Dear Jace, Not really. I know I have told this story in the past. When we got the general arrangement drawings of our F3s (maybe 15 or so years ago), the first thing that jumped out was that the units were way to far apart. I told our project manager in Hong Kong, that these needed to be a scale distance apart. That is when we learned that the KD802 coupler box would interfere with the trucks. As we looked further into this, we discovered that is a problem in HO and the solution is the KD30 (I think I got this number correct) coupler and coupler box that allows for closer coupling. I knew Larry Edwards, then owner of Kadee. I called and begged him to make us this coupler using the KD802 coupler with a expanded KD30 coupler box that was cored to the KD802 coupler box screw spacing. I told him we would order 3,000 to start and would need more for the F7s. Also that these couplers could be used for the AM FP7s. Larry said that he was not interested in another S scale coupler. I told him is he did not, we would be forced to make them and I was not interested in competing with KD for the S Scale coupler market, my argument fell on deaf ears. So, we designed and produced this coupler for our F3s. When the final drawings were being prepared for the ore car is when the 01295 was conceived as the same problems of the KD802 coupler box hitting the truck of the ore car. We learned a lot with our F3 coupler, we had them seal the coupler box so that it would not fall apart when the screws were taken out. We had the shot in rust color plastic and blistered them in 2 pair packages. Our open top hoppers and square hatch steam era covered hopper's bolster was designed to accept these couplers with no spacer. If we produce another freight car, they would be designed to use these. Don PS Someone mentioned the extra screws now includes with KD802/808 couplers. We lobbied Larry for 5 years for this change as the long screws would either pop the internal weight of the PS2 covered hoppers of core the holes once the end of the screw touched the steel weight. At that time we were selling tons of the KD802s every year...
Jace wrote: > > Perhaps Don Thompson will weigh in with the definitive answer, but my > recollection is that > the SHS couplers were specifically designed for the ore cars. >
