Ready to Mount Couplers

[whm2255]

I am trying to use some Kadee #502 Bettendorf Trucks with ready-to-mount couplers.  Am having a very hard time in getting the "inside black centering spring" installed.  Clumsy me, I guess.  Does anyone have a "trick-of-the-trade" for this installation.  Thanks.

[Doneldon]

whm-

My trick is to get my nine-year-old grandson interested in trains so he can do these jobs which go better with fingers that are not as large as mine and eyes that are more acute.

          --D

[whm2255]

Hey D:  That is a great suggestion!! Unfortunately, my 11 year old grandson lives 600 miles away.  Maybe I can find a neighborhood substitute.

whm

[ebtbob]

Whm,

        You say the trucks have ready to install couplers.   Does this mean they mount to the truck assembly?    If so,  and if there is a way,  you should seriously consider mounting couplers to the body of the car.   Couplers mounted on trucks are call a talgo assembly and can make it very difficult to shift cars as they lead to derailments due to the couplers putting stress on the trucks as opposed to the car body itself.

[Doneldon]

ebt-

Thank you for including what I meant to say and then forgot while trying to be cute (albeit truthful). 

Talgo trucks are a major problem under the best of circumstances, and positively satanic when it comes to backing up or negotiating sharp curves like so many of us must if we're to have a layout at all.  I get rid of all of my Talgoe, even if the trucks are pretty good.  In that case I'll cut the Talgo arm off and use body-mounted couplers.  I've never had any of the snazzy new ones where the whole coupler pocket on a Talgo truck moves as the truck goes around a curve, but I'll bet they're a nightmare if they fail.  And I have no idea if they work well.

          --D


          --D