PS-1 Conversion Sunday

Nice looking work there Mario, were those done with the spacers you made?

mike g. posted:

Nice looking work there Mario, were those done with the spacers you made?

They were, with an experimental design that I was testing.  It did not perform as designed, BTW...

Thanks.

- Mario

They still turned out looking very nice!

I have thought about converting some of my scale equipment to kadee couplers.  I like the way your PS1 boxcars turned out. The questions I have what number Kadee couplers do you use?  Do they come with screws to mount them?  Did you make your own spacers?  What do you use for the spacers?  I would like to convert my PS1's and other cars but I am freaked out that I will ruin them.

If your freaked out you should watch some of the videos. Mario has some and so does Laidoffsick on youtube.

Excellent job Mario! 

If your going to add kadees, I hope you will take the next step and add scale wheels. I attach my 805s with a wood spacer so as to have the lip of the coupler pocket fit flush on the car. It makes the couplers a tiny bit high, but eventually will lower all the bodies on their trucks.

dandeo50 posted:

I have thought about converting some of my scale equipment to kadee couplers.  I like the way your PS1 boxcars turned out. The questions I have what number Kadee couplers do you use?  Do they come with screws to mount them?  Did you make your own spacers?  What do you use for the spacers?  I would like to convert my PS1's and other cars but I am freaked out that I will ruin them.

mike g. posted:

If your freaked out you should watch some of the videos. Mario has some and so does Laidoffsick on youtube.

Mike is right, a good place to start is YouTube with Doug's (LaidOffSick) videos, that's how I started. Here's a good one: https://youtu.be/q35NxsNxRcw.

I myself have a few on there too, under CentralFan1976, like this one: https://youtu.be/srz8qs4JhBo.

The hardest one to do was the first. 

To make these go smoothly, I collaborated with many a friend here on the best forums, 3-Rail Scale and 2-Rail, to share as much information as we can, and to design some mounts to make it as easy as possible to convert cars to Kadee couplers. If you scroll down through these pages you'll see post upon post of how we have done our cars, and the spacers that I design are found along the way. Check out the link in my signature, which has the spacers and the install videos.

In the case of these PS-1s, the spacer is designed to fit between the ribs on the underside of the cars floor, which will be self-centering. Once the spacer is placed, simply drill a 0.060" hole (I get my bits from Ace hardware, if you need a few, let me know) and just screw them in place with a 2-56 screw (again, if you want a few to try, let me know, I bought in bulk).

The Kadee couplers we use are the new-ish #740 scale E-type with the hidden springs. I use Krylon Ultra-Flat Camoflage brown to spray mine. 

Thanks and good luck! You'll be fine...

-Mario.

Thank you for the information. I purchased 2 pairs of the 740 couplers. I will look for the 2-56 screws, I may have some left from my ho days.  The challenge will be the spacers. Looking forward to doing the conversion because the appearance is so much better.

dandeo50 posted:

Thank you for the information. I purchased 2 pairs of the 740 couplers. I will look for the 2-56 screws, I may have some left from my ho days.  The challenge will be the spacers. Looking forward to doing the conversion because the appearance is so much better.

Email me your address using my contact page and I'll send you some spacers to try out. I just ordered a set for the PS-1 and I'll know immediately if they fit. 

Thank you so much. I cant wait to convert the PS1 Box cars I have, I also have a bunch of SP/UP PFE reefers and some K line WP/PFE reefers i would like to do.

Hi marion

  Another nice addition for us to use. The only negative on the 700 series is they don't always hold the claw.  I guess this is motivation to convert. Brandon's has a few powders to cover the couplers with for a very nice rusted look. 

Best

Ray marion

Excellent work Mario. To change the subject a bit, how are the PS-4 adapters coming?

It seems these #740 are like the Atlas scale coupler and can't grab the Lionel knuckle?