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Post by tankcarsrule on Feb 8, 2018 14:54:43 GMT -8
As a way to save money, I'm going to convert all of my models. Walthers has a good price on bulk purchases.
Bobby
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Post by Christian on Feb 8, 2018 15:22:59 GMT -8
Gee Bobby - I wish you'd posted this back in 1958 when I bought my first MK4s. Lots of horn hooks could have been mailed to you as relief packages. And a couple sets of Mantua.
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Post by upmodeler1973 on Feb 8, 2018 15:38:30 GMT -8
Good luck.
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Post by Artur on Feb 8, 2018 15:41:05 GMT -8
There are some things that I would not compromise on, lol
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Post by theengineshed on Feb 8, 2018 17:23:53 GMT -8
I smiled when I saw that bulk pack for sale. I am certain I've thrown out at least a thousand of the things through the years...
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Post by valenciajim on Feb 8, 2018 18:36:39 GMT -8
I smiled when I saw that bulk pack for sale. I am certain I've thrown out at least a thousand of the things through the years... I laughed too when I saw the Walthers special on those couplers. About ten years ago, as a joke, I placed a hundred or so horn hook couplers into a large plastic bag and listed them on eBay. Two guys got in a bidding war and I sold them for about six bucks. I always wondered what they buyer did with them.
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Post by mvlandsw on Feb 8, 2018 20:39:50 GMT -8
As a way to save money, I'm going to convert all of my models. Walthers has a good price on bulk purchases. Bobby I'll swap you a whole box full for the Kadee couplers that you are replacing.
Mark
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Post by The Ferro Kid on Feb 8, 2018 21:03:12 GMT -8
Apparently Amtrak is still using them -- recently had an Acela train separate at speed. Bet it was on a curve, too....
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 8, 2018 23:03:46 GMT -8
Maybe if Amtrak used them they wouldn't come apart.
There are guys who still use them, I've had guys at shows buy older things and not want the kadees that were on them, so I swapped them out.
I used some in place of drawbars on an Athearn three-car stack set, so you could still put it in the box.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2018 3:57:02 GMT -8
Last year on my layout before I tore it down I was using tyco operating hoppers with loose coal loads. So I would move them to my power plant and they would dump the coal into a box that was embedded in the foam that had a pipe in it to drain the coal back into the shaker so I could refill the cars next session. Anyways, one day while operating a piece of track that had been fine before was kinked and derailed 4 of my hoppers. They had kadees on at the time and they tipped over spilling coal all over the layout. I got so mad I shut down everything and walked out of the room.
While doing a project on my bench I saw in one of the sorter trays I had horn hook couplers. I wondered how they would function. So I put them on the hoppers and went over the kink again. Well they derailed, but didn't tip all the way over. They instead leaned a bit and kind of accordioned. I noticed there was two different kinds of horn hook couplers. There is the very slim and small kind where if you hold the coupler at both ends and twist it in opposite directions it will twist a bit. These type are garbage. The next type is the thick oversized plastic ones where you can't twist them at all. Those are the best ones.
Now I'm switching to sargent engineering couplers because in order for a car to tip over it would have to tip over the entire train.
So basically from best to worse it would be sargent engineering, thick horn hook couplers, kadees, kadee knock offs, thin plastic horn hooks.
As much as people joke about horn hooks, they do actually work well. Especially if you body mount them and have properly tuned up and weighted cars.
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Post by gevohogger on Feb 9, 2018 4:51:28 GMT -8
On the other side of the coin: I've always wondered how N-scale Rapido couplers would do in HO. I liked them when I was in N-scale even though they looked hideous. Maybe their giant size wouldn't be so noticeable on HO equipment.
I wonder if Jason can offer them in bulk?
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Post by tankcarsrule on Feb 9, 2018 5:32:57 GMT -8
I saw a similar thread on two other forums I browse, so I couldn't resist. As soon as I get my tounge out of my cheek, I'll start the conversion process. I think the horn hooks will look just fine after a bit of weathering and invisible paint.
Bobby
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Post by Brakie on Feb 9, 2018 5:48:36 GMT -8
I saw a similar thread on two other forums I browse, so I couldn't resist. As soon as I get my tounge out of my cheek, I'll start the conversion process. I think the horn hooks will look just fine after a bit of weathering and invisible paint. Bobby Bobby, Back in the day when 99% of us used the X2F we knew how to properly mount them and get them to work smoothly. We would not use truck mounts except on passenger cars and some with wide sweeping curves would body mount them on their passenger cars. The scary part is many today have no real clue on how to properly mount a KD#5 coupler let alone how to properly mount a X2F..
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Post by packer on Feb 9, 2018 7:00:51 GMT -8
I got a whole box of these. guess I could undersell what walthers has them for
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Feb 9, 2018 7:53:49 GMT -8
Weather them up a little bit and they make great loads for scrap gondolas.
