I'm considering buying a custom Civil War flat car. The thing is, it has nicely painted MT Archbar trucks. I don't want to break anything, but the car doesn't help me, if it can't take the link pin. I am also considering turning the trucks around and doing a body mount link pin, but I'm not sure the undercarriage has the clearance, or that it wouldn't look stupid.
Marty, Don't know if this will work for you or not, but I have the Atlas 4-4-0 without the link pin coupler and was wondering how to easily convert it for the Civil War cars. I took the coupler apart, removed the coupler pieces and found the link pin snap fit perfectly on the mounting screw through the center of the coupler. The cars look much better behind a well running Atlas loco now. Hope this helps. CBG
CBG, I'm doing exactly that, with the Atlas 4-4-0 (it's neat). but there is no way I'm buying the sets, just for the Cannon. I found a custom car, with a Cannon, that looks great, I'd just need to convert it to the link pin. As it is custom, and i'm not that artistic, I don't want to damage it, so thats why I'm wondering if the MT trucks are an easy conversion.
I have not done this with the truck mounted couplers yet, but I have used the links as drawbars for intermodal well cars using MTL1025 boxes on the car body: http://www.nscaleintermodal.com/drawbars.html For the truck mounted couplers, just slde the box lid off and remove the coupler guts. Once the guts are removed, slide the box lid back in place and you will be able to attach the link to the pivot pin through the open end of the box. The only question I have is are the links long enough to provide movement clearance between the two coupler boxes. Paul
Looking to do this myself, that's what I was hoping to hear. All your eastern log cars should be using link & pins wherever possible. These cars were never interchanged and kept those couplers right up through the 1900's. I've even handmade a couple sets of brass channel & wire to see if it was worth it, and yes, it is.
And if you need more cannon, take a look at GHQ's web site. They have an entire line of very fine mini's for "the war" in N scale, including a good assortment of cannon and wheeled equipment...
