ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Been looking into a new diesel and some rolling stock. Seems they all have different couplers (different brands) Kato has magnetic knuckle couplers, Bachmann has 2 (knuckle couplers and rapido), and I have no idea what Micro-Trains use and when I look up couplers, I find MANY options.
I'm assuming some are better than others? I also noticed different lengths - short, medium, long.
Need some advise sorting this out.
I currently have a Bachmann GP40 and long passenger cars - Clock-wise running is fine, but counter-clock-wise on the layout / I sometimes loose the last car - comes uncoupled.
One of the cars was involved in a wreck (gotta love the grand-kids LOL) but didn't appear to have any damage but it seems to 'rock' more around turns than the others.
????
The couplers on everything I have is I assume standard Bachmann. No knuckles. Rapido???
Gonna hi-jack my own thread _ Does anyone 'weight' their cars?
Most people would recommend Micro-trains couplers as the first choice. Atlas uses their own Accumate couplers, and those 2 play well together. Kato and Bachmann are supposed to be compatible, but Kato couplers don't work too reliably with other brands (or even other Kato couplers at times) and Bachmann couplers are a little bigger and sometimes don't play nice with Microtrains or Accumates.
As far as the uncoupling, could be a lot of things, but most likely something is binding the coupler from swinging in the coupler box. Does it uncouple on a curve or straight section? Is it always the same car?
On the wobble, you might have a bent axle, or the pin that holds the truck on may not be pushed in all the way anymore.
If you current couplers are not Knuckles then they are Rapidos......those are the 2 choices for type.
There is a formula for weighting your cars, but I run them as they come out of the box unless they don't run reliably. If they cause problems I'll add weight.
I checked the coupler on the car and sometimes it 'sticks' to the left on an outside curve (or just moving by hand).
Doesn't stick all the time. Maybe some gunk? Have to take it apart yet.
As for weighting; do you put the weights over the trucks, or in the center of the car?
I model in HO, but I add weight to cars using metal nuts from the hardware store. I keep a selection of nuts of different weights and glue the nuts to the inside of the car over both trucks. I use a postal scale to determine the weight of both the rolling stock and individual nuts.
SoI just picked up an Atlas Alco RS 4/5 engine with the accumate coupler. All my rolling stock are Kato and Micro trains with similar knuckle style couplers. I also have an another Atlas EMD which came with a compatible knuckle style coupler. I could change out the coupler on my new Altas engine right? and if so is there a universal kit I can buy?
The link is for HO.....sounds like you have N? If so your first step is figuring out how old your loco is. Are the couplers attached to the trucks, or are they attached to the pilot ? If it's the latter, you can just buy some MT 1015 couplers and the conversion takes about 5 minutes. If they are truck mounted, you're looking at a little more work. MT makes a couple different types of conversions one version mounts into the Rapido pocket, the other closes in the open pilot and converts the loco to the same setup as newer locos, and then uses the same 1015 coupler. Looks like for an Atlas RSD you get the pilot conversion, but also shows a version that just uses the coupler. http://www.micro-trains.com/conversions/sheet001.pdf
Yes it is N scale and they're mounted to the pilot does that make it a newer version? I'm learning a lot about this engine and apparently Atlas and Kato were in business together at one time and two versions were released a kato/atlas version an atlas version after the partnership ended.
Could I pull the couplers off another Micro train rolling stock in the meantime? Or is it not worth the trouble
Yes, you have the newer version. The Kato version had the truck mount coupler. Atlas has had other companies produce locos for them. Rivarossi made a lot of their early N scale stuff.
You can't use the coupler out of rolling stock..........you need the coupler box that's permanently mounted on the truck. If you already had the box on the loco, you could swap the guts if you broke a knuckle. Unless you have a piece of rolling stock that has body mount couplers, those are usually MT1015s and you could swap it into the loco. It IS possible to cut the couplers off the trucks.........some people do that and then use the couplers as body mount couplers, but I don't think the boxes are the right size to fit in the mounting area on the locos. And then you'd need to replace the trucks on the car, and the couplers are cheaper than the truck, so probably not worth the effort.
You could swap the couplers off your other loco or if you just want to test your new loco, just swap one coupler and then you can still pull your cars with either loco, but only in one direction.
Trucks SHOULD have a little wobble, so they rock and roll.
Kadee and MT (microtrain) are one and the same.
Provide the knuckles are working smoothly, no binding etc, HEIGHT is often a problem. Minor changes in grade can cause uncoupling if the heights are slightly off.
MY Kato locos seem to work very well with KD/MTL couplers.
My personal pref is to install MTL trucks w/couplers and no worries about coupler height. I do have a std MTL/KD gage to check coupler height and car bottom height for body mounting.
Sometime I use the tiny/thin plastic washer that comes with the MTL trucks. That is usually to prevent coupler/car conflicts especially rubbing or catching with the trip pin.
Strictly speaking, Kadee and Microtrains aren't the same thing, although they are related. Many years ago they came from the same parent company. It was family owned, and 2 brothers split the company up........one became Microtrains and is devoted to N scale. The other became Kadee and is totally HO scale. There is no cross-over in scales between the two companies.
If the car uncouples one direction and not the other could be part of the knuckle is missing. Can still find some of the old Kadee couplers that was manufactered when as MRLdave wrote before the split.
