New 48, 53 & 57' Spine Car Hitch from MLE (photos!)

If anyone has built and mounted any of these hitches on their intermodal equipment, I would sure love to see some pictures!

Russ

 

Russ:

I have used both the N-01 and N-02 series so far. Photos of the 01 hitches on my 89' flats are posted on the Greenlight Intermodal contest page:

Greenlightintermodal Gallery - RailImages.com

I'm extremely impressed with the engineering of these devices. I hope you keep them in production as I'll be needing many more. And here's hoping that your recently announced 03 series spurs the release of the 57' spine cars!

Cheers,
Gary

 

I also love these hitches, and used the N-01 on my 89' TOFC flats, also in the same gallery you can see mine on my 89' brown FEC flat, they are the hitches in the "up" position, I cheated and used one of the nscalekits hitches for the middle "down" position, as at the time I only had 2 N-01's! Looking at re-doing my spine cars with the N-02 now!

 

Thanks for the feedback and photo-link, jsoflo and Gary!

Excellent work on those cars guys!

"...I'm extremely impressed with the engineering of these devices. I hope you keep them in production as I'll be needing many more. And here's hoping that your recently announced 03 series spurs the release of the 57' spine cars!"

Yes, I also hope that the 57' spines will be out soon so I can finally release the N-03's!

Russ

 

Okay, these look great. Now then, how hard are they to assemble?

 

I did not find them that difficult to assemble, as long as you have magnifying lenses to thread the tiny wire through the tiny holes, very easy. On some of mine that will always be used in the upright position I just CA glued them together upright, very easy.

 

I agree with jsoflo - they are pretty straightforward to assemble, though magnification definitely helps with the wire insertion. It took me a little while to get the best folding sequence down, and I found it helpful to have something like the Mission Model Etch Mate to clamp down on one surface while folding, so I could get enough leverage on the smaller tabs. For painting, I found it helpful to stick the hitch base to double-sided tape on a stick and let them hang upside down so all the surfaces are exposed for air brushing. Once assembled and painted, the devices are impressively rugged and look fantastic.

 

Cool deal guys. I appreciate the comments. Guess I'll order a set and have a go at it.

 

I know its been many years, but does anybody have any of these left they might want to sell? I can't believe someone didn't try and buy the company to keep making these!

 

SD75I…… I sent you a message

 

I totally missed out on these & would luv to 30-40 at least....has it really been 14 years.....