It has been pointed out that MT 'recommended' cutting the coupler knuckles to correct separation (AKA the RDA fix). It has also been pointed out that MT has recut the dies and made the couplers even larger over the past decade. I am well aware of the physical limitations of N: gathering, vertical curves, manufacturing issues. It is too bad that MDC's and IM's semi-auto couplers never got perfected. MDC had two problems, droop and terrible die cutting. The issue is if the dies are cut properly, it costs no more to make a good operating, good looking coupler. This has yet to happen in N scale. Bob in IDaho, I have no interest in Ntrak, 40 cars would be a long train on my projected 400sqft bilevel layout.
Pete: Here's what I did: I cut a 1x4 to the length of about 20 coal hoppers and glued a strip of foam insulation cut of the same length to one side of the 1x4. This foam insulation can be found in rolls at construction sites as a vapor barrier between the foundation and the bottom of the walls. It's green or blue and very thin. There's always plenty in the scrap bin. I then used the 1x4 as a support on which to place the hoppers on their sides so I could carefully wrap the rubberband around each succeeding coupler pin set. The hardest part is keeping the rubberbands from sliding down the pins. Sometimes, I'd just loop them over & around the coupler knuckles. Do whatever works. I very carefully took the whole group over to the layout and set the 1x4 at angle where I could slide the cars off the 1x4 onto the tracks after which I'd take the necessary time to make sure each truck was properly on the track. I'd repeat this process until my entire coal train was on the tracks. Attaching rubberbands between sets took some patience but given enough practice, you may not even need the 1x4 to make up a long train. I continued to do the above until all of my cars had been converted to MTs. That's probably not much of a visual but I hope it helps. Cam [ April 15, 2006, 04:32 AM: Message edited by: conagher ]
The Atlas trucks are quite good. I cut the couplers off and bodymount MTLs where I can. I wish Mc Henry would get into N scale-their HO line looks great:
Mc Henry is experimenting, but untill they perfect the N scale product, we probably won;t hear from them. I really liked the IM trucks. They staed coupled and looked great. I wish I knew where the tooling was.
Rod, Man, why didn't I think of that! You're correct: the trucks are quite good, and very free rolling. I'm going to body mounts eventually, so I might as well start now.
Pete: I started to change over to body mounted couplers on some of my cars. The MT Z scale couplers work nicely on MDC rolling stock. Stay cool and run steam....
Mark: You can weather the bands a grimy black color. However they will become brittle after awhile and you'll need to replace the elastic bands. Elastic bands in Ortho is a temporary situation as they are always snapping apart. It's much easier to body mount MT couplers or use an MT truck and coupler. Using elastic bands is more trouble than it's worth in my opinion. Stay cool and run steam.....
Thanks, Cam! I once made a 40-car unit train with the 70-ton ore jennies, using the old trimmed rapido trick. That did not work out so well. When one car went off, it usually took three or four others. Then, when rerailing, I'd knock off one car after another. I usually had to rerail the entire train before I was finished. In fact, that's probably Stupid Mistake 55.
Maybe Atlas can fix the lost trip pin and the unwanted uncoupling [by the way we had this rereatedly happen on a seven car train,] But the biggest problem they cannot fix is all the cars they sold with extended couplers resulting in cars with a coupling distance approaching 10 feet. Sell the car without the trucks and coupler or design cars with a standard coupler pocket. The biggest problem in doing this is that the manufacturers [Atlas in particular] of N scale are still committed to the 9 in radius curve with or without rapido couplers.
Accumates have not given me any real problems even when combined with MicroTrains. But then I run trains no longer than 30 cars or so. Spotting cars with a magnetic uncoupler has not been a noticeble problem either. Occasionally, one comes uncoupled when I turn my head and I replace the assembly. I notice Accumate truck/coupler assemblies did get shortened recently to the same distance as Microtrains. I just picked up some new Atlas Hart ballast gondolas and they couple closer than Microtrains 34 ft gondolas. Yes, the Microtrains truck/coupler assemblies have been more reliable for me but I like the appearance of accumates better. Accumate truck frames are a flatter black with brownish wheels and blackened uncoupling pins. Microtrains are shiny black throughout with silver uncoupling pins. Kato engine couplers give me the worst problems and eventually explode when I MU engines. I replaced all the couplers on my Kato engines with Microtrains couplers. I tried toning down Micro trains trucks with floquil grimy black and my wife had a fit after seeing dealers asking grossly inflated prices for certain cars at shows. She must be waiting for me to croak so she can get big bucks for them. LMAO.
