# Adding Kadee couplers to Thomas train



## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I was tired of Thomas not being a very useful little engine and only pulling Annie and Clarabel, so I added some KD's to Thomas. Also I needed a small switcher for pulling cars in/out of the spur tracks at the mill. The 0-6-0 does ok, but Thomas needs the exercise.

Here I removed the hook/loop coupler and did a quick measurement with the draft box in front of my cattle car. Next I etched a line below that and cut into the rear bumper up to that line. I retapped the screw hole and mounted the draft box with coupler in and came up a little low. So I cut some more and continued to do so until the coupler was just a little higher than the cattle car.










Here is the bottom view.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Next I had to do the same with Clarabel so she could still hook up to Thomas, but now I can also pull her and Annie with another loco to.

To add the draft box I simply cut down the post that the hook/loop coupler screws into and filed it flat. I retapped the hole and instaled the draft box the same way I did with Thomas.










Bottom shot. I still need to file that body mount down at the back of the draft box so it sits level, but its close enough for me.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I also did the front of Thomas (I mean he wouldnt be a good switcher loco if he didnt have a front coupler!) and that proved a little more difficult since ther was no coupler there to start with.

I cut into the front bumper as far as I could without going into the top deck. As you can see, it was the perfect height. The pilot hole for the screw was made by removing the middle black post thingy, like the one inthe foreground and tapping it. You can also see the screw poke out the top, but it works. I'll repaint it later.










I didnt do so hot keeping it centered.


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Before anyone says it, yes those couplers are actually Bachmann's not KD's. I swapped out a bunch of Bachmann's and still had the draft gear left over from the KD's. So I used the Bach couplers and KD boxes. The KD's were #148's for reference.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Knuckle couplers work so much better than horn and hook couplers!
The bachmann couplers work fine till the get hot then the springs give out and they stop working!
Great job on the conversions!


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Well these werent just the horn and hook couplers, but the hook and loop style. PITA to uncouple without lifting the cars off the track and the mounting is completely incompatible with anything else.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Nice conversion job. I may have to tackle that in the future as well. (Adding another train project to the list.....)


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Thanks guys:thumbsup:

I really like the conversion and eventually will get Annie and Clarabel done front and rear so they can operate like any other rolling stock I have.

sstlaure-I spent all of about an hour doing the front/rear of Thomas and front of Clarabel. But I've gotten pretty good at using an Xacto knife with all the model cars the kids have me building so it wasnt much of a challege to make clean notches. Just start with a shallow notch (lower coupling height) and work your way up. Its alot easier to remove a sliver at a time that it is to try and add spacers if you cut too deep.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Pretty nice conversion. I hope Thomas and friends had some sort of anesthesia prior to the surgery!

Thanks for sharing a neat little project,

TJ


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## Bman (Aug 24, 2010)

I will definitely have to note this for future reference. My little guy is absolutely obsessed with my layout downstairs, and he goes crazy for anything Thomas. I have not introduced Thomas to the layout yet, but I'm think of setting up a smaller DC layout with my old transformer just for him, my only concern is that it would push his obsession to a whole new level


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Bman.....NIMT can even do DCC conversions....That's what I'm going to do when the time is right.


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

Converting thomas to DCC is not hard at all. There is enough room in his cab for a N or Z decoder. You will need to solder it to the contact points but it does work.

Love the Kadee conversion! I may do that to my son's Thomas so Thomas can pull other freight cars as well.

Massey


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## MacDaddy55 (Aug 19, 2008)

*Nice Job!*

Hey Cabledawg...nice job on the conversion and Clarabel looks much happier with that knuckler!!


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## jonyb (Mar 20, 2011)

Massey said:


> Converting thomas to DCC is not hard at all. There is enough room in his cab for a N or Z decoder. You will need to solder it to the contact points but it does work.
> 
> Love the Kadee conversion! I may do that to my son's Thomas so Thomas can pull other freight cars as well.
> 
> Massey


I just DCC'd Thomas and Percy, and have a couple more coming for Gordon and an older Proto engine. I used a Digitrax DH123D on Thomas and Percy and they work pretty well. Took about 10 minutes.....



Bman said:


> I will definitely have to note this for future reference. My little guy is absolutely obsessed with my layout downstairs, and he goes crazy for anything Thomas. I have not introduced Thomas to the layout yet, but I'm think of setting up a smaller DC layout with my old transformer just for him, my only concern is that it would push his obsession to a whole new level


It will..... My son is 2.5. Started with the wooden railway, then take-alongs, then trackmaster, now HO electric. It went to HO because I've always wanted to build one since my Grandfather had them. The highlight of my son's day is "going out to the garage to start the big engines". It's way too early for all of that, but it's helping to teach him how to take care of his stuff, and the "when we're done playing, we're done" part. For his 3rd I think I'll be doing the same thing with an old HO track and DC transformer in his own room.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

I think this thread should get a sticky note....I am sure many have asked for this advice.
-Art


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hi Art,

We try to reserve stickies for primary forum info / broad introductory stuff, etc.

