Changing Rapido couplers to knuckle (N scale)

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just bought 5 con-cor bi-level metra cars. They came with rapido couplers, but all my other engines and cars have knuckle couplers.

Is there a easy way to convert these to knuckle??

Thanks for the help!!

2

I just pull the coupler out and stick a kadee in. Sometimes it’s harder because the couplers not the right height.

3

I am talking about N scale.

4

Have you tried using a MT truck with long shank? I used MT-1038 (003 02 044) for my Atlas articulated autoracks (their accumates are lousy) and they work fine. Alternatively you could use MT body mounted couplers which will entail some work.

Cheers,

5

body mounting mt’s on long cars may not work too well on curves or crossovers. the best thing to do is get mt’s that will fit in the same coupler pocket as the rapidos or replace the trucks and couplers entirely. but it probably be cheapest to just do the couplers.

6

If you go to the microtrains website, you can access their conversions chart.

www.micro-trains.com

I didn’t see the bi-level cars listed, but for most other passenger cars they list the #1130 as the rapido replacement.

That’s the old number, the new number is #001 30 014

Hopefully that will work for you.

Craig

7

Thanks. I will check that out.