Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Another one bites the dust


Kadees
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
I forgot to mention another model railway project kicking around the workbench when I listed them a couple of days ago.

For months there has been a pair of On3 (I think; what we call O16.5) wagons built from kits awaiting couplings starring at me. I kept planning to get around to them but instead something got in the way. The wagons have had to be dusted a few times so they really would be better finished and in a box.

Last night I finally got on with it. The couplings fitted are Kadees which I was given by someone who fancied using them on his wartime layout and then decided they would be too much work. All I had to do was superglue them in the right spot under the buffer beam.

Kadees are notorious for being fiddly to fit. I think you are supposed to use gauges and stuff to get them right. I don’t have a gauge so I just checked they would couple with the loco (a Bachmann 0-4-2) and each other. Not sure if this will be good enough for curved track, but as they don’t have a layout nor any prospect of one in the near future, this isn’t going to worry me.

I was amazed at the engineering in such small and relatively cheap items. They are proper fully working knuckle couplings as fitted to American railways. Far more sophisticated than the traditional UK tension lock beast.

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