since years i didn't like the way kato passenger car couple. too far apart. when i recently stripped and repainted a few cars i cut off the original coupler and body mounted mt 1015 instead. after a some fiddling i found the proper positions to mount the couplers. a 1mm thick piece of styrene had to be used to adjust coupler height. here's the original kato couplers.... and this is with the 1015 microtrains.... the slinky effect is almost not existent. pushing thru curves is flawless. please do not post if you want to rant about microtrains couplers. please do not post if you want to start a discussion about couplers. thank you.
I was gonna ask the same question...what radius? Gotta be 48" + to get the cars that close !!!! The cars look good though. .
minimum radius is approx 25". while going thru curves the couplers get stretched. in this case the slinky action is a welcome feature.
Thanks for the photos; these do look SO much better. I was planning on taking a different approach and had bought some diaphragms to add and/or even try some Unimate/Red Caboose couplers. Now I may just try the MT's
Looks good, I did something similar with a different coupler, but either way, it is a marked improvement.
I don't want to hijack this thread but has anyone tried a similiar approach to replacing the swivel couplers on Bachmann Amfleets with body mounts similiar to above? The Bachmann's have sprung diaphrams which might allow for a smaller radius operation. Charlie
What you say, Sandro, about the "slinky" helping through corners sounds like how the Kinematic couplers work on the Kato Daylight set. They hold the cars really close on the straight-away but "give" a little in the corners. I use MTL 1015s and 1023s (or whatever they're called) for all sorts of conversions. I know the good and bad points, but I can pick them up in bulk and I am tooled up to use them, and they work pretty much every time. Nice work!
Is the 1mm styrene putting the couplers at the NMRA accepted height? Or is this a train that runs primarily by itself without any need for that?
jerry, the diaphragms are kato. everything is kato except for couplers and paint job. matt, the 1mm styrene will lower the couplers to microtrains standards. not sure if they match nmra or not. but the modified cars will couple to everything else. even to original kato couplers.
david, i asked not to rant about mt couplers or start a coupler war. other solutions are fine. the topic is about modifying cars. not about couplers primarily. but thanks for keeping 'my' thread 'clean'
Thanks Sandro. I've got a Superliner train that needs this done too. I think I have a supply of 1mm styrene laying around too!
Very nice! IMHO, we talk way too much about coupler mounting and not nearly enough about coupling distance.
Hey Sandro, my problem with the close coupling (it looks great) is that I have a nolix with a max of a 2% grade. Going up and around the bend is not a problem but coming down the cars touch each other and will derail on the bend. I have 8 of the Rapido coaches that I love but I had to re-install the mt couplers so that there was more space between the cars because of this issue. Again, they look so much more realistic with your approach; nice job! Brian
sando, And I thought I created close coupling locos and passenger cars. My hat is off to you. I did learn that body mounting couplers on long passenger cars requires a much wider radius than I have on my layout, which is 11". The trains running down your mainline must look incredible. Congratulations, you made a believer outa me!!!! Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
thanks for all your kind words. i did test run the cars today. one of the trucks derailed at the same spot every round. first i thought that the diaphragms were interlocking. but it was the truck not turning freely. was a quick fix. so far no problems with this close coupling.
