There has been some talk about the opps on the part of Life Like with their E cabs. I love these locomotives, and like I mention in another thread that they are among my best runners. Life Like did an awesome job on these units years ago that even rival newer offerings. The only thing Life Like did wrong, was not provide an easy way to convert the old Rapido coupler. It is the old truck mounted rapido, and they did not leave alot of space to upgrade to an underbody mount MTL. I have been playing around with an idea for a coupler option for these units. I am using the adjustable coupler stolen from an MTL passenger truck. These couplers have a "tounge" on them to provide adjustability when mounted on their passenger trucks. This tounge also is why I chose it for my E units. Since there is no room provided on these units to install the standard coupler pocket, and leave room for the truck to rotate, this tounge will reach up under the truck, and be able to be mounted without interfearing with the mobility of the truck. Here are some pictures. I still need to do some adjustments to get it to match up right, but wanted to see if it will work, and it does.
Like I said, I still have to add a spacer to lower the coupler, and do some minor adjusting, but, this is going to work out just fine.
I cut off the mount from the truck to find out later the conversion was not so easy...... That E8 is still without couplers, I am still wondering what could be done with it. Since I have several Kato E8's, there is no pressing need to convert the Life-Like. But it is a shame to waste such a good engine.
That being the case, then the coupler I am retrofitting (passenger truck coupler) would be a good fix for yours too.
I think the coupler of the MTL FT-B is of a similar size. Since the FT-B has a long overhang (at least the NYC and MILW units), I am not sure why they used this design. Anyone knows more about this?
Hmm.. I have 3 MTL FT sets, and the couplers are no where close to this. Mine are the Santa Fe blue/yellow paint, and the other the SF red/silver paint. The 3rd set, I can't remember the original livery, because I has re-painted it Rock Island. But, none of them were like this.. From what I understood, there were two different coupler designs for the MTL FTs between the A and B unit. One, was a simple drawbar, and the other, knuckle couplers similar to the type used on the other ends of the MTL sets.
I like it! Inkaneer's method is okay if you your never break up your consist. Does anyone do the opposite? I know of only ONE guy who liked to break up passenger trains, send the individual cars to the backshop, commissary, linen supply, cleaning tracks, etc. and put together a new train. Also depending on the pocket, the T-shank couplers can be overly floppy. Tudor, may I suggest you use a flathead screw for a bit more clearance? A bit of countersinking might be even better. I use flatheads generally for body mounting MTs (and hate the ratty screws that come with).
Yes, you may. And yes, I probably will change the screw, but that was just the one that came with the coupler. This was more of an experiment to see if it is plausable.
