I'm tired of fiddling with the factory coupler on my Kato NW2. I will be replacing it with a Micro-Trains. I have on hand a #001-02-051, which is an unassembled conversion. On the M/T website, they show the conversion as an 001-02-052. Is this a factory assembled pair of couplers? Or is there some other difference such as (drawbar) length?
You're not the only one to get frustrated with the factory coupler Ken!!! I fought with one for almost 30 minutes before it went into the trash. I think they are both the 2004 short underslung coupler. The 51 looks like the unassembled version The 52 looks to be the assembled version.
Thanks, Allen. I have ordered the "52" assembled version. Maybe I'll have it in hand for the coming weekend. I like my NW2, and would like to have it be in service on my vast (ha ha) mini-empire.
The only MTL's that are a pain to convert are the old Kato's wuth rapido couplers. Use the MTL conversion chart to see what coupler you need.
I looked at my NW2s, and they still have the original couplers, which are underslung........interesting thing is the knuckles are high for about 60% of my cars. Not enough to cause issues since they normally don't pull long trains, but it's noticible. I ran into the same issue on a couple other Kato locos. I have an SD70 and an SD40 that ended up with a 2004 on one end and a 1015 on the other. Without that, they wouldn't stay coupled. You are correct about the assembled/unassembled thing.
