I have three Athearn observation cars (rounded back end) that have truck mounted couplers on one end but there is no coupler on the rear end. That has never troubled me unntil now because I have built a passenger station addition to my layout and I have no way to couple the observation car to a switcher engine.
Has anyone attempted to mount a coupler on the rear end of the Athearn observation car? Is it necessary to cut into the rear portion of the car? Would you use a body mounted coupler pad or try to fashion a truck mounted coupler?
Kadee has a conversion kit for an Athearn observation car but it presupposes that a truck mounted coupler is already in place.
Yes, I have, in fact all my round tail observation cars have a rear coupler. On the Athearn one, like most of them, you will need to cut the body to clear the coupler. I simply used the Kadee #5 with the pocket and mounted it with a 2-56 screw. For body mounting couplers, pick up a pack each of Evergreen styrene strip .02 and .04 by 1/4 inch (.250) and use this to shim the base so the coupler is at the right height.
This has been a design flaw on a number of observation cars for years. Rivarossi’s old lightweight obs had a dummy coupler on the rear. An observation car is the one car in a passenger consist that needs to be turned. If your schematic does not allow for turning the entire consist of a passenger train, the tail car needs to be turned by itself, either on a wye or a turntable.
I have a wye track configuration entering and exiting the passenger station area, far from the turntable, so I have the capability to turn the observation car. That is why I need a coupler on the rear end for the switcher engine to grab the observation car.
Interesting solution with the #5 Kadee coupler. Has anyone installed a coupler without cutting into the rear tail. I was looking at the possibility of a Kadee long underset coupler but not sure how to mount it. Wondered about Jay Bee body mounted coupler pad as a possibility.
An underset coupler is only 1/16 inch height difference from the centerset coupler. If you look at pictures of the prototype cars, most of them have a rear coupler and it is set up into the body sheething. The models were generally the only ones that didn’t “notch” the body at this point.
You can buy the more expensive mounts, but they do the same thing as making your own from strip styrene. Even these mounts need to be adjusted for proper coupler height and will still need a clearance notch in the body.
The body mount coupler using Kadee 5 and its box with sheet styrene shims is the way I did the rear coupler on the Athearn Obs cars I have. The Kadee height gauge is a must too.
Build up everything loose and get the coupler height correct before cementing the shims and top half of the coupler box together. After everything is dry drill and tap for a 2-56 screw to hold the coupler box cover in place. A notch is going to be required in the skirting at the rear of the car.