JAD Hiawatha coaches randomly uncouple

John,

Try moving the vestibules around and changing their position. This way you can isolate whether it is the vestibule or the car connection. I'm guessing the tab on the car connector needs some adjusting.

ARNO

I have that problem with mine as well, on the Hiawatha, City of Denver, and the Rail Chief sets.  It seemed to me that the problem was the coil spring in the vestibule that pushes the disc into place when they are coupled. The spring seemed very weak.  I replaced with a stiffer spring and they seem to be holding together better.  FWIW.  IMHO. YMMV.

david

Thanks Arno & David--I figured you 2 would be first to reply. Everything looks to hold together tightly but now that you mention it, the springs seem to be a bit weak. Right now I'm just doing test-runs with the loco and 2 coaches to make sure everything clears before I secure my track to the benchwork. If my Hiawatha and State sets clear, everything else I have should be no problem. I'll try switching out the vestibules a well to see if that makes a difference.

Layout construction is moving along!!

Thanks again. Hope to see both of you at York.

Hi, my name is Sean and my Dad Richard was one of the partners of JAD, J is for John (Daniel)-A is for Art (Varney) and D is for Dick (Richard Battaglia).  My Dad was the last remaining partner of JAD and sadly passed last year and I may be doing something with the brand in the future but in the meantime I was going to suggest a stiffer spring as well as if it iwas the original spring it will be really weak by now as I have some with the original spring and not sure we can call it a spring any longer. 

If I can help anyone out please let me know.  Thanks

Hi Sean,

Thanks for the reply. You and I spoke on the phone about a year ago--you may recall I told you I have a JAD Hiawatha poster autographed by your Dad. Time to have it framed so I can hang it in my train room.

Son_OF_JAD posted:

Hi, my name is Sean and my Dad Richard was one of the partners of JAD, J is for John (Daniel)-A is for Art (Varney) and D is for Dick (Richard Battaglia).  My Dad was the last remaining partner of JAD and sadly passed last year and

Sean,

Thanks for the info, but you have left off one of the partners on your list, JAD Railway Lines was comprised of 4 partners.

ARNO

Finally got around to replacing the springs last night. Stronger springs did the trick. Thanks guys!!

Thanks for the update, good to know you have them working again.  That coupling system is certainly NOT among my favorite things in tinplate. Beautiful design, elegant in construction, but arbitrary and capricious in terms of actual functioning. My JAD M10000 and I are currently not speaking to each other.

david

hojack posted:

Thanks for the update, good to know you have them working again.  That coupling system is certainly NOT among my favorite things in tinplate. Beautiful design, elegant in construction, but arbitrary and capricious in terms of actual functioning. My JAD M10000 and I are currently not speaking to each other.

david

If the silent treatment continues, I'd be glad to discuss giving your M10000 a new home!!

BlueComet400 posted:

hojack posted:

Thanks for the update, good to know you have them working again.  That coupling system is certainly NOT among my favorite things in tinplate. Beautiful design, elegant in construction, but arbitrary and capricious in terms of actual functioning. My JAD M10000 and I are currently not speaking to each other.

david

If the silent treatment continues, I'd be glad to discuss giving your M10000 a new home!!

If your M10000 won't talk to Bluecomet400, I'll be glad to try -- I think I have the "gift of gab"!

It's sitting on a shelf and looking very smug with itself for winning the last round.  Little does it know...

Should have listened to Arno and waited for a Jerry Brown.

d

Well if it runs worse than the Hiawatha, I can understand why you're at odds with it. My JAD Hiawatha runs ok--not great. The motor in the loco is loud, and I can tell the 4 cars put a real strain on it. However, given the small number that were produced, I still feel very fortunate to own one. And, the one I bought in 2004 happens to be the exact same Hiawatha that caught my attention as a kid back in the late 70's. Just goes to show, it's not just the trains, but the stories and the great people you meet along the way, that make this a great hobby. 

BlueComet400 posted:

 given the small number that were produced, I still feel very fortunate to own one. ..., it's not just the trains, but the stories and the great people you meet along the way, that make this a great hobby. 

That's the whole story, and what makes collecting fun.  And my protestations about the JAD M10000 are somewhat tongue-in-cheek; it isn't truly evil, after all.  Unlike the JAD Hiawatha that at least has a "real" motor (Build-a-loco), the M10000 has a little-trolley-motor-sort-of-thing that can't pull it around my layout. That and the diabolical-vestibule-coupler-apparatus. I keep threatening to one day motorize all the vestibule trucks and couple all the parts together more permanently.  But this one is reputed to have come from John Daniels' personal collection, so in a way I'm reluctant to muck with it.  So on the shelf it sits, looking sleek, a reminder of what could be.  I have an image of Russ McFall's Jerry Brown City of Denver just gliding around his layout, and it's one of the neatest things I've seen.  Always good to be inspired.

d