[Guest]

Ted,
You can use a kadee #787 thats a g scale coupler on your GP-40 its the same as an sd 45. also if you want to try out kadees you can make a transision car with a kadee on one end and a aristo coupler on the other until you convert more of your fleet to kadees.....

Welcome to the world of flawless car operations...

Nick

 

[Ted Doskaris]

Nick,

Thanks for your help and encouragement and particularly for the coupler number.

I would prefer not to have a transition car with different couplers on it.
In this regard, I have read that some folks say the kadee coupler will mate with Aristo's standard knuckle coupler and some say they won't.


I also understand that there is a kadee gauge of sorts that is used as a reference to determine the proper coupler installation height above the rail head. Do you know the part number of this item, too?


I am willing to give the kadees a try.

I usually do these kind of tasks during the rainy season, so I could order a few sample parts. Of course, converting to body mounts vs. truck mounts will be another issue, too.


The first thing I want to do is to see for myself if the kadee will couple to the Aristo coupler. Then see what the kadee coupler will pull apart at under a measured / destructive stress load.


Before I ever get involved with the expense and time to mass convert well over 300 items - I want to be damn sure it's all worth it.


-Ted

 

[Rookwood Central]

Am I the only person who has standardised on Bachmann Knuckle couplers? With over 100 items of rolling stock, I have retrofitted Bachmann Knuckles to all other manufacturers equipment, Aristocraft, USA Trains and LGB, with great success, virtually no unintentional uncoupling. And as for remote uncoupling, the LGB Manual ot Electronic uncouplers work great with Bachmnann Knuckles. Granted Kadees work great, but Bachmann is more economical, I have run trains up to 40 vehicles with no uncouplings enroute.

 

[Ted Doskaris]

As to the the only person who has standardised on Bachmann Knuckle couplers? Maybe not as respondents to this thread have mostly been with respect to its subject, "Kadee Couplers vs. Aristocraft".

Until recently (since Aristo came out with the GP40s) I was reasonably happy with Aristo's standard knuckle couplers. I had found that on my layout- that is very circuitous - the couplers would typically begin to distort and pull apart (not unlatch) with about a 45 car or greater train consisting of Aristo 100 ton hoppers. (With layouts having more straights - a much larger train size should work.)


I wrote an article about it that is hosted on Greg's web site at the below link
"Aristo-Craft knuckle coupler tests & a test train"
http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mainmenu-27/ted-doskaris-vignettes-mainmenu-157/aristo-knuckle-coupler-tests-mainmenu-206


But it now seems Aristo's quality has retrograded such that the couplers are inconsistent in performance, and that is why I am now considering an alternative.


-Ted

 

[aceinspp]

Well I will not desert the AC coupler and have installed there coupler on every car that I have. It's now to great of an expense to think about even the 100 cars I have. Ted you expense now be comes a burden as far as I'm concerned. Later RJD

 

[Ted Doskaris]

RJ,

Yes it is an expensive burden (and worse, time consuming to retrofit everyting) - but I have not yet decided to go the kadee route yet.

I merely want to try and test them at this time. If it turns out kadees would pull apart not much differently than Aristo's - or if they are inconsistent, I won't use them.


-Ted

 

[Guest]

Posted By aceinspp on 11/13/2008 3:28 PM
Well I will not desert the AC coupler and have installed there coupler on every car that I have. It's now to great of an expense to think about even the 100 cars I have. Ted you expense now be comes a burden as far as I'm concerned. Later RJD


Not expensive at all, sell your old couplers to pay for the new ones...

by the way a little birdy told me you have a lot more than a 100 cars sir.....

Nick...

 

[Guest]

Ted.
The guage you need is a kadee #880 i wil try to snap a few pictures of my sd-45 w/kadees next too a aristo car with there couplers for you to look at, may save you a couple of bucks if you dont like the looks. this weekend i had a chance to run my bigboy for the 1st time with 53 cars on tight curves, never had a problem running or backing the train all day. thats the only reason why i use them. they really do work well..and in my opinion they are worth the extra $ the keep the cars going..but thats only me, others may have good luck with other brand couplers i havent....Also when you buy kadees in bulk you get a much better price, i try to buy 40 to 50 at a time and i get them for well under 5.00 each pr.
Nick...

 

[aceinspp]

Hay Nick: Maybe you could float a loan to to Ted to do the conversions.

. He has lots of cars as I do but as I mentioned I'll stick it out as I do not run more than 30 cars at a time. Later RJD

 

[Guest]

Here you go Ted, some pictures for you. i does appear that a kadee will hook up with a aristo coupler!!!! go figure...

Nick...

 

[Ted Doskaris]

Thanks Nick,

That looks encouraging.

Have you tried to pull a train with that kadee & Aristo coupler combination to see if the couplers will not separate - including going around curved track?

-Ted

 

[altterrain]

Posted By Ted Doskaris on 11/14/2008 11:05 PM
Thanks Nick,

That looks encouraging.

Have you tried to pull a train with that kadee & Aristo coupler combination to see if the couplers will not separate - including going around curved track?

-Ted




Yes, the Aristo/Kadee combination works fine. A railway I visit for running ops has only Kadees and I can hook up and pull cars all around without a problem.


-Brian

 

[Guest]

Posted By Ted Doskaris on 11/14/2008 11:05 PM
Thanks Nick,

That looks encouraging.

Have you tried to pull a train with that kadee & Aristo coupler combination to see if the couplers will not separate - including going around curved track?

-Ted





Ted,
no i never tried to pull cars with aristo couplers only because usually no one including my self ever has any, we convert them rite away, but the car you see in the photo was a ebay buy for 25.00 w/metal wheels and i havent figured out yet how to mount kadees on it. Last weekend though we did a train show and i ran my bigboy with kadees and a large train and they performed perfect in forward and reverse......
Nick

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I tested my E8s and several other Aristo locos with the Aristo couplers before conversions. All the rest of my cars and locos were Kadees. No problems other than occasionally the Aristo loco had a slightly different height centerline.

Regards, Greg

 

[aceinspp]

Shame on you Nick for not converting car before putting in train.

Kadee has now banned you from converting any more cars. HeHe. Later RJD

 

[aceinspp]

Shame on you Nick for not converting car before putting in train.

Kadee has now banned you from converting any more cars. HeHe. Later RJD

 

[Sourdoh]

I use Accucraft couplers and have no trouble at all. I think they look better than Kadees. When I was in HO I used Kadees exclusively. When I switched to 1:20.3 I bought some AMS rolling stock and liked the Accucraft couplers looks. I tried them out and they were operationally good, so I never converted to Kadee. I bought Accucraft couplers for my Bachmann locos as well and almost never lose a string of cars. If I do, it's usually due to track issues.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

They are nice looking couplers, but of course the thread is about Kadee vs. Aristocraft.

Another issue that is often overlooked, I have never seen a weatherproof uncoupler for Aristo couplers. I have heard about and seen a picture of an LGB uncoupler, but not weather proof as far as I can tell.

Has anyone had experience remotely uncoupling Aristo couplers?

Regards, Greg

 

[Dan Pierce]

I have no experience with uncoupling the Aristo knuckle remotely, but their site says the LGB remote unit will do this.

 

[Tom Thornton]

Hi Ted I use a mix of Aristo and KD. They work well together. My layout is small with ten foot curves and I like the KD body mount so I can back twenty car trains into the yard. I will some day have all KDs but together they work fine.Why not mix the two for now with the KDs in the front of the train and the Aristos on the back. Tom Thornton