I’m about to replace couplers on all cars with Micro’s, have about 1/3 of all cars are Micro Train. Looking for opinions as to whether I should use truck or body mounted couplers and why (N Scale), have 2 opposing opinions from hobby shops.
Thanks,
John[:)]
Truck mounted and body luntedboth havetheir advantages, the main onesIcanthink of beingthat truck mounted derail easier, but go aroundsharper curves, and look less realistic. Body mounted have less ability to go around sharp curves, derail less, and look more realistic.
Thanks much, so far I feel that is the logical way to go.
John
I’ve found through the years that body mounted couplers in N scale are way more of a pain than they are worth, but I’m sure others feel differently. While body mounted couplers are more prototyical, the truck mounted couplers are far more forgiving when pulling long trains (50+ cars) through grades and curves. Most N scale cars are underweight from the manufacturer, and underweight cars with body mounted couplers will have stringlining problems. Truck mounted couplers negate this to some extent, but have their own quirks.
Now that I have converted almost exclusively to the Intermountain cars, I have converted them all to metal wheels, left the MT truck mounts in place and have had very good luck . Different brands will also yield different results of course, so play around with a few and see what you end up liking… [:D]
Jeff
I body mounted couplers on 10 cars as a test and couldn’t see that much of a difference between the body mounts and truck mounts on my industrial switching layout.My suggestion would be to body mount couplers on some of your cars and see how they suit you.[:D]
I would say the most important thing is to go all one way or the other. Most problems seem to happen where a body mounted car is coupled to a truck mount. This is because the body mouted coupler will be swinging toward the outside of the curve while the truck mounted will follow the center line of the track.
Gentleman,
Thank you one and all
Some very thought provoking opinions, unfortunately for me, they all seem logical and this is exactly why I tapped the minds of the forum.
When body mounting, are there any inherent problems one might encounter other than centering and height adjustment?
Thanks again
John
Body mounting will be better for switching operations especially if you will be pushing long strings of cars, but only if they are properly mounted in location and alignment. If not properly aligned they are worse than truck mounts for both pushing and pulling.
Cars with pre-drilled mounting holes are easy to convert and there are or have been after market conversions available for a few otherwise hard to convert cars such as hoppers.
If scale appearance is your real concern, body mount using the Z coupler . It is closer to the correct size for N scale. The Z and N couplers will work together so you don’t have to convert all at once. I admire the appearance of a well detailed model with body mounted Z couplers.
I personally am not bothered by the truck mounts in N scale and don’t think conversion to body mounting is worth the effort for either appearance or operation on a layout.