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LGB 0-4-0 Porter

This conversion is on our Lake George & Boulder engine. It's a cute and colorful little 0-4-0 that usually comes in a kids starter set but ours was left by the Easter Bunny a few years ago for one of my kids. At first glance this looked like it would be another easy conversion but right from the start some thinking was needed. Kadee lists both the 831 and the 832 coupler as a replacement for this engine. The difference between the two is minor. The 831 is a solid mounted coupler while the 832 is mounted so it will swing. My first thought was to use the 831 because in the past we have used both the stock LGB and Bachmann couplers on this engine. Both styles were simply attached with the stock mounting screw and we were up and running in a minute or two. The Kadee's are a little different though. The 831 required some modifications to the gear box almost exactly like the changes made to the gear box on the Critter conversion. It also called for two new holes to be drilled so the coupler assembly could be mounted securely. The problem with that is, our engine doesn't have that much meat on the underside so drilling would not have helped much. The 832 on the other hand didn't need any new holes drilled into the engine and only one minor modification was necessary to keep the new coupler at the correct height.

Pictured here are both the LGB coupler and the Kadee 832 coupler. This Kadee (in the foreground) is just like the 831 coupler except the mount is designed to swing. Looking at the rear area of the coupler you can see the centering spring used to help the coupler gear box return to center when uncoupled and even thought this is a swinging mount, the coupler itself still swivels in the gear box like the 831.

Pictured here is the completed coupler on the front of the 0-4-0. Looking closely you will notice that I didn't use the centering spring because when mounted in the original hole the new coupler has no room for any movement. This coupler also comes with bushings to be used in the mounting hole at the rear of the coupler so you can use it on different types of rolling stock. The instructions tell you to glue the appropriate bushing into the shank hole and then use the stock screw to install the coupler. I didn't feel like gluing my couplers so I just used one of the extra plastic washers from the coupler bag along with a small flat brass washer and longer screw to attach the assembly. A shim was also needed at the very back of the mount to raise the front up enough to meet the height gauge. The shim is made from .020" thick scraps of sheet styrene.

This is what the rear coupler mount looked like before I ground it flush with the underside of the engine. The instructions call for the new coupler to be mounted without the little cover that is designed to hold the centering spring in place on the coupler shank but my centering spring kept coming off so to make room for the plastic cover I removed the Boss where the coupler mounts. The height of the mounting boss was the same as the spring retainer so it worked out pretty good.

Here is the finished coupler on the rear of the engine. The height is just low by a couple of millimeters but works fine. The centering spring also works like a champ and like the front coupler, a plastic washer and longer screw was used to mount the coupler.

Before you do this conversion think about what kind of performance VS. appearance you are looking for. While my engine is used mainly by kids and better performance is desired, the couplers do hang out considerably more than with either the LGB or Bachmann couplers. I may just try to mount an Aristo coupler on this engine in the future and see how well it looks and works. Keep in mind, Kadee couplers will couple with Aristo couplers.

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Copyright © 1998, 2008 Jon Foster.  All rights reserved.
This site has been online since: Tuesday July 28, 1998 and was last modified: Wednesday July 28, 2004.