I’ve been in HO scale for a while and am changing to N scale. Being new to N I have a lot to learn. I’ve made a few purchases on Ebay and picked up some rolling stock with rapido couplers. I want to change them to Micro Trains type. The rolling stock has couplers attached to trucks so I’m going to have to change the trucks.
My question is: how do you take the trucks off the cars? They seem to have a button looking object with a small hole in the middle. Does this need to be drilled out and tapped for a new screw? Or am I overlooking something?
Thats most probably just a press in pin. You can remove the wheels from the truck (to give you some room to work) and then just pinch the head of the pin between your fingernails and pull it out. Many of the Micro Trains packs come with new pins in the pack too.
To remove the trucks on ALL N scale Equipment, just pull…or use a little screw driver to pry it off.
Micro trains makes replacement trucks for many N scale applications. But comming from HO scale, you might consider body mounting your couplers right off the bat to get more reliable equipment.
Have you thought about Pizza cutters vs low profile wheels? This will impact your choice of track. The most realistic track out the right now is atlas code 55 series, and it REQUIRES low profile wheels. The most reliable (and expensive) track is Peco…but you probably know that.
I would not recommend this as you are new to N-scale. A majority of N-scale rolling stock comes equipped with truck mounted couplers which are typically reliable. If you swap out the entire truck (coupler and wheel set) and replace them with Micro-Train (MT) trucks, then you should have very reliable cars. It’s the easiest route and the most reliable solution - albeit the more expensive way to go.
Once you get more comfortable with the scale, then (if you want) I’d recommend experimenting with body mount couplers. They take more skill to properly assemble because not all cars are designed to easily accept them.
You should be able to pull the trucks right off. That is, unless it’s screwed into place like some Bachmann cars. Like you, I hated the Rapido couplers. For me though, the easiest solution was to swap out the trucks for Atlas ones. These already have knuckle couplers installed. They aren’t quite the same as MicroTrains couplers, but they’ll work together.
The Atlas trucks will fit nearly every type of car. However, if you have Bowser hoppers, you’ll have to ream out the center hole slightly to clear the car’s truck bolster.
I second the motion on truck-mounted couplers. It’s not just a matter of scaling down the physics - what works in HO is not necessarily going to work in N given different manufacturers and standards. I find any car I have with MT trucks and truck-mounted couplers is as reliable, or in most cases more reliable, than my body-mounted coupler cars.
Agreed – MT’s are superior. However, Atlas and MT’s will work together.
As a background, Atlas’s knuckle coupler of choice is the ‘Accumate’. They will couple with MT’s just fine, but there have been numerous past issues with these couplers coming apart under strain and/or trip pins falling out. While these issues have been addressed (and I think fixed), there are still many of older couplers on the market and it’s impossible to tell new from old – until trouble starts. I will say that Atlas does stand behind their product and will offer replacements for those that are bad. When they work, they work fine. I personally run half my fleet with them, but I prefer MT’s – especially in longer trains.
Wow…listen to all the high posters go after what I have posted.
Body mount couplers ARE more reliable than truck mounted couplers in ALL cases. The reason that Micro trains uses pizza cutter wheels is because of the truck mounted couplers…they are there to counter-act the torque the is caused by backing up a car with truck mounted couplers.
I guess if you are a shake-and-bake-watch-the-train-go-roundy-roundy modeler you should go the truck-mounted-pizza-cutter-toy-train-look way, but this guy is comming from HO where in the dark ages we had truck mounted couplers (remember thoes days? I do). But if you have ANY skills with drilling a little hole and want to OPERATE YOUR LAYOUT. it is MUCH CHEAPER AND BETTER TO HAVE BODY MOUNTED COUPLERS IN ANY SCALE PERIOD (save the tin-plate ones). Telling anyone to go the truck mounted route is just an assumption of their modeling ‘skills’ and a trowback to the ‘dark’ years of our hobby.
David
PS
I forgot that most N scalers are shake-and-bake-roundy-roundy-type modelers. My bad.
Wow, that’s pretty over-the-top. I’ll take the high road and not attack your modeling skills in kind. I stand by my layout and my modeling accomplishments, thank you.
An example of craftsmanship in N scale… This 2-8-2 was a 3-month project for me, producing a Pennsy L1s using a GHQ conversion kit on a Kato mechanism. No shake-and-bake here, just lots of drilling, filing, soldering, and the like![8D]
But, the rear coupler is truck mounted![;)]
I’m putting this in here not to show off but to indicate that N scale can be a craftsman’s scale as well.
Even though I am pretty new to these forums, I quickly figured out that you are a serious modeler who does good work. You and several others are already in my “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen” list, so I pay extra attention to your posts. I have seen some pictures of your layout and think they are great. I am not trying to butter you up for something, only to say that I don’t think you need to sink to someone else’s lower level. He is entitled to his opinion on trucks, that is ok. You don’t need to justify yourself, your work speaks for itself. I would be very proud if my layout and trains look and run as well as yours reportedly do.
davidmbedard : Grow up, there is no need for name calling and mud slinging in here. You are welcome to your opinion, don’t put others down just because they have a different one.
Dave, I think that was a VERY poor display of expressing an opinion, as well as showing no respect for anyone else’s. Not a good way to set a positive impression that people will listen to.
By the way, are you an N-scale modeler? The nasty generalization you made in your PS would lead me to think you are not.
There are quite a few of us in N scale who can build. True craftsmanship knows no bounds when it comes to scale.
Built on a Model Power 4-4-0 chassis. The coupler is truck mounted on the tender.
These are a couple of projects in the works. These are built on Kato power chassis (part # 11-105). Oh yeah, and truck mounted couplers all the way around.
I’d even suggest that those who need something off the beaten path in N scale have no other option but to break out the tools and get to some real modeling. There’s lots of things that modelers want in N scale that the manufacturers haven’t released.
All I see are oversized flanges, oversized couplers, globbed-on-paint and a lack of ANY detail. You make good 3 foot models (they look good from 3 feet), but those models fall short.
Bruce…it sure is nice here under the bridge…isnt it? Oh…and putting together a GHQ kit is NOT being a ‘craftsman’.
Here is a CPR T1b ‘Selkirk’ made completely of Brass stock (loco and tender). Mechinism is an extended Kato Mike drive with proper valve work.
Try being a Canadian Modeler when NOTHING is available. You cant even get this locomotive in Brass. And of course…it runs like a Kato.
I apologize if I am being short…but I am sick and tired of people ‘high horsing’ in this hobby. The fella asked a question…I answered it CORRECTLY, and you guys came in and shot me down. I was just returning the favor
