I do not like the extra length of the Accumates. The early ones tended to discombobulate, but I have yet to see it happen on the Atlas wood boxcars of recent issue. MOst of the Accumates on the Atlas locomotives are acceptable, but occasionally, one will decide that it does not want to function. At that point, I will substitute an MT. I have a few Atlas locomotives with an Accumate at one end and an MT at the other. I think that it was Kisatchie on the Atlas board who came up with Micro-Mates. This involves placing the Accumate coupler pieces into the coupler box on the MT trucks. I have done a few of these and am happy with how they function. It is a great way to repair the trucks that have broken coupler pieces on them. The MT couplers are a bit more delicate than the Accumates.. The piece that threads through the trip pin (as opposed to the piece in which the trip pin is anchored) tends to break. The short version og Micro-Mate creation is: If you slide back the coupler box on the MT, remove the old MT harware, put the Accumate parts around the center pin then slide the cover back , you have a Micro-Mate. I saved the parts from my early discombobulated Accumates, so I still have parts to effect repairs as they become necessary. This is why you NEVER throw away ANYTHING in this hobby. The Micro-Mate topic is on the old Atlas Forum, you may have to look in the archives, though. I prefer the MTs to the Accumates, but will use the Accumates until there is a problem. I keep enough spare MTs around so that I can remedy a problem when it arises.
The article is in the Atlas archived N scale forum topics. Do a search, check the archives box, and search the N scale forum for "Kiss the evil Micro-Trains slinky effect goodbye!" That should bring it up for anyone who is interested. [ 01. January 2005, 12:28: Message edited by: Kisatchie ]
I have used the Accumate couplers in a MicroTrains pocket to repair MT's I've broken. The MT pocket must provide better support for the shank or something, because they are less likely to uncouple under stress than the same coupler in an Atlas pocket. I also have found that Accumates are less likely to uncouple if coupled to a Microtrains coupler, as opposed to another Accumate, on hard pulls with long trains. They are still "back half of the train" cars, though. These are my own observations based upon my own experience with the humps and bumps between module sections on the Sun-N-Sand NTrak layout, which is 2.25 N Scale miles per lap, with trains in the 90-120 car range taking up about 1/2 of the main line.
A dealer here in Germany told me once that I must be the only person in Germany who ordered additional Atlas trucks for replacement . Especially the 100 ton trucks IMHO look better than the MTL ones, mostly due to the larger wheels. In terms of uncoupling there is a wide variation, also among the MTL cars. E.g. the latest IM cars with MTL trucks are very "reluctant" to uncouple over MTL magnets 1310 (or so, the between the track type). On the other hand some Atlas trucks just are out of spec, couplers hanging low. I have received a complimentary set of coupler parts (the part which has the trip pin in it) from Atlas, so I can fix these problems. So I assume the correct answer is "it depends". I am using a combination of both, and so far it works. I am still searching the optimal uncoupling magnet, but I think I am close. Cheers, Christoph
The story on the long shank was to make a box that could use either accumate or rapido in it. the accumate shank sticks so far out of the box (really the box is so close to the truck)was to make a box that could take rapidos. If atlas really wants to improve them, get rid of the rapido obsession/concession and get a box that will eliminate the accumate shank over hang, where a shorter shank will be needed. (I like the new code 55 track) If they are going to defend the detail and spike heads on the code 55 and blame the problem on micro-trains "pizza cutters", then they should stop trying to sacrifice accumate performance and appearance to concessions to rapidos. Make rapido friendly trucks availible to those that want them.
