Kadee couplers

Yes, a car with kadee couplers will attach to the Lionel lobster claws. I recently replaced the couplers on my Weaver cars with kadee 805's and I've had no problems. Even the autocouplers hold and release just fine.   If the car has the 700 series kadee couplers, then they will not work. There is something in the shape of the 700 series that prevents them from attaching to Lionel couplers. I put 745'some on some Atlas passenger cars and found that they won't couple to Lionel's. Had to make up a car with Lionel's on one end and kadee 745's on the other.

Thanks for the info 

I highly recommend having a few pairs of transition cars. I started doing this back in 2009 when I started purchasing scale-wheeled diesels almost exclusively. This gives you the flexibility to mix and match cars in longer trains. The video below is a Santa Fe grain train consisting of Atlas 2-rail and 3-rail cars in the train collected over several Atlas releases headed up by a trio of MTH Scale-wheeled C40-8W's. It has a group of 8 hi-rail cars where I converted the first and last in the group to T-cars. You can spot the changes in the video. I also have two sets of MTH Gunderson cars -- each being a transition "car" with a Kadee on one end and a hi-rail coupler on the other. This allows me to run them at the club with either a scale-wheeled or hi-rail power consist up front.

Heck of a nice train Matt. Looks very realistic!

Hudson J1e posted:

Heck of a nice train Matt. Looks very realistic!

Thanks Phil.

At some point I'm going to 2-rail all of the Atlas and Lionel covered hoppers in my collection, which is going to be a tall order. I found that I can squeeze Kadee 745's onto existing Atlas mounts using 2mm screws (the plastic draft boxes have just enough flex to pull it off). The Lionel replacement wheel sets can supposedly be used on all of their cars with the spinning bearing caps.

Just one word of caution.  Kadee couplers will mate with lobster claws in most cases.  However, I have had a few lobster claws that were too wide for the Kadee coupler to mate with.  I wish I could remember the manufacturer. 

Transition cars work great as well to second Matt's comment.

GG1 4877 posted:

Just one word of caution.  Kadee couplers will mate with lobster claws in most cases.  However, I have had a few lobster claws that were too wide for the Kadee coupler to mate with.  I wish I could remember the manufacturer. 

Transition cars work great as well to second Matt's comment.

My recollection is that it was some of the K-Line hi-rail couplers. In the photo below, the last car in the string is an FRED-equipped MTH ACF 2-bay hi-rail car coupled to an 805-equipped 2-rail converted Lionel 65'6" gondola with Kadee 805's (I ran out of 740's). I've also since fixed the lead gondola by putting on the correct truck cross bars to set it to the correct height.

Matt- thought I was watching a real freight train for a second.  Sure beats the old toy train look with Plasticvile buildings. Is this your club’s layout or your own? 

Never heard of a transition car. Can you explain what exactly it is? Where do you’ve get it? 

yanksali posted:

Matt- thought I was watching a real freight train for a second.  Sure beats the old toy train look with Plasticvile buildings. Is this your club’s layout or your own? 

Never heard of a transition car. Can you explain what exactly it is? Where do you’ve get it? 

Thanks. That's the Angels Gate Hi-Railers club layout in San Pedro (Los Angeles).

Basically, a "transition car" is a modified car (2-rail or 3-rail) that has a Kadee coupler installed on one end and a hi-rail coupler on the other. It can be any type of car - freight, passenger, or even a locomotive if you're game for the modifications. Atlas cars are good candidates because the ride height on the car is pretty close on both the hi-rail and scale-wheel versions and you can take the hi-rail couplers off the 3-rail trucks pretty easily.

The only restriction is that you have to observe the curve restrictions of 2-rail equipment -- i.e., if the car calls for 36" radius for a 2-rail version you can only run it on O-72 or larger curves. Also, you want to use flat-top rail (Gargraves, Atlas, MTH). FasTrack can be used with some caution as has a more rounded rail head, but not as round as basic tubular track.