Couplers, Wheels, and Trucks I set up my old N Scale trains for Christmas after 25 years. Also purchased a new Atlas DC Diesel and a Bachmann DCC Diesel, and a couple new boxcars and caboose. To my surprise, the couplers are different from my old engines and stock. Rather than update and change all the old couplers on my old stock, I was thinking of installing a new truck, wheels, and coupler on one end of several units of rolling stock so I can couple them with the new Diesels. I also need some old style trucks complete with wheels and couplers to repair several pieces of old stock. My old stock is mostly Atlas and Bachmann. Trouble is I can't find where to buy them, and get confused about "short, medium and long" terminology. I'm finally going to do a scenery buildout, and transition to DCC. I want to keep my old DC stuff too, but may eventually sell it. Please help me. Right now I'm pretty discouraged.
Ebay is probably your best bet to find the old rapido trucks you're looking for. Trying to find them in a retail store would be like looking for a manual typewriter in an Apple store. The hobby has changed a lot in 25 years. I think the easiest thing to do would be to convert your old rolling stock to Micro-Trains 1035 trucks. You can find packs of 10 pretty much anywhere.
Send me a PM, I'll send you a few Atlas trucks with Rapidios on them. I'll look for a MT truck with coupler too.
Re: Chris1274, thanks for your response. I like your "manual typewriter" analogy lol. I wouldn't mind doing what you suggest, but I would want to replace with complete trucks with wheels and couplers installed. That seems to be where the terminology of "short, medium and long" confuses me. Also I haven't seen them available as complete trucks from any of the manufacturers. Also, are the new style couplers universally compatible with each brand or are you stuck with one brand of stock once you start?
Hi, Don't get discourage. I am trying to do the same thing as you. I have the old couplers and the new ones right now. I have Loco's that have both now. I am going to redo the old couplers alittle at a time. I just bout a sample pack of the new Bettondorf trucks with the new couplers so I can see witch ones work the best. Lots have changed over the years and I am not a patient guy but I think on this I have to be. Good luck.
I've got a number of Rapido-couplered trucks in my bin, can't guarantee what type of car they each came from but you're welcome to them!
Re: TVRR thanks for your response and offer as well. That would be great. If you have an email address, I'll send it to you. Thanks, Jack
The "short, medium, long" issue with the couplers is a little complicated. A few cars actually NEED the long shank couplers to get them clear of the car ends. But, mostly it is mediums. Unless you want the cars to be coupled closer, then it is shorts. Typically, model train cars are coupled much farther apart than the scaled-down distances of their prototypes so that the model trains can get around unprototypically small radius curves. The old rapido couplers typically set model cars MUCh farther apart than the newer knuckle coupler designs. So, things may look a little wierd when you have a "transition car" with rapidos on one end and knuckles on the other to connect an old engine to new cars or vice-versa. But, that is the way to go until you can convert everything. Since you said you are eventually going to go to DCC, it may not be worth converting couplers on your old DC engines because many old DC engines are not easy to convert to DCC and may get discarded soon. So, check the convertability of old engines before deciding to do conversions. Resale of DC engines not easily converted to DCC actually may be hampered by coupler conversions, especially if they are not done in a reversable manner.
Sounds almost like you opened an N scale time capsule, and yes a lot has changed. The standard today is Micro Trains couplers with a few similar brands out there that will couple to them. Micro Trains referred to as MT have both couplers that can be retro fitted into other manufactures coupler boxes and they have a line of replacement trucks with coupler mounted on the trucks. They have a web site that also has a chart for couplers that list the replacement number by the manufacturer of the car or loco. Their trucks have adapter pins to fit most other manufacturers. There are folks who have transition cars that are cars with the old rapido coupler on one end and a MT coupler on the other. That way one can run the older cars behind a newer loco. One of the easiest and cheaper ways to convert cars is to body mount MT 1015/16 couplers after cutting the old coupler mounting tab off the old trucks. Save some money in buying trucks if they are good rolling trucks. Body mounts on the shorter 40 and 50 foot cars do alright on the standard 9 and 3/4th radius curves. Longer cars of 60 foot or more need wider radius to operate well with body mounts like 11 or 15 inch radius or better. Hope this helps some.
