@Strummer posted:Those are all very nice; how did you manage to get a Kadee into the K5 pilot!?!
Mark in Oregon
Hi Mark, first let me ask you, where in Maine is your brother? Turns out there are several Mainers on this list, Gunny comes to mind.
Then to the K5. IIRC I bought a repo pilot from Doug Peck so I wouldn’t destroy the original. I started out drilling the K5 coupler pocket out along with the cast fake coupler. Then enlarged the opening by filing until I could insert a Kadee #5 draft gear box from the outside. The lip on the box acts as a stop on the outside of the pilot. Again, IIRC, I made a pad with JB Weld to seat the draft gear box on the inside. I can’t tell now because our very own Jerry Poniatowski did a custom PRR repaint for me and he painted the underside of the pilot. In hindsight, I don’t know why I just didn’t use a slab of styrene, I’m sure that would have worked just as well. In the pix from the outside you can see the hole I drilled and tapped for a 4-40 screw to mount the coupler.
The underside pix shows the coupler mounted. I did some filing of the box so the pilot truck wheels would clear while negotiating Flyer radii. I believe I used a medium overset shank, # 42, in the #5 family but it cold be the #49 long, overset shank. I did this in 2001, so please forgive my lack of recollection.
I did a similar conversion to the Flyonel Mikado. It was a little more work, but not bad.
Tom Stoltz
in Maine