Built the Blue Box hopper kit and the 3 pack of Kato covered hoppers. Forgot how awesome those kato kits are - everythign snaps together just so, no glue needed! What engineering. I did use Kadee couplers instead of the oddball ones they supply. If you need some early covered hoppers for your layout - don;t hesistate to pick up a set of these, you can get them fairly cheap on eBay. I'd rate them as easy as a Blue Box kit, if not easier (no weight to paint), just more time consuming because they actually have a LOT of detail parts - individual hopper bottom doors, individual hatches, and even hatch latch-down bars. Kadee #5's drop right in and come out the proper height.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I agree -- those Kato covered hoppers are extremely nice kits, but their couplers are really weird and need to be replaced with good ol' Kadees.
Since I don't own any American-prototype Kato products, I'm curious to know what those, "Wierd," couplers look like.
Long ago, the standard Japanese freight coupler was the Baker - a sheet-metal hoop with a big overhanging hook designed to be uncoupled by raising said hooks to disengage them from the hoops. Don't tell me they are still using that half-century-old dinosaur!
(Of course, a lot of American kits and RTR come with horn-hooks either installed or ready to change out...)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with Kadee couplers)
The HO-scale Kato 3-car-set covered hoppers are nice. You're right about the couplers needing to be replaced. The ones provided are made of both an upper and lower part and are junk. The car is seriously under weight, however. An ounce or two more weight needs to be added.
Mark
I can see some more projects creeping in to take their place-----
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
tomikawaTT Since I don't own any American-prototype Kato products, I'm curious to know what those, "Wierd," couplers look like. Long ago, the standard Japanese freight coupler was the Baker - a sheet-metal hoop with a big overhanging hook designed to be uncoupled by raising said hooks to disengage them from the hoops. Don't tell me they are still using that half-century-old dinosaur! (Of course, a lot of American kits and RTR come with horn-hooks either installed or ready to change out...) Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with Kadee couplers)
They are a knuckle coupler, not a Baker-type. But composed of an upper and lower piece with a big u-shaped 'whisker' centering spring. I didn;t even bother testign them, but they might mate with Kadees. Have to use a skewer to uncouple though as they don;t have the 'air hose' for magnetic uncoupling. Not a huge issue in that I generally use skewers anyway - although I never took that 'final' step of cutting off the Kadee hoses to make them look better. I just in principle don;t like vertical split couplers - although yes, this is how Kadee's own N scale couplers are. And on more general terms, I've found that Kadees work far better than any of the 'compatible' designs so I replace ALL couplers with Kadees as part of getting a car or loco ready for the track.
blownout cylinder I can see some more projects creeping in to take their place-----
Oh there's a lot more that I never even put on the list in the first place. After 30 days or so I'll completely remove the completed items - as in, as an item reaches 30 days it gets removed, not just with the current strikethrough text. And more will go in to repalce the deleted ones. I still have 27 cars to build or fix up, some as simpel as Accurail, some are undecs that need paint and decals, plus 4 locos that need various levels of work (from gettign soem gears to fix the split gears on the P2K to a complete redo for the MDC RS-3 (paint shade is WAY off and decal font is also really really wrong). Plus I picked up two more locos today. One will be decoder only, the other may need some work depending on which version of the drive it has - Stewart made the AS-16 with a modified Athearn drive and also with their own.