I have an HO scale Union Pacific F40 and an N Scale Boston and Maine bocxar my F40 has no couplor in the front and my Boston and Maine has none whatsoever. They both came with "standard train set " couplors. How do I install more realistic couplors?[?]
Ditch the make believe toy trains and purchase some of the following HO or N product lines. Athrean,roundhouse,walthers,atlas,bowser,accurail, and so on. Once you buy the good stuff,purchase Kadee couplers. Kadees are strong metal couplers,easy to install and will last a life time…if you take care of them. I’m not sure if you can install, Kadees on train set gear. Maybe some one will enlighten both of us,to this matter.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Making HO scale steel by the ton!!!
For HO, Kadee is definitely the way to go. Depending on the car or loco, they may (or may not) just drop in easily. Regardless of the original mounting, however, there is always a way to put a set of Kadees into place. You might want to check with someone at your LHS who knows about coupler replacements on the front of the F40, though. My guess is, you might need a special long-shank coupler like a #26 there.
And sorry, I don’t know anything about N-scale. Someone else does, though.
Do you have just the two units? Why are they in different scales? Changing the hooks on these units would mean they would no longer couple to the other cars from the “set”.
To install different couplers depends totally on the exact brand of the model. I found for N-scale I usually just replace the entire truck with “microtrains” coupler mounted on it.