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Post by steveturner on Feb 9, 2018 8:14:30 GMT -8
Kadees saved me from exiting the hobby about 30 years ago.. Hornhook and rerailers , get serious. Not on my layout. Originally stared out with a conversion car, horn hook one end , Kadee the other. ventually the horn hook sat there and collected dust.Steve
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Post by Christian on Feb 9, 2018 8:15:20 GMT -8
. . . As soon as I get my tongue out of my cheek, I'll start the conversion process. . . Tongue out of cheek if you snip off the parts that don't look like a real coupler what you have left actually mates with a Kadee and with a squint is quite successful. Quite handy fifty years ago during the great migration from everything else to Kadee.
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Post by Brakie on Feb 9, 2018 8:39:22 GMT -8
Kadees saved me from exiting the hobby about 30 years ago.. Hornhook and rerailers , get serious. Not on my layout. Originally stared out with a conversion car, horn hook one end , Kadee the other. ventually the horn hook sat there and collected dust.Steve Steve, Rerailers have their place especially in hidden track areas as a precaution. I use to use one on my ISLs as a grade crossing but, ended that practice after BLMA release their grade crossing.
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Post by riogrande on Feb 9, 2018 9:15:30 GMT -8
Kadees saved me from exiting the hobby about 30 years ago.. Hornhook and rerailers , get serious. Not on my layout. Originally stared out with a conversion car, horn hook one end , Kadee the other. ventually the horn hook sat there and collected dust.Steve Steve, Rerailers have their place especially in hidden track areas as a precaution. For sure. I use'em like that.
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Post by oldmuley on Feb 9, 2018 11:14:38 GMT -8
The scary part is many today have no real clue on how to properly mount a KD#5 coupler let alone how to properly mount a X2F.. Not knowing how to mount an X2F, it a bit like saying we don't know how to hitch a horse to a stagecoach. Sure, there's probably someone who still does it, but for most of us the world has moved on.
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Post by tankcarsrule on Feb 9, 2018 11:30:56 GMT -8
Hitching a horse to a stagecoach is a good thing. I'm sure most liberal colleges offer the course along with basket weaving and square dancing.
Bobby
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Post by canrailfan on Feb 9, 2018 12:45:59 GMT -8
Steve, Rerailers have their place especially in hidden track areas as a precaution. For sure. I use'em like that. Gee, I always thought those were road crossings! You mean they can put cars on the tracks too??
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Post by Brakie on Feb 9, 2018 13:39:16 GMT -8
Not knowing how to mount an X2F, it a bit like saying we don't know how to hitch a horse to a stagecoach. Sure, there's probably someone who still does it, but for most of us the world has moved on. What I am saying those that has train set experience with X2F truck mounted couplers have no idea how good they actually worked when properly body mounted and yet are "experts" on the X2F. There are many among us that has no real clue how to properly mount a #5.
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Post by riogrande on Feb 9, 2018 16:18:06 GMT -8
Gee, I always thought those were road crossings! You mean they can put cars on the tracks too?? Of course you can please yourself as you like since Atlas did mold in boards to make them sort of look like a road crossing. You can put cars on tracks and stage your own crossing accident! I used them in hidden staging to help keep trains on the tracks, like Larry mentioned.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2018 16:53:53 GMT -8
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Post by riogrande on Feb 9, 2018 17:03:36 GMT -8
milw,
I don't know if Walthers understands how off putting their new website is. Really, if they want to help their business, they need to make their web presence user friendly and searchable. It is neither. Result, I tend to know little about their upcoming products and if they are not on my radar, I don't budget for them. That can only be a bad thing. Their choice however.
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Post by canrailfan on Feb 9, 2018 18:34:16 GMT -8
Gee, I always thought those were road crossings! You mean they can put cars on the tracks too?? Of course you can please yourself as you like since Atlas did mold in boards to make them sort of look like a road crossing. You can put cars on tracks and stage your own crossing accident! I used them in hidden staging to help keep trains on the tracks, like Larry mentioned. I had been wondering about that very crooked road in the picture of your layout...
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Post by riogrande on Feb 9, 2018 18:43:45 GMT -8
I had been wondering about that very crooked road in the picture of your layout... Wonder no more, being that it was underneath I figured the crookedness wouldn't get noticed much. 🙈😼👩😳
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Post by dirtyd79 on Feb 10, 2018 13:44:56 GMT -8
milw, I don't know if Walthers understands how off putting their new website is. Really, if they want to help their business, they need to make their web presence user friendly and searchable. It is neither. Result, I tend to know little about their upcoming products and if they are not on my radar, I don't budget for them. That can only be a bad thing. Their choice however. Yeah the new design is a pain in the butt. The older style design was much easier to use to look up stuff that's coming out or was announced. As the good ol' saying goes "If it ain't broke, fix it until it is."
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 10, 2018 17:10:25 GMT -8
The layout I bought at an auction a couple years ago came with what filled a large box with messed up freight cars and this guy had no idea how to mount #5s or really much of anything. Accurail cars with badly warped plastic frames from trying to glue the weight down, cars with original coupler boxes cut off and Kadee boxes glued on badly or put on with huge screws... I've patched up some cars but a lot went in a junk box to sell for a few bucks from under the table.
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