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I have seen a lot of photos on the web for the Atlas 50' Precision Box Cars and I'm wondering why the Kadees protude out so much, or more to the point, why do the coupler boxes protrude out as much as they do. Surely this isn't prototypical?
Is this to allow them to work on a small radius of track? I have not been able to look at the underside of the one of these cars yet. I traveled to a LHS to buy 6 of them from him, but he never had any of them out of their boxes and he wouldn't allow me to take any out to inspect them
My immediate thought was to look at repositioning them further back under the underframe. Any thoughts on this visual oddity?
yes it is prototypical. See pics attached. Cars with cushioned underframes have these extended couplers. I think it is a buffering system to prevent shocking the nice cushy underframe.
Nice car by the way. Have you got your hands on any Exactrail, Kadee or Intermountain yet? Tangent is another brand you might want to get a sample off.
Thanks for that. I actually put this question to an "expert" at a LHS in Melbourne and he had no idea why the couplers sat so far out. Your explanation makes perfect sense.
Exactrail? You betcha! I have 10 Exactrail items and love them! Because my era is early-mid 1990's their products suit well. I order all mine from eBay sellers and a couple of online stores (Bob the Train Guy being one of them).
The core business of this LHS is orientated to US stock and the staff are said to be knowledgable in US MR. Anyway no big deal. Unfortunately their stock turnover appears to be very slow so (as is the nature of US MR in Oz) so I only go there once every 6 months or so.
I was standing along a side street & watching a long line of boxcars go by & noticed the long coupler pockets on almost every car. Never had noticed them before. Then all of a sudden the train made an abrupt stop. Then I noticed what the long coupler boxes were for. Those box cars almost touched end to end. If it hadn't been for the cushioned couplers there would have probably been a derailment. It was really neat the way they compressed. I have a few 70ft. cars w/the long coupler pockets. They look weird, but I haven't changed them.
Stephen,Back in the 70s and 80s boxcars,coil cars,some newer cabooses,reefers was equipped with "extended cushion coupler box".
Today the underframe has improved cushioning and there is no longer a need for the extended coupler box on these cars.These newer cushion frame cars are equipped with extended (long shank) couplers..
Now like all things railroad there are boxcars and coil cars still in service that has the extended cushion coupler boxes.
As a side note for one to model these cars correctly he will need to research each car by its number and check the rebuilt date.
Now,like the prototype you could cut the extended coupler box off and use a KD coupler box in its place by mounting the coupler box to the floor then us a long shank coupler-if you want to go to that extreme.
Stephen,Back in the 70s and 80s boxcars,coil cars,some newer cabooses,reefers was equipped with "extended cushion coupler box".
Today the underframe has improved cushioning and there is no longer a need for the extended coupler box on these cars.These newer cushion frame cars are equipped with extended (long shank) couplers..
Now like all things railroad there are boxcars and coil cars still in service that has the extended cushion coupler boxes.
As a side note for one to model these cars correctly he will need to research each car by its number and check the rebuilt date.
Now,like the prototype you could cut the extended coupler box off and use a KD coupler box in its place by mounting the coupler box to the floor then us a long shank coupler-if you want to go to that extreme.
Larry,that's a very interesting story. I'm sure there are many aspects of railroading that we 'overlook' and don't think twice about until this jump out at us and we have one of those light bulb moments I was the same with trucks and wheels sizes. I never took much notice unti lI began reading on the variety in service. Now I have a keener eye for the differences.
Brakie, that would be an interesting idea - remodelling the car to match the prototype's conversion. I have my first 50' Precision Box Car (MRL) on the way from the US as we speak, so when it arrives I might look into a conversion. I am not overly fussed with matching the conversion to the prototype however.
I was the same with trucks and wheels sizes. I never took much notice unti lI began reading on the variety in service. Now I have a keener eye for the differences.