couplers on George Schreyer's site:
http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips3/coupler_tips.html

[Curmudgeon]

What exactly of everything have you tried?
Tried the 1/2" #4 panhead screw and flatwasher?

One other thing that will do it is badly out-of-round wheels.
Run your train slow, watch the sideframes.
Anything that looks like a clown's bike need to have the wheelset replaced.
TOC

[cacole]

I have put Kadee body-mounted couplers on everything and threw all of the Bachmann couplers into the trash. That ended all of my problems.

To begin, Bachmann couplers are mounted way, way to low to appear anywhere near realistic, are horribly oversized, and they usually won't couple to any other brand because of this height difference.

Settling on one brand for everything, and making them all body-mounted, solves a lot of compatibility problems between brands.

[Curmudgeon]

Bachmann couples with everything.
Kadee couples with nothing.

Bachmann is at the defacto large-scale standard height.
USA Trains, exact.
Delton, exact.
Aristo Classic, exact.
Lionel, exact.
LGB with Lionel couplers, exact.

Kadee..........well, who knows?
Not Aristo full-sized.
Sometimes Accu...

and none of the above list.

TOC

[kstrong]

QUOTE: Bachmann couples with everything.
Kadee couples with nothing.

Close, but that assumes that you're body-mounting the Kadees at a prototypic height, but keeping the Bachmann, etc. couplers their factory height, which is far below the Kadees, and what would be prototypic. (The centerlines of most all prototype couplers are equal to or one inch higher than the diameter of the wheels.) Of course they're not going to couple in that case. When you set all heights equal, there's a fair amount of interconnectibility between the brands, though not always automatically.

But back to getting the Bachmann couplers to operate reliably...

The first thing is to eliminate any vertical slop in the coupler. It cannot be able to wiggle up and down at all if you want reliable operation. TOC's suggestion of a 1/2" machine screw through the coupler shank generally takes care of this problem for you.

Side-to-side play needs to be maintained. This can be done by backing off the screw just enough so the coupler can swing left to right, but not top to bottom. Cut off the centering spring. It's worthless, and only leads to trouble.

Next, look at the spring that forces the knuckle open. Some folks cut this spring off, so you have to physically open the knuckle. It's not necessary to do this, but I've seen this drastically improve the operation of the couplers in some cases. It may have something to do with that spring putting pressure on the lift pin that actually works to force the pin upwards.

Of course, there's the lift pin itself, too. Some folks install working cut-levers on the car ends to lift the pin up to uncouple the cars. Installing such an item actually helps keep the cars coupled because the weight of cut lever actually helps hold the pin down, hence the knuckle stays closed. I know there was an article in GR around 10 years back on doing that, but I don't know if there are any on-line articles on doing that. Perhaps someone else will know. The fellow who wrote the GR article is a friend of mine, and I can personally attest to how reliably those modified couplers worked.

Those are my suggestions for getting the couplers to work. I know TOC uses the B'mann couplers on his line, though I honestly don't remember right now if they're truck or body mounted. He has great luck with them, as do others, so they can be made to work well. Personally, I'm with Charles in that I chuck them in the trash and install Kadees. Like anything, it's personal preference.

Later,

K

[grandpopswalt]

I agree with cacole and kevin. Scrap the B'mann couplers and install body mounted Kadee's. They're much more prototypical looking and virtually trouble free.

Walt

[Curmudgeon]

Hang on a minute.
For literally DECADES I have told folks in this and other scales that someday I'm gonna get a front suspension coil spring out of a '62 Cadillac, paint it gold, take a handful of coathangers, go down to Interbay Yard with my camera, strap this spring horizontally along the side of a prototype coupler and take a picture.
Kadee's, for US practice, are probably the most NON-prototypical coupler out there!
Show me standard usage where the jaw shifts and does not swing.

I MUCH prefer something that works like the real thing, even if larger, that the pin lifts and the coupler opens, that you can, if you want, put a lift bar and chain attachment.

