Coupler conversion cars....who uses them?

I do!  I have a Marx #333 and a milk car from my dad (papa) when he was a kid, and when I run them at Christmas time, I use a transition car to pull some modern rolling stock as well.

 

Thanks,

Mario

This is as old as the hills.  Since I was a child I used conversion to make Lionel trains of pre war tinplate cars equipped with old style box style couplers and post war knuckle couplers.  As I moved on to HO I used conversion cars to make trains with X2F, Kadee and dummy couplers.  I used conversion cars in N scale too to make trains including cars with Rapido couplers and Kaydee couplers.  The only drawback is that you are somewhat limited in the order of the cars in your trains.   Odd-d 

Lionel made an adapter for prewar couplers and postwar knuckle couplers.

I use one so I can run MTH/Lionel with my Lima O gauge British outline trucks.

James

I do not do it with "O" scale but with HO and N it is almost a necessity. Don

I use a slightly different type of conversion car where I have a mini rare earth magnet attached to one end of a postwar gondola and another rare earth magnet attached to a latch type coupler that is on a caboose. This setup works very well, unless you do an abrupt acceleration, which will cause the cars to pull apart.

 

*By the way this only worked well for me because the load was very light and wouldn't work for more than one light weight car at the end of the train. The caboose was an ideal candidate as it was the only latch type coupler car I own and it was light weight tin.

 

As Don mentioned it is almost a necessity to have a transition conversion car on my N scale layout as I have a lot of Rapido couplers and Kadee couplers to connect together as well.

If you run Marx trains, you probably already know that their tab/slot couplers will mate with their plastic knuckles and their plastic tilt couplers.  I discovered it when I bought some modern Marx with tab/slots to run with my William Crooks equipment.

 

We have at least one Marx car with a Lionel compatible knuckle on one end.  I also have a couple of AF S gauge cars I've converted from link to knuckle on one end.

 

Ron

I have several "Sc out" cars and had no way to enjoy them,  sooo I put a scout truck on a hopper and now I have 15 scouts behind a loaded hopper for a pair of alcos to drag aROUND THE PIKE.

 

Another way to skin a cat and I have 14 barn cats too, no mice though,,,,wonder why.

 

Rod

I have several conversion cars.  Adds flexibility to your consists.

Marx also made a Lionel-compatible conversion knuckle coupler in the early fifties that fit onto their tab-and-slot.

I use Atlas track and run both cars with regular claw and Kadee couplers on my layout.  I use transition cars with a claw and one end and a Kadee at the other all the time.  It works well even with passenger cars.  My minimum radius is O-72.

 

Most of my cars with Kadee couplers also have scale wheels.  The Kadees are body mounted.  I find that the Kadee coupler equipped cars are better for switching.  

 

A typical train will have the engine followed by a car with claw couplers at both ends, followed by a transition car, followed by a series of cars with scale wheels and Kadees at both ends, followed by a transition car, followed by a caboose.  I haven't gotten around to converting my caboose fleet to Kadee couplers yet.  I eventually plan to have a Kadee on one end of the caboose and a claw on the other end.

 

Joe

As noted above, Marx made a conversion coupler....for myself, to use my kitbashed

Marx #1829 Mikado to pull either tilt/fork Marx coupler rolling stock, or Lionel compatible, I added a Weaver Lionel compatible knuckle coupler to the 1829's plastic tender's (itself kitbashed into a Vanderbilt) rear truck "inside", and just swivel the truck to pull trains of Marx or L.C. cars, as the mood strikes.

If you use Kadee 805's, dont need a transition car, the claw will stay coupled to the Kadee. The 700 series, not so well without modifying the Kadee just a bit on the knuckle itself.

You mainly need a transition car for H.O. anymore with the newer style Kadee couplers to hook couplers.

Not sure if you need a transition car for O gauge or that it would look good in O gauge, as it would need pre-war coupler on one end and current knuckle style coupler on the other end. Also might get expensive to make a transtion car as pre-war parts are rather high in price or were the last time I bought any.

 

Lee Fritz

I use a transition car for my K-line ore/mine cars. They came in a set and have Kadees on them. Easier to make a transition car than change all of the other couplers, besides those tiny cars would look funny with the oversize O gauge couplers. I suspect that the three rail scale guys do this (transition cars) a lot.

 

Mike

I have several - one with a Lionel type knuckle coupler at one end and a Kadee at the other so I can run a really nice 2 rail brass caboose on my 3-rail layout, and I forget how many ETS gondolas with various combinations of U.S. and Euro couplers. I also have an ETS Swiss Crocodile with a Lionel type knuckle coupler at one end and an ETS coupler at the other. Since the Croc is totally double-ended, this lets me pull almost any of my ETS cars with the same locomotive.