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Kemtron made them in brass a long time ago, in the late 1950s. A long shot but Precisoin Scale might also have them or the parts to make them. They were basially an arch bar truck. A log bracket with a kingpin and a coupler at each end of the bracket sat on top of each truck. Chains were used to tie down the logs. 

 

That way, a string of these trucks by themselves could be moved to a location, separated for loading logs and then coupled together as cars and run in a train. Braking would have been done by hand with crew members as I don't think the disconnects had air brakes on them. But I could be wrong on that too.

Originally Posted by Hot Water:

How about lowering the flat car? Which coupler meets the Kadee height gauge?

Its been a while since I messed with these. The flat cars were a quick and dirty first attempt at kadees and iirc the disconnects are the correct height to a Kadee gauge. Someone suggested smaller diameter wheel sets for the flat cars, haven't got that far yet, to many other projects.

Originally Posted by Hot Water:

,,,,,ALWAYS follow the NMRA coupler height specifications! Invest in a Kadee coupler height gauge ...

Yes!

 

One handy aid in installing Kadees on 3-rail equipment is that the top surface of the Kadee coupler on the Kadee height gauge is just about dead even with the top surface of "most" 3-rail lobster claws.

 

Before beginning a conversion, take a good look at where the top surface of the original "claw" lines up with the car body. That will give you a good starting point for figuring out what shims will be needed when installing the Kadee coupler box to the underframe of the car or engine.

 

But, double-check with that height gauge to check the installation.

 

Jim

Originally Posted by mikeporterinmd:

Would equiping a car with the new o-scale Kadees work?  They have several different models with heads offset in different ways from the shank.  I just ordered a set of each so I can see what is likely to be most useful, when.

 

Mike

Good thought. I'm not aware of all the Kadee configurations, but what I do know is these have to go up and there really doesn't look like a practical way to accomplish that. If they make an "up" offset that would do the trick.

How about lowering the coupler on the flat car?  Or any car that can serve as an idler car between the disconnects and the engine.

 

I recall seeing a picture of a standard gauge car with an "S" shaped casting slipped over its coupler.  It was used to couple standard gauge cars that had their truck replaced with narrow gauge trucks to narrow gauge cars for a trip over narrow gauge tracks.  The casting was used to mate the different sized and different height couplers.  That would be perfect for your application.

 

Jan

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