Horn-Hook questions

[Anonymous]

Greetings to all of you!
After spending the greater part of my life wanting a model railroad, I am finally building one. Slowly.
The only shopping for the cause that I can afford is the occasional garage sale find or the junk boxes at the local swap meets.
So I have alot of beginner questions, please bare with me.

On the "Toy" HO trains with the old horn hook coupler, what is the pin
pointing down for, was there at some time a decoupler for these?
Does any company supply a height gauge that works with horn hook and Kadee style couplers?
I know that I should just be worried about Kadee couplers and throw the
horns away, but it aint gonna happen any time soon.
Baby steps, Learn first, get technical later.

[IRONROOSTER]

Yes there is (or at least was) an uncoupling ramp for horn hooks. I am not sure how it worked. The NMRA standard height for couplers is listed here http://www.nmra.org/standards/S-2All_Scales.html for HO it is .391 inches. The NMRA standards gauge can be used to check the correct height as well as several other critical standards and I highly recommend you get one.
Enjoy
Paul

[cefinkjr]

Yes, the NMRA X2F (the proper designation for horn hook couplers) design included a ramp that would squeeze the pins of two coupled couplers together and uncouple them. It even worked ... sometimes. This ramp was also a rather effective derailer.

Best advice I can give you on X2F couplers is to discard them as soon as possible. My preference is Kadee although I will grudingly admit that the somewhat cheaper Kadee-compatible couplers are a reasonable alternative. Money is apparently an issue for you (as it is for most of us) but, believe me, you'll be MUCH happier with half as many cars if they are all equipped with Kadee couplers.

One other tip for you is that you can TEMPORARILY equip one or more cars with both -- an X2F on one end and a Kadee on the other. This kind of idler car is a large pain where you normally sit but it will allow you to continue operating all of your rolling stock while you are in the process of converting to Kadees.

And, welcome to the forum.
[#welcome]

Chuck

[Wdlgln005]

You could save some money by not buying old cars with horn hook talgo couplers. These are the cheap truck mounted types made by LifeLike & others.

You should be able to find old bluebox Athearn and MDC cars with a standard coupler box. Then you can easily convert. In the meantime, you save money by not getting old toy junk. You will buy fewer cars at a time, but they will run better & look better.

[MisterBeasley]

First, ask yourself if you really want to go on with horn-hooks. If so, send me an e-mail. I'll mail you a few of those de-coupler thingys, if I can find them in the boxes. As long as you mount them on straightaways, they're not much trouble.

I've got a pile of old rolling stock with horn-hooks. I plan to convert them all to Kadee knuckles, which will be a challenge on some, a piece of cake on others. If you're serious enough to be on this forum, you should be serious enough to go with Kadees. But, if you're not, the offer stands. No cost, and I'll eat the postage. Just so I can say, "I told you so."

[randybc2003]

I offer this from what I rember from my Horn-Hook days.
I think Atlas still offers an Uncoupling Ramp in their "snap-track line. I have even seen prize-winning model RRs with X2Fs. - even one was a switching layout.
If I recall correctly, a "hints & tips" column in MR stated that the correct height for pin clearance is the thickness of a standard 1" paper cliipo.

Good luck - but rember - KD Nol. 5 covers a multitude of crimes. And most manufacturers - even Bachman's "Red Label" is going to some kind of knuckle coupler - interchangable with the KD.

Good Luck. Have fun!!.
randybc