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I bought 6 of these Walthers Autoracks for $5 each at a local swap meet. They are in excellent shape except they are all missing the couplers and coupler boxes. What do I use to replace them? I assume they need couplers with long shanks, but what about the boxes?
Well even if you did, I'd be willing to bet that they don't have parts! This will leave you having to build something to replace that assembly.
I would recommend using an Evergreen styrene channel. Drill a hole in one end to go over the peg near the truck, and attach whatever coupler you want into the other end. Place a strip of styrene drilled out to fit over the other two pegs to act as a keeper and support for the channel. Paint to match. You may also want to completely remove the rear peg, and drill it out for a 2-56 screw.
The only other choice is to body mount a long shank coupler directly to the body, but doing this will raise the minimum radius these cars require up above 24" and more than likely to 28-30".
Carey said exactly what I was going to tell you.
Look at a carwith the swing couplers and copy from that if you can.
Five bucks each, eh? That's a great deal, looke like IM wheelsets on them.
As for couplers, walthers makes a swinging coupler pocket conversion for athearn 89' flat cars. You can use these on the autoracks also. It's part of there cornerstone series.
As for couplers, walthers makes a swinging coupler pocket conversion for athearn 89' flat cars. You can use these on the autoracks also. It's part of there cornerstone series.
They're in stock at my LHS as well. They will fit in the autoracks quite well actually. They will fit the autoracks better than the original setup!
With the original setup, the lid is held on by a screw. Too tight, and it won't swing. Too loose, and it droops. There's no in-between. The new ones use 3 screws (you'll have to drill and tap 2 screw holes for this. If the weight is over the screw holes, remove the weight, install plastic screws, then trim the screws flush, and replace the weight) with a set height so there's no binding or drooping.
Thanks for the help guys. I will look into those suggestions.
I arrived in the last hour of the swap meet to see what was left over and the guy was just trying to get rid of stuff. I don't know why I bought them though, since my layout might have too tight curves. Oh well.
