Who’s the sadist that designed the MicroTrains N scale couplers? I’ve been doing some catch-up work on my N scale rolling stock and engines, mostly changing over to MT couplers and wheelsets where necessary. What I’m really ticked off about is why, in some of the coupler conversion set-ups, you have to actually assemble the coupler? I’m not talking about putting the coupler into the draft gear box, used to that with Kadee’s in HO scale. What a pain in the rear, especially in this small of a scale.
My second gripe is the way the spring goes into the draft gear box to make the coupler swing back and forth. Another pain, and the bleeping assembly fixture doesn’t help one iota. Does anybody know of an online tutorial showing in more detail how this little Marquis de Sade object is supposed to work? There’s little in MT’s documentation that comes with the couplers that visually show what to do, just word description, which in this case doesn’t help at all.
They is small and they is frustrating and they is an incentive to keep a bottle of Chivas Regal at the workbench but they does work.
Some months back there was a brouhaha on idiotboreddotcom about Rapido couplers; one guy thought that the Rapido coupler was going by the wayside but one of the more brilliant members name somethingthespoon - he has apparently given up on some of the idiots over there some of the moderators being the most prominent - argued that the Rapido coupler was going to be around for a long time precisely because of the frustrations you outline in your post. I have misplaced my coupler assembly jig - which used to be available individually, by the way - so my recent purchases have been assembled couplers; it adds to the expense of the individual cars but that bottle of Chivas Regal now lasts two to three times longer than formerly.
Ah yes… Been there, tried that, moved onto preassembled MT couplers (whenever possible).
And the few I put together was without any bleeping assembly fixture. [xx(] Oh, those tiny springs!
Assuming you’re not going with body mounted couplers, MT makes preassembled couplers/wheels for all rolling stock. Loco’s are another matter. Most newer loco designs accept the 1015-1 (ITEM # MT-1015-1) preassembled coupler conversion. It’s very easy to install. The older truck mounted models usually require assembly (not to mention a lot of adjusting to get right).
Sorry I was probably not much help. Hang in there!
I’m not a Bourbon drinker but Jack Daniels is just over the back fence from you isn’t it???
This isn’t helping jackn2mpu but I have been fighting these things since Kadee introduced their N Scale couplers in the '70s; I wasn’t even into N Scale at the time but I had an Army buddy who was and he took part of a reenlistment bonus and ordered about a hundred sets and we sat over at his apartment on three consecutive weekends assembling these monsters. There is nothing that has made me regret converting from HO Scale than these couplers but I just grin and plug away.
I might mention to any ‘newbies’ out there that there is an old modelers trick: if you keep losing these springs from these couplers get some 2 gallon plastic bags - you might have to go to a 99¢ store to find them - and assemble them inside there; you may occasionally loose a spring out the top of the bag but most loose parts will get trapped inside.
I recently built an N scale resin kit of a CP caboose. Having heard that Z scale MT couplers are compatible with N scale I decided to use the Z scale. These body mount couplers came unassembled. After several agonizing hours I actually managed to get those things together and attached to the caboose. Seriously, I’m telling the truth, I actually did it. Honest. After working on those two Z scale couplers, the N scale couplers don’t seem so small anymore, but I still hate those springs.
By the way, the Z scale couplers work just fine and look really good on the N scale caboose.
It doesn’t hurt to have some good lighting, a pair of x225 reading glasses, and some patience. I prefer to assemble mine, because for the price of 2 assembled ones, I can get ten in a kit. I am motivated by my miserly ways…