Who makes and/or made couplers for Intermountain N scale freight cars? I have several 50' single door boxcars and also several of their 4 bay cylindrical hoppers and the couplers on these cars are absolute GARBAGE! Half the time they wont stay coupled to each other, let alone play nice with other manufacturers couplers. I've had the cars for some time but only recently did they make it into an actual consist. I was just suprised at the apparent poor quality! It's too bad really because the cars themselves are very nice. I will definitely be switching to MTs in the near future. Note these cars are a few years old and if there have been changes for the better than apologies to IM.
Not sure which couplers you are talking about. Over the time Intermountain has used three types of couplers: first their own trucks and rigid knuckle couplers, that would couple if you lift the cars later they used Accumate trucks and couplers (identical to Atlas) now they use MTL trucks with couplers, and low profile wheels on most cars, and some cars have body mounted MTL couplers. The milk cars have trucks that might be their own design. I have several cars that came with these rigid knuckle couplers, converted them all to MTL trucks with couplers finally (mostly the old #1000-1 truck). I also changed the Accumate trucks to MTL, because I wanted the closer coupling distance. An alternative is to cut off the couplers, keep the trucks and use body mounted couplers, their standard box cars accept MTL #1023/5 couplers and have pre-drilled holes in the floor.
Most freight cars I have are with Micro Train couplers and I never had any issues with them. So you must have some older rolling stock cause even my IM diesels have no issues cause they never uncouple.
Rigid couplers usually last less than a week in my workshop. I can't stand them. Usually, I figure the cost of replacing couplers in when buying swap meet rolling stock.
I replaced quite a few of the ridged couplers with MT. Then I looked at my useage. I have long strings of reefers and coal hoppers that only run with each other. I thought converting to MT was a waste of money. I went back and put ridged trucks and couplers on cars that run together with MT on each end of the consist. I run on N Trak and our club layout and have never had any problems. I would not use them on cars that were switched or coupled to Accumate or MT couplers.
Somewhat related is the use of MT trucks and the bolster pins. I do change my IM cars to MT if they do not already have them. I now use MT bolster pins with the MT trucks. I think it allows less play in the truck or something. I seem to get better tracking and operation by doing this instead of just using the Atlas or IM bolster pin with the MT truck. My two cents.
Intermountain [IMRC] made their own knuckle couplers from the early 1990's to the early 2000's. Their kits and ready-to-roll models had them during that time; and as mentioned before, were very unreliable and probably cost IMRC lots of sales. IMRC began to use the Accumate couplers on their ready-to-roll models circa 2003... which unfortunately had a habit of 'exploding' (self-disassembly) while running. Eventually they gave-in and began to use the Micro-Trains couplers. The good thing about the IMRC boxcar and reefer bodies is that they already have a pre-drilled pad for a body mounted coupler... if you don't want to ditch the IMRC trucks... though I'm sure the Micro-trains trucks are also better.
The MTL and Atlas bolster pins have different diameters, so I always use the pins that come with the MTL trucks for MTL, and Atlas pins for Atlas trucks. IIRC Athearn trucks have the same mounting hole as Atlas, but use that pivot (or what's it called correctly) cast to the underframe. I put a piece of soda straw over this pivot and this fit the MTL trucks perfectly.
Christoph, A minor correction to your list. There is now a fourth coupler. IMRC is now, like some other companies, using a MT 1015 clone on the cars with body mounts. I know that most, and maybe all, of the cars with body mount couplers are using this made in China clone. It takes a magnifier and good eyes to see but they are minor detail differences. But, it is easy to tell if the car has the clone coupler. The announcement doesn't mention Micro-Trains and the box no longer has the black and gold Micro-Trains couplers sticker on them. For some reason IMRC and Fox Valley that were the first to use this 1015 clone have been reluctant to talk about it. And certainly hasn't publicized the information. I believe that BLMA has also recently also started using this clone but I am not 100% sure.
My latest cars from BLMA still have MT couplers. So does my latest Fox Valley cars. Not sure where this clone information is coming from..... That is not to say I do not believe it, just that I have not seen it yet in any of my purchases. I would hope the manufacturers would chime in about this and give us the straight story.
