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 Posted - August 17 2012 : 12:21:04 AM
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which are better for preventing derails.
Couplers attached to the body or attached to the truck.
In some cases have no choice
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Posted - August 17 2012 : 01:29:43 AM
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I myself, prefer attached to the frame/body..... where the longer frames come in, add a longer shank coupler......
HOWEVER, my only exception to this rule, is passenger cars as you will see, when I post the longer ones, they have "talgo" mounted draft gear boxes (attached to the trucks, to aid the swing of the coupler on curves.)
HTH
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid... 
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - August 17 2012 : 7:51:22 PM
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| Truck-mounted couplers are generally better for tight curves. I've had a lot of incidents where a car/engine with a body-mounted coupler will force the car behind it off the rails on a tight curve.
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Posted - August 18 2012 : 12:33:40 AM
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In my experience, truck mounted couplers are a poor choice for making backup moves with a long train through curvy trackwork.
Glenn
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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Posted - August 18 2012 : 04:57:13 AM
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I agree with Glenn! Pushing ANY amount of cars with truck mounted couplers.........SUCK! LOL UNLESS you have them in HO Scale, and have them weighted to 1:87-1 ratio!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - August 18 2012 : 11:55:36 AM
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They both have their flaws. Truck-mounted couplers tend to push the truck off the rail, which is why they are a poor choice when you need to back up a train. Body-mounted couplers are best, except when you are running long (passenger) cars on short-radius curves, then they can pull the cars off. In real life, there are rarely short-radius curves, so this is not a problem. And if you insist on running long passenger cars on 18" curves, then you must expect this to happen. In real life, body-mounted couplers are the only way it can work, as otherwise all the stresses of the consist banging around would be entirely on the truck and attachment points, not a heavily reinforced car frame. Which is why you don't see truck-mounted couplers on 1:1 trains, and why most scale model railroaders would rather use correct style body-mounted couplers. For those cars like Tyco tank cars, where there IS no frame literally to attach the couplers to, you just have to accept that flaw, and either build a frame there to attach it to, or don't use them in situations where you will be constantly derailing and causing other modelers grief at shows and club functions. AFter all, Tyco/Bachmann/LifeLike cars were more or less toy quality, not craft quality, so you either have to invest significant time and effort to upgrade them, or only use them in situations where it won't bother others ( home layout use ). So the choice is basically yours.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - August 21 2012 : 11:14:47 AM
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i have a mix of both. Won't be pushing a long string of cars, don't have any long passenger cars
so guess i'll just stick with what i have and if there is a problem car go from there
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Posted - August 21 2012 : 8:05:30 PM
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Fred,
Whats your longest car? scale feet?
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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