HELP !! With more newer n scale engines from Atlas having the Accumate couplers , where can I look on the Internet to find conversions for my older engines ? I have Kato engines that need changed over as well.
i have many new locos and cars that came equiped with accumates. i have been having quite a bit of trouble with them and will change them to microtrains couplers. unscheduled uncoupling while passing over switches and extra force needed to couple along with the difficulty of uncoupling with a rixpic are not acceptable. i’ve had no trouble with the MT’s until the accumates came along. the ho accumates aren’t much better and also uncouple unwanted very often.
Well, so far so good on my end with either make. I just wanna get rid of those generic couplers.
M-T and Atlas are good couplers in N. They’ll couple to each other without problems. I think the Atlas ones look more like the real ones.
I think the Kato couplers look the best, not necesarily work the best. N scalers are at a disadvantage, as there are no ready made conversion couplers that HO scale has had. We have to deal with different ones on different equipment, and I have several “converter” cars because I have cars with rapido couplers on them. I have seen couplers meant to replace these, even used a couple, but they aren’t very good, look terrible, and are scarce to find. This is one of those things that manufacturers in nscale should look into, we can’t all go through all that conversion stuff. At least most new equipment has the better couplers on already.
The Rapido coupler has been the standard in N-scale for many years (too many), and it wasn’t until the past five years that the knuckle coupler finally took over as the standard. Some blame Micro-Trains for this because they refused to license their knuckle coupler early on. Whatever the reason, there is still a lot of older Rapido equipped equipment out on the used market, and not too many people want to pay the price to buy one and then pay extra to replace the truck/coupler.
So I think the curse of the Rapido will be staying with us for a while longer. That is unless an N-scale manufacturer wises up and comes out with a less costly (and reliable) replacement truck/coupler line. I’m not holding my breath for that one though!