Coupler Height


Real railroads may have coupler mis-match, but on HO railroads, it's not a good thing to have trains separate, especially on a grade. Having good track work does help to minimize issues due to mis-match but it's always good to make adjustments to keep'em to the Kadee height guage.
 
Real railroads may have coupler mis-match, but on HO railroads, it's not a good thing to have trains separate, especially on a grade. Having good track work does help to minimize issues due to mis-match but it's always good to make adjustments to keep'em to the Kadee height guage.
I totally agree. Our models (with rare exceptions) don't have working suspension in the trucks, which really makes a difference when our models travel over rough track or uneven joints. While the prototype can absorb some of the vertical motion caused by bad track or spongy subgrade our models tend to make abrupt vertical movements. Though there is often a prototype for mismatched coupler height for a number of reasons, it's best to keep our models as close to a standard coupler height as possible.
 
Real railroads may have coupler mis-match, but on HO railroads, it's not a good thing to have trains separate, especially on a grade. Having good track work does help to minimize issues due to mis-match but it's always good to make adjustments to keep'em to the Kadee height guage.

HA HA...so who says I have an HO railroad? That scale is too small for a serious model railroader like me who is from the Steam Days in the 1930s! Here's the scale I model in: O-Scale 2-Rail !

That little HO locomotive cluttering up my track is preventing my mighty O-Scale diesel from moving on.....
Outta the way, Squirt!

Hal age 84
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So ok then, going back to the original topic you’ve abandoned the “real world" alignment and adopted the NMRA standard after all?

Nope...I don't adhere or conform to any NMRA standards. I just correct what doesn't look right!
Hal
 
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HA HA...so who says I have an HO railroad? That scale is too small for a serious model railroader like me who is from the Steam Days in the 1930s! Here's the scale I model in: O-Scale 2-Rail !

That little HO locomotive cluttering up my track is preventing my mighty O-Scale diesel from moving on.....
Outta the way, Squirt!

Hal age 84View attachment 114383

It's not hard to see the left engine is O. I didn't fall off the model train turnip truck yesterday ya know!

I"m sure many of us would love to have an O layout if we had an aircraft hanger. But unfortunately houses with really big basements are out of my price range, and the foreclosure house I was able to afford my wife and I are slaves to for the past 2 1/2 years and for a few more years to come. The basement, originally unfinished when we bought the house, is barely big enough to build a semi decent sized layout. I guess I could get some O scale trains and run them back and forth on a switching layout, but what I want is mainline running with decent length trains.

The layout construction has been on hold since April while my wife and I rebuild the deck out back from the frame up.

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We don't have basements here in the Southern California High Desert.

We have what is called the "California Ranch", with no 2nd story and no basement.

We do everything on one level!

Before I dropped down to O Scale, I was running a 150-foot G-Scale indoors, with half of the trackage going through a portal to the 3rd car space in the garage.

Your benchwork looks like it conforms to NMRA standards. Very neat! I use 2x4 construction for the main layout and the legs, with no nails or screws...just hex bolts , washers, and nuts.

Here's my train room, a 20'x25' addition.
Hal
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Yeah, I lived in California for 17 years, and in the Sacramento area basements were basically non existent too.

I don't know what NMRA standards are for benchwork. I"m doing open grid because it's easy and L-girder seems unnecessarily complex.
 



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