Folks. I received a Lionel legacy sd60 with Kadees already installed.
There is a huge gap because of the missing electro coupler. Can anyone point me toward something that will fill the gap?
i like the kadees. They appear to be mounted to a metal tab on the truck. Does anyone know if this is something Lionel includes with certain legacy engines or Woul
d that be something someone modified and added.
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David,
Fill the gap with sheet styrene and paint. It looks like the Kadee might have been mounted to the three-rail coupler mount. I don’t know about the SD60M, but I removed a part like that from the pilot on my SD45s when mounting Kadees. Those came with a die cast mounting pad to substitute in for scale couplers, but I felt they extended too far outside the pilot so I fabricated my own mounts from sheet styrene and then filled the gap around them. (See below). It all depends on how elaborate one wants to get in simulating the real thing. When I mount Kadees I try as hard as I can to get the “look” of the real thing and locate them on the pilot accordingly. One of the original ideas of “Three Rail Scale” was to make three rail equipment indistinguishable from their two-rail counterparts save maybe the wheels. At any rate, I’m glad you like the Kadees. Electro-couplers are vastly overrated anyway....
Merry Christmas,
RM
@Rich Montague posted:David,
Fill the gap with sheet styrene and paint. It looks like the Kadee might have been mounted to the three-rail coupler mount. I don’t know about the SD60M, but I removed a part like that from the pilot on my SD45s when mounting Kadees. Those came with a die cast mounting pad to substitute in for scale couplers, but I felt they extended too far outside the pilot so I fabricated my own mounts from sheet styrene and then filled the gap around them. (See below). It all depends on how elaborate one wants to get in simulating the real thing. When I mount Kadees I try as hard as I can to get the “look” of the real thing and locate them on the pilot accordingly. One of the original ideas of “Three Rail Scale” was to make three rail equipment indistinguishable from their two-rail counterparts save maybe the wheels. At any rate, I’m glad you like the Kadees. Electro-couplers are vastly overrated anyway....
Merry Christmas,
RM
Rich, Great work on the SD45!
David,
I know the new Lionel SD60M’s weren’t intended to have Kadee mounts and spacers, unlike the SD40’s and SD38’s, but like Rich said the plastic and paint technique should fill the gap just fine since you’re already halfway there.
These engines have floating pilots, too, (not kinematic pilots like the SD40 and SD38) so you can use the plastic to help fix the pilots if desired.
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