Model Railroading > Walther's Rotary Dumper question

There was a small video clip posted from the NTS in Philadelphia which showed the new Rotary in action. Real cute but I was wondering about Rotary couplers. The clip seemed to show cars on either end of the car which was being dumped but I suspect they were just sitting there uncoupled close enough to simulate (fool) the viewer. Can anyone who saw this at the NTS confirm? or has there been a working rotary coupler released that I am not aware of?

I do not know if Walthers or Kadee will make them, but some one here on TO's modified KD's to work in a rotray dumper. Sargent makes them - http://www.sergentengineering.com/Rotary_frame.htm

http://members.trainorders.com/pmack/dumper.htm

I have not use the Sargent ones, I plan on modifying KD's

Tom Daspit
Morgan Hill, CA
Tom's Trains

I haven't seen the video clip but did ask a Walthers rep at the convention train show about the rotary dumper and the need for some rotary couplers. He said that Walthers would be offering a working rotary coupler that would fit in a standard coupler box. Coupler would not have an operating knuckle. I also mentioned that fact that the original rotary was designed for 50' wood chip cars and would not work with 40-45' coal hoppers coupled. If you want to dump coal hoppers you might want to email Walthers and let them know. The original kit did have the capability to be shortened to use 40-45' cars. Hopefully they will realize this .
------------------------ Ken McCorry

I asked Sam at Kadee about rotary couplers a year or so ago. He indicated they didn't do one simply because there wasn't a working rotary dumper on the market, so there wasn't the demand. He implied that the design has been worked out, but anything beyond that would wait for the need to appear. I hope Kadee will do one as a scale Type E bottom shelf coupler, packaged with two rotating and two non-rotating. I have plenty of coal hoppers that could use them!

I can't remember where I seen it, but someone made a rotary coupler that was made to fit E&C/LBF bolsters. It replaced most of the bolster and would only work with these cars. It excepted a regular Kadee 5.

coaldrag Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't remember where I seen it, but someone made
> a rotary coupler that was made to fit E&C/LBF
> bolsters. It replaced most of the bolster and
> would only work with these cars. It excepted a
> regular Kadee 5.


Sergent sold them. It has a Sergent dummy head but works well.