Sometime ago I was asked if Rokuhan tanker would have auto latch couplers, would existing auto latch couplers would fit, or if the car could be converted to a North American truck and coupler. Well here is the scoop, There is currently no Rokuhan compatible auto latch coupler for this car as the way the mini rapido was fashioned it requires a different auto latch style from those that Rokuhan has released previously. After figuring how to take the car apart, I found an easy solution for me. The car is assembled by pressing all parts into sockets, so it is not glued together. first chore was to lift the walkways and etched metal railings which was quite easy and then popping the end caps off and the car will open into two halves. Then I used a small Phillips screw driver to release the truck. Since I have converted several of the previously released version of this tanker car from Crown to AZL roller bearing trucks I used the same truck for this conversion, but there is no reason why you could not use any truck from AZL, FT or MTL. The car is much higher quality from the Crown car and molded from higher grade of plastic. I used a 0-80 screw to mount the truck to the car and I used a piece of sprue plastic from left over sprues to plug the hole the original truck occupied. The photo shows the L roller bearing truck on right end of car and original Rokuhan truck on the left end. The addition of the 0-80 x 1/8th brass screw adds a bit of weight to the car and take nothing away from performance on the track. As the car stand it can be a conversion car or change both ends to Americanize it. If there is sufficient interest in this conversion I will shoot some more photo's of what I did. The car has two weights inside so it is quite stable. With a pair of trucks this car will look right at home on my layout I think.
