My son brought me some really nice Tomix Japanese railcars and loco from his trip to Japan. They all have Rapido couplers. The MT conversion list is very short on Tomix conversions, and does not include any of my railcars or loco. I'd like to just convert the couplers, and leave the original draft box intact. Is there a good way to measure the draft box's height above the rails, and convert that to a coupler p/n? I looked on the MT site, and did not find anything like that, just their conversion list, which mentions Tomix, but not the specific loco & railcars. I would think that Rapido couplers would have a standard height above the rails just like MT couplers do, and thus a "standard" conversion, but there are many, many options. I guess the draft box heights must vary, along with varying relative height Rapido couplers to make up the standard height above rails. Any thoughts?
What does the couple pocket look like on the cars? Are they the same between all the cars or do they vary? I collect European trains which also use rapido by default. There are 3 distinct coupler pocket types they use but most if not all now use NEM 355 standard. Not sure if that is also true for Japanese stuff.
I recommend going to MT web site, the exploded view diagrams could help you. Maybe you can find a coupler that fits the pockets. https://www.micro-trains.com/publicfiles/mtl_couplerdiagrams.pdf
Frequently, I've found that Kato and Tomix use the same stuff. Without seeing the boxes, I can't say, but if you're lucky these will fit. They fit in place of most other Rapidos. KATO N scale Option Parts Coupler N 20 pieces 11-702 | eBay
Thanks! Found them on Amazon for $7.99. Getting two sets. Should be here Wednesday. If they don't work, I'm not out much.
I have found that Kato Magnetic couplers 923500 short or 923501 long work better with Microtrains couplers. The 11-702 ones install easier though.
