Athearn uneven coupler height on engines and dummies


M

Mister Bill

Member
What do you do when an Athearn engine or dummy does not give the right coupler height?

You cannot put a washer under the truck to make it higher like rolling stock.

Do you bend the frame a little of file off a little metal if it is too low?

Bill
 
Like Charles says, Kadee makes long, medium and short couplers in both overset and underset configurations. They are numbered in the 20's (21-29). Use the overset style if your existing couplers are too high, use the underset when they are too low. These all use the #5 centering spring and boxes. If you want the "whisker" style, then use #'s 141-149.
http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/coupler.htm

Willie
 
I've noticed that almost every car and many locos have this problem as they are built. Even 35 dollar recent highly-detailed HO scale cars. Without lots of shimming attention coupler pins seem to sag and snag on switches. Old bluebox locos were dimensioned to work with those old horrible "horn-hook" abominations -- I'm guessing that that started the problems. But why the legacy continues with newer offerings in puzzling. :)
 
Many of the newer Athearn RTR freight cars and engines are the same old Blue Box and Roundhouse cars with added detail like metal wheels, KD knock-off couplers, etched metal roofwalks and end crossovers, with improved and more detailed paint. Some of the Walthers cars are done the same way. I don't own any older Atlas cars so I cannot comment on them.
Willie
 
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