Alignment of Bachmann & Aristo Craft Couplers

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Just joined today. As you can see from my subject line what my problem is.
Can you offer some simple solutions?
Thank You, Bambi

[vsmith]

Welcome Bambi to the forum, say Hello to Thumper and Flower .LOL

I can give you one piece of advice. Choose one type of coupler and use it on everything. Bachmann and Aristo are incompatable couplers, I switched everything on my line (LGB, Bachmann, Aristo, and Hartland) to bachmann, which meant a few modifications, trimming to raised plastic circle flush on the inside slot face of the mount arm at the screw hole, and adding a brass angle clip at the screw hole under the coupler to accomodate bachmanns centering device, that straight piece of plastic out the back of the knuckle. A bit of a hassle but it works for me. I used Bachmanns mostly because their inexpensive an readily availible. Most on this forum will probably tell you to switch to Kadee's, which are very good just a little more expensive than I'm willing to pay and they can have there own mounting quirks too. I havent used them, so I have no opinion good or bad, nor have I tried to use Aristo couplers on Bachmann or LGB mounts. Personally I dont like Aristos, the big bulge of plasticuncoupler at the bottom is unsightly to me. Good luck, Vic

[Anonymous]

Bambi,

USA couplers are compatable with Bachman. I think they are identical. I agree with vsmith as most will, you should choose whatever kind of coupler works for you and convert everything you have.


Happy Holidays,
Peter

[Marty Cozad]

Bambi, welcome. And to add another view I changed all truck mounted couplers to Aristo cause they did not uncouple as much as Bachmans. But as train grew, i went to body mounted Kadees for better pushing ability. Have fun and keep us posted.

[BudSteinhoff]

Bambi,
I also use Aristo couplers on all brand equipment.
Have had no problem with them and have about 270 of them.
I grind 75% of the nub under the coupler off to help the appearance and paint them flat black and rust.
Whatever coupler you use, stick with one brand to make it easy.

[Anonymous]

I have several brands of rolling stock and engines ranging from Aristo, Bachmann, USA Trains, MDC, Kalamazoo, ect... and have found Kadee works best for me. I hated the Aristo and USA trains couplers because I could not get them to work for more than about 30 seconds at a time, but found Bachmann to be of decent working ablity. I now use different sets of cars that usually go everywhere together (such as 3 coaches, some hoppers, gondolas...) and keep bachmann couplers that came with them inbetween those cars, and then use Kadee on the couplers at both ends. I have found that it helps to offset the cost of new couplers and still proves to be reliable. I personally advise Kadee, but Bachmann does work fairly well for me (although I have more derailments with Bachmann than Kadee).

[Anonymous]

Like most of you, the #1 gripe I have in model railroading is couplers. HO was bad enough, but G gauge is even worse. I found that Bachmann will slide down into Aristo couplers, with knuckles closed. Bachmann on top Aristo on the bottom. This sorta works. Mostly I have several transition cars with Aristo on one end and Bachmann's on the other. Good luck.

Tom in DE

[cacole]

Welcome to the forum. I have switched to Kadee body-mounted couplers on all of my rolling stock and engines for compatibility. With each manufacturer making their own style of couplers, there is no standard type or height. Right from the outset I began changing everything to Kadee instead of trying to switch cars around to find a combination of different brands that would stay coupled. Some brands of cars will require cutting away for the coupler mounting box, or adding material under the box to lower it to the correct height, but at least all Kadee couplers match up with each other perfectly. If you try to back up a long train with truck mounted couplers, you will begin to experience detailments because the pressure is being exerted onto the wheel flanges. Using body mounted couplers overcomes this problem because the pressure is against the end of the car and not the wheels. Kadee makes different types of couplers to fit specific manufacturers' products, but their type 830 body-mounted coupler comes with the coupler box, springs, screws, etc. so one type can be used for everything instead of having to hunt around.

[mkblk]

Welcome Bambi,

Good advice from all of the above. Yes, select one manufacturer's coupler and use it on all your rolling stock. I just got an Aristocraft snowplow that is equipped with truck mounted Aristo couplers. The rest of my rolling stock is Bachmann and a Accucraft loco. I plan to replace the truck mounted coupler with a body mounted one. As cacole points out, problems arise when pushing against truck mounted couplers. Since I plan on pushing SNOW, and will have a heavy rock load in the gondola, it seems the right way to go.

MK

[Anonymous]

If one wanted to exchange the couplers on an Aristocraft car to ones of the Bachmann type, would one have to change the whole truck?

I am still a bit ignorant in this matter since I own no Aristocraft cars or coaches, but before I purchase one I would like to know the answer to this and other issues.

[cacole]

Capt Carrales -- yes, I think you would have to change the entire truck because the mounting method of AristoCraft and Bachmann couplers are totally different. That's why I chose to switch to Kadee body-mounted couplers on everything. That was cheaper than changing all of the trucks. You might even run into problems of one brand of truck not fitting properly onto another brand's car body due to differences in screw sizes or mounting holes.

[Tom The Brat]

I run Aristo couplers on all my equipment, including my Bachmann Annie. It's quite easy to adapt a Bachmann truck to fit the Aristo coupler, you just saw off the end of the tang. I had to make an opening in the back of the tender for the coupler, but that was an easy project.

There is a height difference, however. My Aristocated Annie couples easily to my Aristo freight cars, but the couplers on my Aristo Sierra Passenger cars are lower, and it takes an 050 (hand) to couple Annie to these.

Maybe that's what I'll do this afternoon: look into lowering Annie's coupler.

[Marty Cozad]

As you can see from this thread its worth saving all the unused couplers. I have a couple of folks who buy my Brand new unused couplers for $1 each. which helps off set my Kadee cost for body mounts and saves them from paying store prices. I don't have any at the moment.
Never through any thing in G gauge away. Some one somewhere is looking for it.

[Anonymous]

I use ARISTO-CRAFT COUPLERS on all my cars ,even the few bachmann cars i have, I must send for a few more sets to finish my cars. Ben