While using the NMRA gauge for coupler height on my Nscale cars the couplers are low. they are also attached to the trucks on a tongue that holds the coupler box. Is there an easy way to adjust the height up without risking breaking the tongue?
Different solutions apply to different brands of cars,so it may be helpful to know what brand(s) of cars you have.In some cases,the real cure is to replace the truck altogether.
If the couplers are Rapido, replace them with either truck mount or body mount MicroTrains for better appearance and operation.
If the couplers are MicroTrains, the fix is to purchase and install body mount couplers (expensive and often tedious) cut the truck mounted coupler boxes from the trucks or replace the trucks with couplerless trucks (expensive). Then adjust the coupler height using shims between the coupler and the car if too high or raising the height of the car on the trucks if too low. Note, body mounted couplers require broader curve radius than truck mounts but potentially slightly more reliable operation if mounted properly . If you have extremely broad curves you could save a little money mounting the removed truck mounted coupler boxes on the body.
However, no adjustment in coupler height is necessary if all the couplers are close to the same height. If the metal pins snag on the track they can be bent slightly to clear.
Thanks for the great advice. Alot of the cars I have are Micro Trains - will follow your advice.
First, I would purchase a Micro Trains coupler height gauge - the NMRA Standards gauge will not be easy to work with in this case. Since you have M-T trucks/couplers, I would assume they are correct or very close already.
One of the problems is N scale is that the defacto manufactuer standard was truck mounted couplers for many years. This does allow the couplers to sag at times, and any uneven track will magnify the miss-alignment.
Jim
I just switched from N scale to HO, BUT, when I was in N scale, most of my trucks were Micro-Trains with truck mounted couplers. Since I was not going to be taking any of my cars to other layouts, I decided to make the coupler height of the truck mounted Micro-Trains couplers MY standard. If I had a car that needed body mounted couplers, I set their height to conform to the truck mounted ones. Once I decided on my standard, I had no trouble.
Coupler height standards are more for manufacturers than anything else, although some modelers and clubs REQUIRE your cars to conform to them.