Fitting Kadee couplings to IRM ballast wagons

[StevieB]

Have I seen somewhere that, because the NEM box is placed higher on the chassis than normal to allow all the lovely detail to show, the recommended way of fitting Kadee is to glue them to the underside of the NEM box? Do Kadee not do cranked versions of the coupling to deal  with this? My trials to date indicate that the no 18 is the right one to use reduce the distance between wagons to a manageable amount. Does anyone else agree with this?

Stephen

[Warbonnet]

3 minutes ago, StevieB said:

Have I seen somewhere that, because the NEM box is placed higher on the chassis than normal to allow all the lovely detail to show, the recommended way of fitting Kadee is to glue them to the underside of the NEM box? Do Kadee not do cranked versions of the coupling to deal  with this? My trials to date indicate that the no 18 is the right one to use reduce the distance between wagons to a manageable amount. Does anyone else agree with this?

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

This is correct, there is a bar running across one end of the ballast and bubble which is on the prototype. This sits right here the pocket needs to go for correct NEM placement, so we came up with the cranked tension lock compromise. 

As far as I am aware, there is not a cranked Kadee. However, we did some experiments and this is what we came up for people wishing to have Kadees at correct height placement. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/ballast-bubble-differences-in-coupling-height-and-solutions/

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Fran

[StevieB]

Fran

Thanks for that.

Stephen

[BosKonay]

Hi Stephen

just to add that you can use 18’s as they are in the pockets in the rake. You only need to worry about the crank when coupling to a loco or non cranked item. 

[StevieB]

Looking at the Kadee website, they do a range where the coupling head is fitted at different levels relative to the shank which attaches to the wagon body. They’re not NEM though.

Stephen

[KenmareD]

Sticking Kaydees to the NEM box seems to be the answer. I'll try it.

[mmie353]

Is there a chance that the link posted by Fran above can get fixed? I am getting to finally having a layout going and as I have an order in, I am thinking of at some point putting kadees on my stock

[Noel]

9 minutes ago, mmie353 said:

Is there a chance that the link posted by Fran above can get fixed? I am getting to finally having a layout going and as I have an order in, I am thinking of at some point putting kadees on my stock

This might help. It was a very easy fit with no 18s. I’m a bit pedantic about all my stock having kadee’s at correct magnet height and so Different stock can inter operate and couple up together.