Step 1 might be to create some "transition" cars. Change some to knuckle couplers on one end only, leaving the other end horn-hook. It will be a little pesky for a while, because you'll need to use one of these cars between strings of knuckle-coupler-equipped cars and older cars, but it will allow you to run both in trains and to use newer cars behind engines still equipped with horn-hooks. Then once you've covnerted or upgraded everythign, you can go back and complete the conversion on the transition cars.
Creating transition cabooses is also a good idea ... horn hook on one end, knuckle on the other. Then they can be on the end of any train.
Edit: I see RLundy posted the same idea while I was typing.
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Change em to knuckles, but in the meantime you can make a tranistional car with 1 knuckle and 1 horn hook coupler. Then you can run old stuff with new until you get them all changed over. Kadee are the easiest to obtain and are a reasonable price for knuckle couplers. Sargeant are more to scale but they do not mate with the other makes of knuckle couplers and have to be uncoupled by hand. Also more expensive. If you have a bunch of old Bachmann stuff you may want to change trucks as well. Their couplers are truck mounted and may be a real pain to change.
SpaceMouse wrote: Unless your rolling stock is really high quality, if the change over to knuckles is difficult, it might be worth your time and money to buy newer cars to replace those cars instead of converting them. I'm referreing to the cheap Tycos, Life Likes, and Bachmann's.
Unless your rolling stock is really high quality, if the change over to knuckles is difficult, it might be worth your time and money to buy newer cars to replace those cars instead of converting them. I'm referreing to the cheap Tycos, Life Likes, and Bachmann's.
WRONG!!! Nothing wrong with converting your old stuff over to Kadee's. It's NOT difficult and only costs about $1/per car/loco.
http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips2/kadee_tips.html
This site will probably answer most of the questions that you WILL have once you start converting to the Kadee's.
47gotcha wrote:Most of my rolling stock is cheap stuff such as Bachmann and Lifelike. My motive power for the most part is Athern and a couple of Bachmann engines. My wife will love to hear that I need to buy all new equipment...NOT!
Well you can sell the old stuff on eBay and use the money to upgrade.
Unfortunately, the cheap stuff is the hardest to convert to knuckles. Go to a train show, you'll be surprized how inexpensive cars with knuckles already on them can be--especially if you shop for used ones.
Use your eBay money.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
How old is "fairly old?" And again, who made the cars?
My stuff had been in boxes for 40 years. I found that Athearn cars, even very old ones, could be updated by simply removing the cover to the coupler pocket, replacing the horn-hook with a Kadee #5, and replacing the cover. The rest, though, require some degree of effort and ingenuity. On a lot of them, I end up completely removing the old coupler pocket and replacing it with a Kadee "Draft Gear Box," which is the more appropriate term for "coupler pocket."
A lot of old-time stuff had the couplers mounted on the trucks, rather than on the car body. This presents a problem, because this configuration doesn't work very well either with horn-hooks or with knuckles. In particular, it's hard to back up a train with these things. So, you will likely want to "body-mount" the new couplers (and the draft gear box) after removing the old coupler assembly from the trucks.
Long cars, like passenger cars, will not work well with body-mount couplers if you have tight curves. For these, I've left the couplers truck-mounted, and just replaced the boxes and couplers.
Old engines probably aren't worth the effort. New engines are just so much better, in every way.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Sorry, not really. IT is worth the effort though. You can get 20 packs of Kadee #5's that will work in most applications. Then it's a matter of looking specifically at each engine and car for the right one.
I've been out of the hobby for several years due to moving to several new homes since my last model railroad build. All of my boxed up equipment is fairly old and it all has horn hook couplers. I intend to eventually convert over to knuckle couplers, but it may be awhile. I am also eyeing some newer motive power and rolling stock, most of which now comes with knuckle couplers. My question is; Will knuckle couplers mate up with the horn hook couplers of my existing equipment?