New Couplers

I ordered some supplies online a little while ago: Micro Trains couplers, a drill and tap combonation (matching the screws supplied with the couplers) and field grass from Woodland Scenics. I got them last week and yesterday I was able to sit down and put them to use.

I converted an FEC box car that had been in services as a conversion car. It had a Rapido coupler on one end and a Micro Trains coupler on the other. I used this to run my UB-25 on the layout while I was waiting for its coupler conversion to arrive. After the UB-25 was converted, the FEC car was out of service since all my other engines and cars had knuckle style couplers, and I was short a knuckle to replace the Rapido one.

I planned to make the new couplers body mounted instead of attached to the truck. I swapped out the truck with the Micro Train coupler for one with a Rapido coupler, before chopping off the couplers entirely with a nail clipper. I checked the floor height and found that the car was close enough to the correct coupler mounting height that I could use a standard shim supplied with the couplers. On the two 50 ft box cars I had converted to body mounted couplers earlier, I found that I had to make a custom shim out of styrene because the height difference was too great for the standard shims.

I order my couplers unassembled because it is cheaper than pre-assembled and I enjoy the maintenance tasks as much as running the trains. By this time I had already assembled 6 couplers from the pack that I used to convert my Bachmann GP-50, so I was proficient at getting the coupler together. I only had to chase down the spring a couple of times before getting the coupler box closed on top of it successfully!

I then used my new tap and drill set to make mounting holes for the couplers. This was a little bit fustrating because I didn't have a pin vise and had to hold the bit and tap in my fingers. Luckily I only was doing this one car and so I persevered, but a pin vise is on my list of tools to get before doing any more. It was worth it though, as the tap worked much more reliably then trying to screw directly into the mounting hole as I had done with the previous conversions. The screw would stay in but would not provide enough pressure to hold the coupler in line as the car went around curves. I had taken to using a drop of glue between the coupler box and floor of the car in order to add a bit more staying power. With the tap this proved unnecessary.

I don't plan on converting any more of my existing knuckle coupler cars with the extra couplers, I will save them for any new rolling stock equipped with Rapido couplers. However I am planning on redoing the mountings of the two box cars I had previously converted to body mounted couplers, and possible the GP-50 as well to take advantage of the new tap.