couplers

[Anonymous]

[?]Hi I am a new member and have just recently purchased an Aristocraft heavyweight passenger set. I am not pleased with how the cars couple together since it would be an olympic broad jump between the cars based on the scale. I did find some information on how to modify the factory installed coupler but can no longer find the information on the web. Does anyone out there have information on this, or do you know where I can get it? Also why doesn't Aristocraft make the coupler connection at a more realistic distance?
Thank you in advance for the help.

[Marty Cozad]

Rich, WELCOME to Garden RRing. What size of curves are you running your train on? Aristo makes their cars to run on very tight curves. I personally grew in three stages. I used factory couplers till my 2nd RR. then used Kadee tight radious boxes for a few years. Now I have my 4th RR with 20'dia curves and I set my body mounted Kadees very close together, BUT I have the room for them to work that way. Even the large switches, will be hard on the cars if set to close. I have scratchbuilt #8s so I can set the cars very tight. I'd post a photo but can't. Go to My Largescale.com and search couplers and some of us have photos on a post showing the different ones.
Please keep us posted here. And always have FUN[^]

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the quick responce. I do not have a set up yet but plan to do two, one inside the house suspended from a ceiling and the second in my yard. The one in the yard will have what ever radius I wi***o put in. The one in the house is another story I will be limited to about an 8'-0'' dia. The cars come with an indication that the minimum diameter is 8"-0". Is that the minimum that the factory spacing will allow or are you telling me that they make it for tight turns meaning I can go less than 8"-0" diameter?

[Anonymous]

This is from a Garden Railroad issue from August 2000. It is not on the Aristo Heavyweights but the Aristo streamliners. Hope this helps:

To get the cars to couple more closely, cut off the long arms that hold the couplers and body mount Kadee couplers.

[Marty Cozad]

Yes 8ft dia is recomended min for these cars. I personally started with 10' dia outside just to have alittle more freedom, then you can do as the post above states and cut the tongue down and redrill the hole if you want to use the factory couplers. I can e-mail photos to you if you want of the different types and how some look from the bottom.

[Anonymous]

To: Marty Cozad
Sory for not responding sooner but yes I would like to see the photos of the coupler modification. you can send it to
[e-mail]
In advance Thank you very much.
P.S.
I saw the garden railway spread on your itsie bitsie RR.
WOW!!![:0]