Heck, even my old "0" scale stuff has Scale Model and Monarch couplers with operating lift bars.

Oh, and that air hose hanging fixed in the coupler centerline....

[kstrong]

TOC...

"Personal Preference."[:D]

Honestly, I'd love an properly scaled, prototypically operating coupler, but no one makes it in the size I need. Therefore, I have to compromise--as do you. I favor the aesthetics of a coupler that scales to the prototypical 10" across of a 3/4 scale Janney coupler used by numerous eastern narrow gauge railroads. I'll sacrifice the working lift pin to get that.

You appearantly favor prototypical operation over aesthetics. You don't mind something that looks--to me--like a scale 16" cube on the front of your trains, since they operate as the real ones do. I've run on railroads that use Bachmann's operating couplers, and it's pretty slick! It's certainly a touch I'd love to add to my operation, but I'm unwilling to sacrifice the visual proportions of the coupler to achieve it.

I'll readily agree that the Kadees aren't perfectly scaled. Nothing out there is, with the possible exception of Accucraft's 1:20.3 coupler and a few metal coupler kits which cost more than my rolling stock. If the EBT used a full-sized coupler instead of a 3/4 scaled one, I'd use the Accucraft ones. Unfortunately, Accucraft's 1:32 couplers--which would be very close to what I'd need--don't operate. Therefore, I stick with the Kadees. They look good enough (admittedly, once the trip pins are cut off) and are 100% reliable straight out of the packet.

You say po-TAY-to, I say po-TAH-to.

Let's go outside and run trains...

Later,

K

[Curmudgeon]

Ah, Kevin, me boy, now that you've jumped in....
hehehhehe...

With Kadees, if you don't have a 12" screwdriver or pointed piece of rail, you LIFT one car to uncouple....I won't tell these fine folks on this board how I know that, or exactly who it was I saw doing that.....

But, it WAS funny, and still a topic of discussion every time someone mentions "Kadees" around here.....and it isn't me who starts the discussion, or brings up the image of that youngster out on the line lifting cars to uncouple them.......


I still laugh just thinking about it.

TOC

[kstrong]

I make no apologies for it, either. I was just out in the back yard with a screwdriver to uncouple cars. Works like a charm, as does lifting the cars. Sure, it's not as prototypic as lifting the cut lever, but the models look better, which is what I'm after.

Later,

K

[Curmudgeon]

Just a quick question...
Better than what?

[vsmith]

Kadee? Bachmann?

I'm shet-canning all of 'um and switching to Link and Pins, now ya wanna talk about authentic?[:P][;)][(-D]

[Curmudgeon]

jes' keep a chunka baling wair ta tie 'em together whan th' pockets are a differnt hite!

[tangerine-jack]

Duct tape, TOC, duct tape. If it's good enough for the space shuttle, it's good enough for the RR.




[oX)]

[Curmudgeon]

Ah, whut ya need is "EB Green".
That stuff'll take yer skin off!

[GP-9_Man11786]

My thoughts on couplers, I have three words: Hook and Loop. Yes they are horribly unprototypical but how often do you look at a trains coupler. Plus they are super-reliable and always compatible between manufacturers.

[Curmudgeon]

One other thing.
The nmra with their "standards" were asleep at the switch when lgb re-started this gauge in 68, and totally ignored it until recent years.
What surprises me is the standard the manufacturer's came up with that worked, except for one who decided to go their own way and don't couple readily with anybody else.

And, that it has worked all these years.

[kstrong]

QUOTE: Better than what?

Better than any of my models would look with a large plastic cube on the front. [;)] Put a Bachmann coupler on a 7/8" scale model, and we'll talk. That's about the only the scale on which they begin to be scale couplers.

Oh, and don't think the prototypes didn't troubles with link and pin couplers not being the same height. Happened quite often, hence offset links and other quick fixes invented by the railroads' shops.

Later,

K