Hello, newbie here. Apologies in advance for any mistakes in creating this post.
My son has decided it's time to move on from the random all in one train sets and start building a expandable layout. I had missed out on a good looking deal on craigslist but the seller told me he had other inventory we could look at. My son decided he liked one of the HO locomotives and he bought it. The seller threw in two carriages and a lot of track with a transformer.
The locomotive, to the best of my research, is a Pennsylvania rail road F7, including the powered and dummy A units, and the booster B unit.
We get it home and realize we should have looked it over a little closer as the couplings between the three locomotive units are broken/missing. The coupling at the rear of the dummy unit is present, and matches the couplings on the (also Pennsylvania) carriages. None of the units, locomotive or carriage, show any manufacturers markings at all.
I am including images of the two carriages, and the coupling style. The locomotive is at a local hobby store right now waiting for their train guy to take a look, but I will post pics later (it's green, not the burgundyish colour I've seen examples of).
Any help in identifying the manufacturer would be greatly appreciated.
The couplers are called "Horn Hook "or "X2F" . They were designed in the 1950's and revolutionized HO model railroading by making it possile to couple different brands of cars and locomotives together when most manufactures adopted them.
Today most models come equipped with some version of the "Knuckle" coupler . They look more realistic and generally work better. Most Model Rairroaders convert their all their equipment to them.
The best Knuckle couplers are available from their originator - Kadee Quality Products Company https://www.kadee.com/
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Thank you sir!
The coach illustrated is almost certainly an Athearn model, probably assembled from a "Blue Box" kit. It appears to have been repainted to Pennsylvania Tuscan Red and has had decal lettering and numbers applied.
Originally, the Athearn "heavyweight" coach was only available with an arch (rounded) roof in the 1960s but later a clerestory roof version was introduced, which is the version you have here.
Assembling the windows into Athearn kits could be tricky and your car seems to have suffered from this.
I believe these cars are still available as ready to run from Athearn, although they may not be in stock at any given time.
Converting to Knuckle couplers should be fairly simple. The couplers were usually retained by a spring steel clip which can be removed and the coupler should just lift out and could be replaced by a knuckle type.
Peter