Something similar happened in O scale, where Pat Mucci at P&D wanted a closer
couplingbetween units for his EMD F's, hence the #804, which is very handy for
other applicationssuch as steam locomotive pilots. Except apparently he was
more persuasive with Kadee.I've only been on the sidelines as purely a
consumer, but I've heard of other instances whereKadee does what they want and
everyone else can just deal with it.While I am sure the coarse-thread 0-80
screws included with #802's have their uses, I tend touse the 1.4mm (I think,
unless they are 1.6) screws included with SHS cars and locomotives(at least the
more recent ones--I think the earliest cars I've acquired didn't have them).
Forother manufacturers, such as AM, I take the extra trouble to drill and tap
for real 0-80 screws.
Jace Kahn
General Manager
Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co.
Dear Jace, Not really. I know I have told this story in the past. When we
got the general arrangement drawings of our F3s (maybe 15 or so years ago), the
first thing that jumped out was that the units were way to far apart. I told
our project manager in Hong Kong, that these needed to be a scale distance
apart. That is when we learned that the KD802 coupler box would interfere with
the trucks. As we looked further into this, we discovered that is a problem in
HO and the solution is the KD30 (I think I got this number correct) coupler and
coupler box that allows for closer coupling. I knew Larry Edwards, then owner
of Kadee. I called and begged him to make us this coupler using the KD802
coupler with a expanded KD30 coupler box that was cored to the KD802 coupler
box screw spacing. I told him we would order 3,000 to start and would need
more for the F7s. Also that these couplers could be used for the AM FP7s.
Larry said that he was not interested in another S scale coupler. I told him
is he did not, we would be forced to make them and I was not interested in
competing with KD for the S Scale coupler market, my argument fell on deaf
ears. So, we designed and produced this coupler for our F3s. When the final
drawings were being prepared for the ore car is when the 01295 was conceived as
the same problems of the KD802 coupler box hitting the truck of the ore car.
We learned a lot with our F3 coupler, we had them seal the coupler box so that
it would not fall apart when the screws were taken out. We had the shot in
rust color plastic and blistered them in 2 pair packages. Our open top hoppers
and square hatch steam era covered hopper's bolster was designed to accept
these couplers with no spacer. If we produce another freight car, they would
be designed to use these.DonPS Someone mentioned the extra screws now includes
with KD802/808 couplers. We lobbied Larry for 5 years for this change as the
long screws would either pop the internal weight of the PS2 covered hoppers of
core the holes once the end of the screw touched the steel weight. At that
time we were selling tons of the KD802s every year...
Jace wrote:
Perhaps Don Thompson will weigh in with the definitive answer, but my
recollection is thatthe SHS couplers were specifically designed for the ore
cars.
