Do we know if John Bortz is still with us? As Ed mentioned, he was an accomplished machinist. I'm fortunate to own one of his scratchbuilt Pennsy I-1 Decapods. I know that he built at least two of them.
Bob Frascella On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Ed <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >I seem to remember that a common fix back then was to use #5's with longer > trip pins, but whether that was a semi-commercial offering or whether > individual S scale modelers replaced them themselves, I am no longer clear. > > Jace Kahn > > The so-called "modified HO" couplers were made by John Bortz, an > accomplished machinist, who made tooling to press out the original Kadee > glad hand and replace it with a longer trip pin. He offered these modified > couplers as a commercial venture for many years, but ceased production a > long time ago. Most all of the olde tymers used them with varying degrees of > success. My personal experience is that the "tightness of fit" with the new > trip pin was not as good as with the original glad hand. After meeting with > magnetic force fields many times, the longer trip pin frequently worked > loose from its press fit into the knuckle. At the time, however, nothing > better was available in the way of a fully working and automatic coupler. > They are no longer being made and I have no idea who owns the tooling or if > there even is a new owner. If you only need a few pair, I can provide some > for you if you want to pay for the postage. No charge for the couplers. If > you are planning to seriously operate using magnetic force fields as > delivered by Dr. Spock, I would suggest something else. Good luck...Ed L. > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
