I recently acquired an older Atlas Yellow Box GP38 made by Roco. It’s still equipped with the original horn hook couplers, mounted to the shell with metal pins. I want to install Kadees, but have a couple of issues:
I’m having trouble pulling out the metal pins.There’s no slot in the head, so they’re not screws that I can back out. Is this simply a matter of getting a good grip with a pair of needle nose pliers and giving a few strong yanks, or is there a more refined technique to get those rascals out?
Secondly, while I haven’t test-fit anything, it sure looks like a Kadee coupler box will interfere with the loco trucks. Will the box, in fact, fit with no issues, or do I need to be thinking about an alternative installation method?
Surely there are others who’ve dealt with this already. What’s the secret?
I have a GP38 and GP40 from the good old days. The pin has a spiral like theard to it. When you pull up on it turn it counter clockwise like backing out a screw. If you pull it out and strip the hole just put a drop of glue on it when you reinstall it to keep it in the hole. As for coupler I put a strange one in back in the 80’s then someone told me a #5 would work; guess what a #5 and coupler box works just fine.
You can use a number five,you usually have to do a bit of trimming to fit ( been a while since I’ve seen one ) I remember having to trim off the ears on the side of a number five box. The fives can hang a bit low,I remember reading in Kadee’s coupler documentation that the recommended for those was either the number 27’s or 37’s which are a five but have and over set or under set shank so the heights match up better.
I was able to remove the pin. I had to cut away the old coupler & grasp the exposed pin shaft with some needle nose pliers. After some rasslin’ and wranglin’ it pulled out. The shank of the pin isn’t threaded, but has longitudinal ridges that make for a very snug friction fit.
Now here’s the next issue. A Kadee coupler box doesn’t fit. I’d have to enlarge the slot in the shell for the coupler shank, and the end of the coupler box would project out the end of the engine quite a bit. That’s not good. Plan B is to use a #158 whisker coupler held in place with the original pin. The whiskers will push against the sides of the shank slot (and actually project outside the slot by just a tad) to keep it centered. That might also help with the low coupler height issue, as the head will be the thickness of a coupler box higher than a standard installation.
I ran out of evening last night, but will give it another go tonight. Thanks for the replies. Are all of the Austrian-made Yellow Boxes like this? If it is, this will be my last one. I’ll stick with the Kato-made ones.
Kadee #7 couplers and draft gear fit. The sides and top of the draft gear on the loco end need to be filed out, to make the oipening wide enough to allow the #7 draft gear box to fit, and bring it to the correct height.
I’ll second the #7, but there is an easier way. You can slip a #5 spring into the unmodified loco draft gear, then add the appropriate 30 series coupler–if I recall, the #7 has the shank underset, which you need so that the coupler has the correct height. Then add a washer and the pin (or better yet, drill and tap for a #2-56 screw). The coupler will work, and you don’t have to modify the engine.