Walthers Rapido Coupler Swap to MTL

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

What’s involved in swapping out the Rapido Couplers on a Walthers N scale box car to have magnetic couplers like my Kato trains? Would I have to completely replace the trucks?

Are the couplers on Kato trains what they call MTL or Magnematic?

Also, where would I be able to get the parts?

Walthers trucks with Rapido couplers

Thanks

2

The easiest way, in my opinion, would be to slice the existing couplers from the trucks, at the flat portion where the spring ends near the pin holding the truck in place.
The best way to do this is to remove the trucks from the car and use a utility knife to slice-off the unwanted portion.
You could then replace the couplers with body-mounted Kadees. See the Kadee website for the appropriate couplers to use.
You may need to adjust the height of either the couplers or the car itself in order to get reliable performance, but it’s not difficult to do.

Wayne

3

Thanks Wayne. It seems like Kadee only has HO and G scale couplers, but Micro Trains makes N scale couplers.

It seems like the main things to know are whether you need body mount or truck mount, and whether you need short, medium, or long shank.

There is a train store not far from me that carries them, so I think my best bet would be to go there and make sure I’m getting the right stuff.

4

MicroTrains and Kadee were the same company originally. N scale conversions are on this page

5

Thanks for the link. The Kato page only lists locomotives. You can also check this page:

https://www.micro-trains.com/index.php?_route_=n-scale/magne-matic-couplers

6

oops, you’re right