Kadee on Lionel

Morning Clem.

I have looked at doing this myself, unfortunately until recently, Lionel cars seem to be the hardest to upgrade to Kaydees.

You physically have to take the trucks off, cut the coupler mount off with a cutting tool.

Then build a pad on the body of the car to mount the Kadee too.

Not sure if there is a O gauge coupler height gauge to verify all couplers are at the same height. In HO they are really helpful.

 

As J Daddy stated above, the Lionel freight cars are generally the most difficult to up-grade to Kadee couplers.

 

However, since you inquired specifically about a Legacy steam locomotive model, I found that neither my UP FEF-3 nor my SP GS-4 tenders were all that difficult to up-grade to Kadee couplers. The most time consuming part was CAREFULLY digging out the wires for the electro-coupler, finding which plug to unplug, then feeding the electro-coupler wires down through the center bolster of the rear truck assembly. The removing the electro-coupler assembly from that rear truck, and maybe cutting off the diecast mount on the truck for the electro-coupler.

 

Actually mounting the Kadee on the rear was simply a matter of measuring for the correct shim thickness (use the Kadee coupler height gauge for this), then drilling and taping the 2-56 mounting holes for the Kadee gearbox.

Thank you

 

That was the answer I needed. sounds like I can do this without any cosmetic changes to tender, might even be able to change back if I want to.

 

Clem 

"You physically have to take the trucks off, cut the coupler mount off with a cutting tool.

Then build a pad on the body of the car to mount the Kadee too.

Not sure if there is a O gauge coupler height gauge to verify all couplers are at the same height. In HO they are really helpful."

 

  IIRC they make an O version but if one wants to save the money and time spent looking for one it's a simple matter to construct one using the height dimension given in the Kadee package instructions. Just roll the car up to the gauge and see if the mounting pad area is too high or too low or hopefully close enough. Here's one sitting on N scale track( about where my old O track once ran):> ........DaveB

 

I recently put a Kadee on my Legacy Cab Forward. It wasn't that difficult at all. I have also converted my 3rd Rail brass engines. Its just a matter of building a mounting pad to get the Kadee to the correct height.

The tenders are not all identical, but the concept is the same. Yes the truck had to be removed to get to the claw and pull the harness out for the electro coupler. I then used some black RTV to seal up the hole where the roller pick up wires come up through the frame. Maybe you could just cut everything off from the bottom, but that's not how I do things. I like neat and tidy, like it came from the factory that way  

 

Here's the Legacy AC12:

 

 

This is actually much easier than a diesel conversion because there are no steps to build a spacer around.

 

That's a 740 coupler with the draft gear ground down for clearance as I show in one of the Kadee Coupler videos I've done. The coupler only screws to the pad, and then the outer holes on the pad mount the pad to the tender. That keeps the mounting screw far enough back to go into the frame of the tender and not through the step on the back.

 

Not any more!

 

 

 

I had a thread a while back on converting a Legacy 0-8-0. I like working with brass and solder 2 pieces to form a T. This allows you to mount it to the steel floor with an offset that clears the tender shell. The thread has more how to info. A few pics to show how it's done. Pretty much the way Laidoffsick showed but in brass.

 

 

 

Good evening

 

Wow thanks for all the information. I have one more issue to deal with before I do the Kadee conversion, hope to do this tomorrow.

 

Thanks