Wow! Thanks Chris, TVRR, HikerRobert, Jeepy84, Maletrain, and John Moore. All your info is really helpful. I think I'm beginning to see where to start and what to do. Guess I'll start looking at the MT website and hopefully find what I need. Anxious to get started on my layout which I think I'll have primarily done by a guy in Littleton, Colorado who works closely with Caboose Hobbies in Denver. I'm also hoping to get some more info and ideas at the San Antonio show next weekend on the 24-25th. I live north of San Antonio in Marble Falls, Texas. I'll also want to be getting opinions on DCC controllers. From what I've learned so far, it seems that the NCE systems are pretty popular. My layout will only be about 3' or 4' x 5' and hope to be able to run 2-3 trains if possible. I've been looking at a lot of layouts on Utube, etc. that look pretty neat. I can see where this project could get really expensive if I get carried away with it. Thanks again for your help. I'll be staying tuned to this forum for sure. Jack
When choosing a laout design, especially for a small space, it is important to decide what you really want to do with it when it is finished. Do you want to simply look at it as a static display with lots of beautiful modeling and scenery? Or, do you want trains to run through that beautiful scenery with little or no operator actions most of the time? Or, do you want to mostly operate the trains, perhaps without much attention to scenery "quality?" And, there are combinations of those for different occasions. If the model-building and the static scene are the most important TO YOU, then you may choose something like Code 55 track and even lay most of it by hand. If running reliably without much attention is your thing, then good sectional track track in code 70 or 80 rail would be a better choice. And, it you want to spend your time coupling and uncoupling cars in yards and at industry spurs without ever running in circles unattended, then you can make a point-to-point track plan (maybe with wyes) instead of cirlces or reversing loops. In my own case, I (plus wife) are in transition from a loop around a Christmas tree to a layout that we will mostly operate for making-up and breaking-down trians and sending them down a line with industries that we can switch cars in and out of. We will still want to have circular paths to continuously run trains for uninitiated guests from time-to-time. So, I am working on track plans that fit my available space and do what WE want to do. At this point, you may not know where this hobby will trake you, and that is fine. If not, using some good quality sectional track (such as Kato) will allow you to try-out your ideas so you can get a feel for how things really work best for YOU. One thing to realize with n-scale is that unmagnetic coupling is just not very reliable, at least for most of us. So, people who like to shift cars a lot seem to quickly dispense with the various "automatic" uncoupler sections and sijmly use a hand-held "pick" to reach down between the cars to do the uncoupling. That makes things a LOT less frustrating. But, it doesn't give a "hands-off" image to uninitiated guests. From the personal perspective, though, it is much more like what a train crew really does to handle cars in yards and at industries. I like the hands-on approach because it makes me feel more like I am the actual train crew, PLUS I spend my operating time actually operating rather tha futzing with uncouplers that aren't working reliably. But, to manually uncouple cars, you need to be able to reach them easily at the locations where you will do that. This places some limits on layout width. Perhaps the most important thing at this point is to not box yourself in with an expensive choice that you wont' be happy with for long. So, my advice it to gain experince as you grow, and expect to change your goals as you learn more.
Thanks for the advice, Maletrain. Wow, that's lots of food for thought that I didn't think about. Decisions, decisions. Hopefully I'll get some good ideas from the train show in San Antonio and be able to decide what direction I want to go and how much I'm prepared to spend, hopefully under $2500. Do you think I can do a simple 4' x 5' scenic DCC layout for that? Thanks, Jack
What I also recommend is to choose an era you want to model, whether steam, transition era (steam/diesel), or an more modern all diesel era. Some of this big steam and diesel models are nice and look impressive, but they need larger radius curvature to run on, thus more space needed. Next is to pick a road name that gets your fancy, and see if there is equipment available to model that road. All the aforementioned helps in picking locos and cars to add on to the layout eventually. As mentioned earlier the reason for the railroad becomes important, whether as a bridge route for traffic, or as the delivery system to industries online. Passenger service if modeled does not have to be long streamliners. It can be no more that a single Amtrac loco and a couple of coaches, or a steam or diesel and a mail/baggage car with an express reefer and one or two coaches. And think small and portable, something easy to maintain, and can be taken with you if one moves.
Thanks, John. More great advice to think about. This is all going to be so helpful in avoiding big mistakes up front when starting this project. What a great forum!
What ever you do, don't go out and spend a wad of cash until you've been back in this for a while. The previous advise re era, style of op, etc are spot on. For $500 or less you can get a layout of Uni Track that is easy to expand later, as you make up your mind based on a little current experience, things have changed a lot. Keep it simple initially and be happy.
