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 Posted - September 28 2006 : 9:14:22 PM
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A couple of the Tyco train cars that I bought used, have had kadee couplers installed on them. Most of my Tycos have the old horn hook couplers on them so I cannot run all my Tyco stuff together. The new couplers were put on by glueing the piece needed to mount kadee couplers onto the old part were the horn hooks originally were. Anyone know what the easiest way to put horn hook couplers back on them is??
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Posted - September 28 2006 : 9:24:12 PM
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If they're glued well, you'll probably destroy the coupler pockets trying to remove them, and then you'll really be in for a world 'o hurt.
Also note, that not all horn-hooks fit Tyco pockets. Bachmann, Lifelike and Tycos will swap, but the more plentiful Athearn, Atlas, et als won't.
What I would do, is swap trucks and make some "transition" cars with Horn-hooks on one end, Kadees on the other. I had to do this when I'd amassed quite a fleet of hornhook cars and couldn't afford to Kadee them all in one swoop. If you have enough transition cars (3 or 4), you should be able to mix-and-match your whole fleet of rolling stock into a train at will.
Kadees are a much better choice in the long run. I've also converted Tyco talgo trucks to kadee simply by inserting the brass centering plate and coupler right in the pocket without gluging it in. It's loose, but it works - and I can revert back to horn hooks in a snap should the need arise. And I don't need to hunt down Kadee's kit made specifically for that purpose either.
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Posted - September 29 2006 : 11:32:28 AM
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Transition cars:
The recommendation of GoingInCirclz to employ "transition cars" is absolutely spot-on in your situation, I think. A further suggestion would be to employ an old Triang-made car as distributed in the sixties and seventies thru ATT or Model Power in the U.S. and Canada. The ATT and Model Power distributed Triang-made cars have the further advantage of easily transitioning between horn/hook and Hornby/Triang style couplers which are found everywhere north of the border. My Wisconsin layout is a loosely defined CNW, Soo, Grand Trunk, CN, CP sort of concoction so I added a few horn-hook-to-Hornby transition cars (so-to-speak) just to add the British-made cars to the freight and passenger runs.
Most commonly encountered of the ATT cars, in my experience, is the pulpwood car, a most compatible running partner with Tyco's easily obtainable SRR and GN pulpwood cars and an excellent candidate for Triang transition.
Magnolia Academy
The only wrinkle is going to be wheel flange incompatibility of really old Triang cars to lower-than-code-100 rail but the rail you described in your earlier mails should be ok.
Of course, you could just locate Hornby/Triang rail which, in Canada, should also be available in quantity and is an excellent product.
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Posted - September 29 2006 : 3:12:54 PM
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| I do have a couple of cars that are transitions, but I want to try and keep my Tyco's in their original condition. I've got an amtrak GG1 and the streamlined observation car but the car has kadee and the engine horn hook. If I find the cars that go with this I don't really wanna switch the coupler on one of them. Is their any liquid that will dissolve glue so i can get the new couplers off?
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Posted - September 29 2006 : 3:19:50 PM
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The is a product I have used called Jet DeSolv. Comes in a small applicator bottle with a brown label. Works great on CA and plastic cement, but it strips paint like nothing else I've seen too so be careful.
If you do end up hacking your trucks, take solace in ebay... many sellers will ship to canada and there's plenty of Tyco available.
You could also convert one end of the GG1 to kadee... ironically, you couldn't ask for a better engine to do that to!
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Posted - September 29 2006 : 5:00:30 PM
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| Converting the coupler at one end is a good idea, but i like to keep my stuff as original as possible. And though that would work, if I ever find the other matching cars, they may have the old horhooks on them. Then I still wouldn't be able to run the whole train.
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