I acquired a good amount of MT couplers which were cut off MT trucks and am wondering how I can mount them on my rolling stock. All the info I have found deals with installing specific MT conversions on specific cars. Has anyone done any of this using these couplers? I would prefer to body mount but would consider truck mount if necessary.
To mount MT couplers on cars, you need a flat mounting surface on the cars that is the correct height from the track. An MT coupler height gauge is almost a must for this. Then the coupler assembly must have a small hole in it for the screw. Next you drill and tap a hole in the car where you want to mount the coupler. This takes a 00-90 screw, tap drill, and tap.
However, I don’t think that using the couplers that have been cut off of MT trucks will work on sharp curves. The draft gear (box) is kind of wide and may not let the trucks swivel as much as they need to when going around a curve. For N scale, I have found that the truck mounted couplers seem to work best.
I have a bunch of truck mounted couplers on about 400 freight cars , I looked at the possibility to re-use the truck mounts for body mounts and determined that the boxes are waaay to big for that application ,
I wonder if Micro trains has and or sells just draft gear boxes to convert the truck mounts saving the actual couplers for re-use?
Randy
Hi,
Most of my fleet car is from MTL so I try to reuse most of the couplers.
I also use them on Atlas, Intermountain and other brand, but check well the frame height.
One of the best thing to do for reliable operation is body mount couplers and use only one brand of them; MTL coupler is for me the best for Nscale.
I have reused most of the cut off MT couplers on my rolling stock; however I didn’t use them on Hopper and tank car because the screw hole come to far on the small frame on this kind of car.
The only drawback is you couldn’t use sharp curves, nothing under a 14.5".
Large curves are better looking and have better running qualities, so I didn’t use curves under 16" on my layout.
MTL 1027 coupler is the easiest to use for hopper and MTL 1015 for tank car or a 1025 is a good choice.
Passenger cars need often a special approach so I didn’t use the cut off couplers for them.
For all the gondola or box car type the cut off truck couplers are a good opportunity.
If You have a lot to mount, I suggest you to make a small jig to find the middle of the frame of the car, and the distance from the end of the car and the hole; a small piece of brass sheet which is angled at 90° is a simple way to do it.
I also cut the aft corner of the coupler box in slight angle and sometimes part of the end of the box to allow more play of the truck.
The mounting is like all other MTL conversion; check the height of the frame whith a MTL gauge , don’t forget to use the proper wheels you want to use (33 or 36) drill and tap the hole for the screw, fix the coupler box and put a puff of MTL grease em in the coupler box.
Replace the truck and wheels and check the pin height; when done roll the car on a piece of track whith a MTL magnet to see if the coupler work fine, the finest You could in fact; it’s the best way to obtain good performances.
Optionnal, add wheight to the car (check NMRA rules),most of the cars are to light and check
Marc, Thankyou for a very informative post. [Y]