As I said - these 1015 clones are ONLY on the cars with BODY MOUNT couplers. BLMA ACF 70-ton Gons I am sure of, other BLMA cars I don't know about. If you go back and check the plastic box they no longer have the large 'Equipped with Magna-Matic' MT black and gold sticker on the box or label and the announcements will not mention MT. Any of the IMRC/FVM/BLMA cars still being shipped with truck mounted couplers will still have MT trucks and couplers. And will have the MT black and gold sticker that I believe is part of the licensing agreement to allow the sale of MT's on other companies cars. You can contact IMRC directly or Matt at Fox Valley, as I did, and they will confirm they are no longer using MT couplers on the BODY MOUNT cars, but they will decline to make any further comment regarding who is making the coupler. I did not contact BLMA because that was before I had gotten the ACF gons and didn't know that they had also started using the clone. If you know someone very well at any of the companies, they maybe more forthcoming with you than they were to me. A year or so ago there was a thread on the clone couplers on the IMRC cab-forwards. I am 95% sure that no one from IMRC responded to that thread. I am 99.9% sure no one from IMRC or FVM will respond to this thread. I do not understand the secrecy surrounding this topic from any of the manufacturers.
As I said, all of the BLMA cars I have, except the Top Gons which have Accumate couplers, have MT couplers. On the 89 foot flat cars is says it on the bottom of the jewel case as part of a bulleted list. There is no gold and black sticker, but it is listed in text as Micro-Trains Couplers. On the Dry-Flo cars that were recently released they advertise as having Micro-Trains couplers. On the ATSF Beer cars BLMA also advertises Micro-Trains couplers. They are all body mounts. The only one that does not say Micro-Trains coupler I have are the PS-2CD 4000 Covered Hoppers. I have sent an email to Craig about this. As for Intermountain, I don't really care because I don't buy their cars anymore. And the Cab Forward is not anything I run either. But if it is true, then it is sort of a case of bait and switch, slipping in a clone when there was a consistent history of using Micro-Trains couplers and hoping no one would notice. This is underhanded thinking no one would notice the difference. But one question, how well do the clones work? As for the secrecy, not getting what you thought you were paying for is the easiest way to lose customers. Another reason why I dropped Intermountain products. And I will say the same for FVM too, if this is correct, I will drop them as a source of rolling stock and locomotives too. I refuse to do business like this in my company and I also refuse business with those who do. There has to be room for honesty and integrity in business. I just cancelled my order for the 50 Southern Aluminum hoppers. And I canceled all my orders for several others. It is a shame that the manufacturers can't be open and honest about their products. And another good reason not to buy their products. Now I feel like I have to pull all my ExactRail, Trainworx and Bluford Shops cars and double check them.
Not sure what all the fuss is about. Either a product says it has MTs pre-installed, or it doesn't, in which case - it doesn't. Obvious really. I don't see a conspiracy here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I agree, I have a 49 car ore train that I use the Intermountain trucks and couplers on, they actually couple closer than comparable MTL trucks and couplers, and since they'll only be mated to one another, operating couplers are unnecessary.
Heard back from several manufacturers and they confirm the Chinese knock-offs and that is about all they say. It would be nice to know why they don't want to use Micro Trains couplers anymore, and I still have not seen or heard anything about how these perform. Do they bust apart like Accumates if the train gets a little heavy? It seems if they were going to change couplers, they could have gotten one with less slinky action, otherwise why change? It is sad that the American companies don't want to support each other. And then complain that we don't support them. Which is why so many items are getting cancelled these days, predominantly from Intermountain. A great number of cars I had on order have been cancelled as well as a few locomotives, presumably because of insufficient orders. I find it hard to believe that several ATSF cars were cancelled when they seem to be one of the best sellers. So play the games with the Chinese and get burned like Atlas did. There is a cost for low prices, and that is low quality.
Where are the low prices coming from? If they're saving money using MTL knock offs, I don't see that low cost being passed on to the consumer. I do see some low quality, so I have to agree on that point.
Glennac... I see your point... but their definitely an air of deception when a company switches a similar product without mentioning it by its new product name... it seems like they want to hide something they are doing wrong. Sent from my ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fierce using Tapatalk
