Anyone have problems with Walthers Pass. Car Coupler Height?

How's it going everyone?

I was doing some testing this weekend and for the longest time I noticed that the coupler heights on various passenger cars differ (a re-tooled Amfleet I, Heritage Cars, etc.)

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to remedy this issue? Currently I bend my couplers up or down accordingly. Although this helps, I hate doing this. I know there are raised and lowered head couplers from McHenry but I don't know if they have the metal spring or the plastic spring action return. If they do have the later, I'd hate to invest in the specialty application couplers because as we've experienced, they tend to ware out.

If anyone has any additional info, or suggestions regarding this issue, please let me know!

Thanks allot for your help!

Kyle

Kyle, this seems to be somewhat common. I recently purchased Superliners, all of the same production run. 4 of the 9 cars have different coupler heights. After a little inspection I found that the bolster was thick on one set of trucks, but nothing glaring on the others. I added some shim washers and it made things better, but it hasn't made me want to purchase more passenger stuff from walthers!

You really shouldn't be bending the couplers, as this changes the angle of the coupler head. For best operation all coupler heads should be horizontal. I'm sure you understand that but I want to stress that it's not a very good solution to the problem.

Kadee has couplers in their 20, 30 and 40 series with overset and underset shanks, and obviously those have metal knuckle springs. Personally I hate the McHenry/EZ-Mate (or any other plastic coupler for that matter) and change to Kadees on most of my cars. Note that because the standard Kadee coupler head is slightly smaller than the McHenry, the distance between cars will decrease by a tiny bit, which makes a derailment even more likely as a result of the stiff diaphragms pushing against each other.

To fix this (and give all-around better operation anyway) I remove the stainless steel diaphragm springs on the inside of the car and replace them with strips of .005" styrene. This makes it much easier for the diaphragms to compress and rotate as they should. Also, since the diaphragms on the Amfleet cars tend to stick out much farther than they should, I cemented tiny blocks of .040" styrene behind the hooked clips that hold the diaphragms in place. This limits their travel so you don't get silly-looking dangling diaphragms.

One other problem I've noticed with Walthers Budd cars is that occasionally the pickup contacts on either side of the bolsters are bowed downward, which can actually cause the car to sit too high if it's riding on the contacts. A couple pokes with a screwdriver were enough to flatten them down and correct the height of the car.

Good stuff!

As long as the couplers don't have the plastic type spring return.

I have plenty of .005 mm thick sheet styrene that I don't know what to do with. Now I do know what to do with it.

Looks like I have about 4 to 5 cars to retrofit in the way you suggest.

As for the budd cars, that's gonna take a little more time to remedy, but I definately do not like bending the couplers anymore than you do, lol.

Thanks again for the excellent suggestions!

The first run Budds require over shanks, #22/32/42
What I suggest is to just change the lead car that couples to the loco.
http://www.trainbuddy.com/Notes/Notes.htm

Chuck Walsh wrote:The first run Budds require over shanks, #22/32/42
What I suggest is to just change the lead car that couples to the loco.
http://www.trainbuddy.com/Notes/Notes.htm

Do you have a link with photos?

Sorry no photo link.

I do wish to add that on the first run Walthers Budds The GSA trucks with stub wheels had terrible restricted rolling ability.

I purchased kadee's no. 118 kit. These couplers are awsome. Uncoupling issues are more rare with these as there are metal pieces which restrict the vertical movement of the couplers.

The only problem is that the diaphragms (pre-installed by walthers on the latest Amfleet I, II and Heritage car runs) are too low and prevets lateral movement by the coupler. I have has successfull installation on my older Amfleet models which do not have working diaphragms. Although I installed TSP's Amfleet style diaphragms on the bulkheads, there's more flexibility with diaphragm height and I personally feel my placement of the diaphragm is more accurate than where Walthers installs thier diaphragms.

Any suggestions? These cars couple closely so working diaphragms are needed with these cars.

Kyle,

A friend of mine started installing some #118 couplers on a couple of his Walthers cars recently, and he ran into the same problem as you. However, I would not be so quick to say that the Walthers diaphragms are positioned too low. Looking at some prototype photos, there are only a few inches of clearance between the top of the coupler head and the bottom of the diaphragm. Keep in mind that the #118 couplers represent upper/lower shelf couplers as used on tank cars and other types of freight cars, but not normally on passenger equipment.

If you check Kadee's instructions, there should be a diagram showing how to modify the couplers to represent the Type H tightlock couplers that are standard on passenger cars. This involves grinding off the upper and lower shelves, which of course reduces the couplers' ability to stay together. My friend's solution was a compromise: grind off the upper shelf to prevent interference with the diaphragm, but leave the lower shelf to help with coupling issues.

As side note, I think some people have begun to forget that the two main causes of accidental uncouplings are improper coupler height and uneven trackwork. By adjusting every coupler to match perfectly with Kadee's coupler height guage, and by ensuring that trackwork is smooth and even, you can pretty much solve those problems.

Also, I believe I forgot to mention before that another cause of the coupler height problems on Walthers cars is that there's too much vertical play in the coupler box, so while the box itself may be at the correct height, the couplers droop down because they're not supported well from underneath. What I've done to correct that is just to glue a .010" or .015" styrene shim to the inside of the coupler cover. As you reinstall it, you can tighten the screws so that the coupler is better supported, but make sure the coupler box can still pivot back and forth smoothly.

I guess in the end what it all comes down to is tolerances. The models were designed with the correct coupler height, but through the processes of molding and assembly, they eventually wind up being a little off.

thanks Alex,

I considered that option my self in terms of grinding off the top part of the coupler as well.

I'll have to check the diagram again. I was studying it but for some reason, I was unable to match the illustration with the actual coupler to determine where the modifications had to be made.

You are absolutely right when it comes to coupoling issues. Although I don't think track work has to be perfectly even (vertically) there is a limit to just how un-even your track work can be in terms of how abruptly the level of your track changes. Given the conditions I have to currently work with, these #118 couplers appear to be the best way to go for now and will proove usefull in the future as well.

I usually use #209 washers from Kadee? to reduce vertical play of the couplers. I have purchased a coupler guage at the Amhearst show but have yet to inspect all my cars. I know that even with the couplers positioned properly on the Budd cars, they still appear to sit a bit higher than they should or it's possible that the couplers on the Amlfeets and Viewliners sit lower than they should.