This is something that came up in another group so I'm going to document my adapter couplers that allow me to run trains of different types together.
First is a modified 2226W tender. I added a postwar drawbar to the front of the tender. This allows me to pull prewar cars with latch and box couplers with postwar steam locomotives.
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This is a prewar 800 series freight car. The MPC coupler is trimmed and screwed to the car with a 2-56 x 1" machine screw. I drill a hole through the thumbtack actuator and use the hole it snaps into to attach the coupler. The coupler pocket needs to be trimmed to make coupler fit. The coupler has to be shimmed to the proper height.
This is the Marx E7. You need to make a bracket of 0.03" x 0.5 brass stock that is attached to the coupler mounting hole in the front truck of the dummy A. This is bent to fit and a dummy coupler is attached in front of the pilot using a 2-56 x 1/2" machine screw. The coupler needs to be trimmed to approximately 3/4" from the front of the knuckle.
I modify my Marx E7s to add an on-off switch to the E unit.
A 480-25 coupler will fit on Marx 4 wheel trucks.
Prewar 3/16" Flyer tender. Cut off the front truck rivet and replace the drawbar with a postwar style drawbar. That way you can use a locomotive like an Industrial Rail Atlantic or a Marx/K-Line 333 Pacific to pull Flyer. The Atlas (Industrial Rail) Atlantic is 3/16" scale but O gauge and is shown with a repainted Flyer tender. This is a compatible locomotive with modern features.
Adapter car to allow my scale Lionel Hudson to pull 3/16" Flyer cars. This is a retrucked S scale car with a prewar truck at one end and a prewar truck with an S knuckle coupler at the other. Flyer S knuckles couple with Lionel knuckles.
Black 783 Hudson with a prewar Vanderbuilt tender pulling Lionel 1600 series lithographed freight cars. The stock car is a replica. The Vanderbuilt tender has a front drawbar.
@cbq9911a posted:Black 783 Hudson with a prewar Vanderbuilt tender pulling Lionel 1600 series lithographed freight cars. The stock car is a replica. The Vanderbuilt tender has a front drawbar.
Nice! Your illusion would be really convincing if you modified your 783 by substituting a 785-style chassis with open-spoke drivers and nickel rims! You would lose magnetraction, but it would better resemble a prewar loco.
Nice to see the creative side of the hobby. I did a similar thing in my youth. I had some used Lionel I received as a gift and also came across a batch of Marx plastic cars with the tilt couplers (garage sale). Obviously, couldn't pull the Marx cars with the Lionel engine -- solution, replace one truck/coupler on a Marx gondola with a Lionel truck/coupler and then I had a transition car. A happy kid could run a long train with both Lionel and Marx cars.
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