N Scale couplers

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello,

My brother is into N scale trains (I am in HO) and he wishes to ask a question

How can you fix broken couplers? I looked at them and they look fairly complex. Are you pretty much screwed?

Are they fixable?

Thanks!

Chris

2

If you are speaking of knuckle type couplers, Micro Trains, Accumate and such I would doubt they are repairable. As you said they are fairly complex and very small components. There is simply not enough gluing area on any of the parts to get a good bond. If your brother is using Rapido style (like are used in train sets and most out of the box equipment) they are cheap enough to replace.

3

If you have rapidos the stock couplers it came with then yes you can replace them
however if you have been modeling for a bit and have converted to micro trains couplers and one happens to break it is possible to fix depending on how bad it is
i,e break a knuckle or lip shank lose draft gear lid lose the centering spring lose the coupler itself these are some of the things i have done and was able to repair the damage That is if you have Good eyesight a steady hand and patience and the knowledge of what to do then yes you can repair MT couplers i have done it a dozen times or so not always on the first try

regards

larry
but if you break the truck in half you can still use the coupler simply cut it off the truck and body mount it to the car

4

Micro-Trains sells most of their couplers as kits, and also parts to repair broken couplers. As larry said, it takes some patience, skill, and good (or at least assistable) eyesight. Any N scaler should get his hands on a Micro-Trains manual, and get the special tools Micro-Trains sells to make coupler assembly easier. (An Optivisor or equivelent is also good to have.)

Rapido couplers are very simple to repair. The hardest part would be ordering the necessary parts (the coupler, centering spring, and truck frame if the boss that holds the spring is gone).

In most instances, at least with freight cars, the simplest fix would be to replace the whole truck with its coupler assembly.