Coupler question...

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S

Screwjack

New model railroader here
The picture below shows the two types of couplers I have on my rolling stock, I am assuming the one on the left is the best of the two becuase they seem to hook together nicely and hold real well.

Is it possible to change all my rolling stock from the coupler on the right to the coupler on the left? If so, what type of coupler is the one on the left so I know what to buy?

picture.php


Not the greatest picture, but I am sure you experts can tell me what I need to know from the picture...:D

Thanks,
Tony
 
The coupler on the left is a Micro-trains (or MTL) coupler.It's possible, but not particularly cheap,to convert and usually will involve changing out the entire truck assembly with a new Micro-trains truck. A lot of the cars that have Rapidos (the other type in your picture) are old or from cheaper manufacturers and it may not be worth converting them.......that's a call you'll have to make. As alternatives, there is a coupler called a unimate, made by Red Caboose, that can be installed in the Rapido mount and are fairly cheap (like $1 to $1.50 per car) and they couple to the MT style couplers but they must be coupled and uncoupled manually. The other option I think many of us have used, to allow us to use our old cars, is to create a "conversion car" which has one couper of each type. Then you simply need to run your Rapido equiped cars in group with a conversion car on each end so they can be coupled into a train with the MT type couplers.
 
Everything i have in N scale is Micro Trains. Its a lot better than the horn hooks. Its expensive, but i think its worth it. However, on my passenger cars, i use the ones made by Kato.
 


Depending on how many cars you have, I'll second Dave's advice. When Kadee's first came out, it was way too expensive to convert all my cars at once so I ran conversion cars for years until I got them all converted, a few at a time. N scale is even trickier since you have to decide if you want to go with a body mount coupler or stay with truck mount couplers. If you have adequate curves, my preference would be for body mounts but that increases the time needed to convert each car.
 
Also make sure you have good eyes and steady hands. Large hands make it harder as well. One day after taking nearly an hour to change a single coupler I decided to switch to HO. They were just too small for my eyes and hands.
 
In the meantime, so you can continue to run things and get a feel for whether you want to convert the fleet, why not make a few conversion cars? A different coupler at each end. That should let you connect all of your rolling stock.

Just my nickel's worth.

edited: Doh! - I just saw the comment on the coversion cars above. Sorry for the redundancy.
 
Wow! why didn't I think of the conversion car? That's why I come to the experts, thanks.

I made up one conversion card earlier tonight, excellent idea, works great!:D:D:D
 
Tony, we've all been through it before so you might as well profit at our expense. :)

BTW, I was just looking at your photo again and that car on the right is a good example of why you might not want to convert every car. It appears to be an ice reefer but is missing the left hand hatch, which is covered by a standard boxcar roofwalk. An ice reefer has a straight through roofwalk so there's access to the ice hatches. The roof itself bears no resemblance to any roof I've seen on an ice reefer. The car on the left has a roofwalk painted the same color as the roof and the roof detail is a very good representation of a Murphy roof design. As you get more experience, these are the kinds of things that will irritate you as you look more critically at your rolling stock fleet.
 
UP2CSX said:
Tony, we've all been through it before so you might as well profit at our expense. :)
Click to expand...

I was thinking more along the lines of "learning from you rexperience", not actually "profiting at anyone's expense":D

UP2CSX said:
BTW, I was just looking at your photo again and that car on the right is a good example of why you might not want to convert every car. It appears to be an ice reefer but is missing the left hand hatch, which is covered by a standard boxcar roofwalk. An ice reefer has a straight through roofwalk so there's access to the ice hatches. The roof itself bears no resemblance to any roof I've seen on an ice reefer. The car on the left has a roofwalk painted the same color as the roof and the roof detail is a very good representation of a Murphy roof design. As you get more experience, these are the kinds of things that will irritate you as you look more critically at your rolling stock fleet.
Click to expand...


The car on the right I think is an older Bachamn boxcar which I think were not as detailed and the car on the left which is an newer MTL boxcar. It is my understanding that the MTL's are much higher quality and more finely detailed.

Thanks to all who provide the advice and guidance that I and other newbies ask for and need to progress into this hobby. This hobby is proving to be a very fun and enjoyable adventure so far (and expensive, but what hobby isn't expensive these days:eek:)

There is some much to learn in so many different areas. I for one really appreciate being able to get online and say "hey what do you guys think about this, or that" and then put those comments with my own thoughts and come up with ideas and things to think about on my first layout.

Thanks again guys...:D
 
Hey, most of my lessons were at my expense, so deduct anything you learn from your modeling budget. :) Older Bachmann N scale cars were just an approximation of what the real thing looked like. Modern MTL cars are as faithful to the prototype as you can be in N scale. That's what I mean about things irritating you as you gain more knowledge. That MTL car will always look good but you'll grow to hate that Bachmann car. :D
 


More experience

Usually, you won't go wrong with a Micro-trains car. They, except for a few during the early years, always have the knuckle couplers, and good trucks, as well as details, paint, and some even have doors and hatches that operate.
most anything from Intermountain, Red Caboose, and now Athearn, are good. The newer offerings from Atlas are good, but almost anything from Blechmann isn't worth the time to make it good.
A good car or engine is always good, but a bad car or engine, well,...
 
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