That said, I'm a big fan of the Search tool to find info and threads. Accordingly, it's important to include a few keywords in one's posts so that people can find their way to a given subject. For instance ...

Thomas Train Kadee Coupler Conversion

(I'll note that the title of the thread used "KD" rather than "Kadee" ... I'll change that to improve search hits.)

TJ


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

At X-mas right before my son turned 4 I gave him "my" thomas (it was his all along but he was too young when my wife bought it for him) and an Athearn F40PH with a couple of cars. I left the horn hooks on them since it was easier for my son to couple the trains. This all went well until he thought crashing the trains was a cool thing. Now all the trains are daddy's again. This X-mas I brought out the X-mas train and he seemed to play nice with it, so he may be getting his trains back again really soon. I am going to wait on the DCC conversions for a while and let him get used to just running the trains.

Massey


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

Thanks TJ for changing the title. I guess I could have done that, but it's been awhile since I've been on here, so I didnt notice the replies above.

Since this was done, Thomas has had a sound conversion done by ours truly, Sean (NIMT). Added a LED to the rear and a sound module with typical steam sounds. The kids love it, especially my daughter and her "boyfriend" (she's four, he's three) from next door. In fact there are times where all I do is sit in the basement and run Thomas and Toby around the layout, making whistles and dings every so often. Great way to kill an afternoon :laugh:

On a side note, Sean, I dont know how you did it. I pulled the top off of Thomas, looked inside, and vowed never to work on him again. I shake so bad that if I ever took him apart, I'd never be able to get him back together again


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I'd love to see a video of Thomas tooting his way around the layout.

I don't know how he fits all that stuff in Thomas either. It was everything I could do to stuff 2-2oz weights in my son's Thomas so that it could haul a few more cars up the 2.4% grade (he can now pull 8 cars up the grade)


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

My neighbor added weights to his Thomas as well. I have all small cars (thanks to Tankist) for Thomas, but even if I wanted to add weight, there isnt room enough now.

I'll add a video once I figure out how to get it off my camera. The pics are easy because I just pull the SD card, but the videos are on the harddrive and I havent learned yet how to access them from the computer.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Hey Dawg, 

Nice clean job! :thumbsup:
It looks sooo familar because I've also converted a few older non-standard European cars to Kadees. Knuckles look and operate so much better than those crappy "eurotrash" couplers. 

And please do post a video. I'd love to see your Thomas train running. Even for a beginner like me, it's actually quite simple. I've been learning how to use Windows Movie maker to edit and publish, and then uploading them to YouTube. All of my European engines and rolling stock have been converted to Kadees...


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I dont know how to embed a video, so here's the link. Not a very good one and there is a second one of the train actually running around the layout, but its takes forever to load stuff and it's getting late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzgVVKygPlU


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## jordysmeets (Sep 19, 2010)

awesome! you did what I want to do with some US engines (only not with kadee, but the o so hated horn and hook couplers, because all my cars and engines have them) can we see some pictures of thomas driving an USA train? always wanted to know how that would look like.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

Did you need to do custom sounds? How was that done? What kind of sound unit?
-Art


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## cabledawg (Nov 30, 2010)

I cant take credit for the sound install. NIMT (Sean) on this forum did the hardware install and the sounds. I'll look up the part numbers when I get home, but I know he used some N and Z scale stuff. The only downside is that Thomas slows down with the front light on, but otherwise, Sean did an excellent job packing all that stuff into such a small loco.

As for Thomas pulling US cars, I'll shoot a seperate video with him running around the layout. He can pull two medium sized cars pretty well and three or four light (flatcars and gondolas) cars without too much wheel spin. He really needs weights added, but as mentioned before there isnt any more room inside the body


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## trainguru (Jun 28, 2011)

All I have to say is, good show on the bachmann, but if you want a true Thomas, go for the Hornby, better quality and more accurate. If you look up the "British Railways Series," on youtube, the guy also did a review on HO/OO Thomas models. Try it out!


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## Thomasfan (Aug 12, 2011)

Thats really cool. I was wondering if you could do that for a very long time. I sure would like to do this with my Thomas models.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

Check out my thread. 
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=9243
I used Sean (NIMT"s) suggestions and installed an N scale Digitrax decoder with sound. I also am working on a custom sound project with Thomas's toot toot, "Bust my Buffers" and "I'm a useful Engine" sound clips from Youtube. I will be happy to share the sound project when I get it just right. I need my stepson's Windows computer to modify the sound project and do a test install. So far I have the toot toot on the horn button and "bust my buffers" on F10. Adding Kadee couplers and lights are on my list of things to do to Thomas.
-Art


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## birdbrain (Jan 16, 2012)

I am about to do this as well. Have any of you installed smoke on thomas?


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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

I just do not know about converting Euro coupler to Kadees. It does not look right to me with the bumpers on eack side.

However, the workmanship looks really good!


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## jjb727 (Apr 13, 2012)

You did great! Maybe you can do me a favor and customize my Gordon when I get it.


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