Micro Trains Wheels Screws or Pins

I model the Santa Fe in the mid 60’s and just started in N scale so the few pieces of rolling stock I have so far are micro trains 40 and 50 foot boxcars. My goal is to replace plastic wheels with metal, add weight, body mount true scale couplers and to use a screw to screw the trucks in place as opposed to the plastic pin which comes with them, hopefully eliminating any wobble that usually occurs with pinning in wheels. Is screwing the wheel sets in as easy as it may appear? If so what size screw should I get ahold of or… just not tempt fate and leave them as is.

 

I've never heard of any good reason to replace the MT pins with screws. Also, I strongly encourage you to think long and hard about using body mounted tru-scale couplers if your layout has anything less than 48" radii. Best wishes.

 

You dont want to elliminate the side to side 'wobble'. The trucks need to be able to self adjust to uneven track etc. with a small bit of side to side 'lean'. JMO.

 

I believe Microtrains recommends adjusting one truck tight, and to leave play in the other......this allows one truck to self-adjust under the car while giving the car a little extra support. The way MT cars sit on their trucks, a screw will not work better, and in fact will make your "wobble" even worse. MT pins are stepped and they rely on the larger portion to center the truck.........a screw that fits the smaller portion will leave huge amounts of slop. You could drill the hole out, but then you'll lose the bolster and again make the problem worse. Seems like a lot of work for zero gain, and perhaps negative gain. Metal wheels ARE a good choice though.

 

I would stay away from True Scale couplers, unless you want to run trains by yourself. . It has not really taken off like MY had hope.

 

I was thinking true Scale couplers to eliminate the bumping or slinky effect that n scale rolling stock seems to have. I figure it comes from the coupler having so much play for the centering spring.

 

I've only begun to test True-Scale couplers so I only have them on a couple of cars, but so far I haven't had any issues down to 13-3/4" curves. I do suggest easements, especially with longer cars, because the True-Scale couplers do not have much lateral movement.

I think what MK is referring to is the fact that they are not compatible with any other coupler, so if you use them you want be able to mix with them with other's cars.

I hate the slinky effect! I really like the True-Scale coupler, in certain situations. They are a bit of a pain to uncouple - there's no provision for magnetic uncoupling and they couple tight enough that it's hard to get an uncoupling tool in the knuckles to open them, so you pretty much have to lift one car to uncouple them. I would not use the True-Scale coupler on anything I plan to regularly uncouple during operating sessions, but for unit trains and passenger trains that generally stay coupled together, or if you tend to "railfan" and are not really into operations I think they'll work well.

McHenry couplers and Bachmann E-Z Mate couplers are both slinky free. Unfortunately, neither one comes with coupler boxes. Athearn does sale coupler boxes for McHenry couplers (which should work with E-Z Mates as well). You can actually use Micro-Trains coupler boxes for McHenry or E-Z Mate couplers. To use your current trucks with body mount couplers, you'll have to cut the coupler boxes off anyway so you could use them with either McHenrys or E-Z Mates. Because of the shape of the head of the coupler, you would have to trim the top and bottom of the coupler box back a little to work with McHenrys. E-Z Mates come in short, medium, and long shanks and the medium and long work with the Micro-Train boxes with no modifications, but the short require trimming like the McHemrys.

 

I only tried them on MT heavyweights, and they simply did not work on 16" - 18" radii. Sure, they look great!

 

Tru Scale couplers on 127 ore cars. 2 cars have both a 1015 and a tru scale. can you imagine the slinky on this train with only 1015s?

 

I can’t live with the slinky effect so I will prob try those Bachman EZ Mate short shank couplers if I don’t go with true scale. This is all great info thanks.

 

Unless they have changed, EZ-mate couplers put you right back at the " only if you run by yourself" point. All the EZ-mates I have are as much over sized as the True scale couplers are under sized. I have a number of them on Bachmann cars and they don't play nice with other brands of couplers........they work fine as long as you are only using EZ mates, but anything else is hit and miss, and mine refuse to work with Kato couplers.

 

I replace all the plastic pins with a 3/16" 2-56, black oxide, 82 degree Phillips head screw. I use a magnetized Phillips screwdriver to keep the screw on the screwdriver until inserted. Do not use the stainless steel screws as they are not as magnetic as the black oxide ones. That being said, there is no reason to replace the truck pins on MT cars. They do a good job just the way they are. Problems arise usually when you replace trucks on a non MT car with MT trucks. The main thing that I like about the screws is that the head is beveled and fits the opening in the truck. Just make sure that you don't tighten the screws too tightly. The truck has to be able to freely turn.

Here is one source but there are others:

Black Oxide - Micro Fasteners

I also do not recommend the Tru-scale couplers nor do I recommend metal wheels, especially if running DCC due to possible electrical shorts caused by derailed cars at switches and crossings.

 

The E-Z Mates I've tested with work just fine with all the other knuckle couplers I have (except for the True-Scale ones, of course).

 

I, too, like body mount couplers and metal wheels. But I have to have a pretty compelling reason to swap trucks, or change the way they're mounted. Coupler boxes are too easy to cut off of trucks, and metal wheels with the same axle length are too easy to swap in.

 

The heavyweights I have (not Micro-Trains) do have a lot more overhang than the cars I've tried the True-Scale couplers on, so I can see how they might have a problem. They do have a short shank and a long shank True-Scale coupler, so if you happen to have tried the short shank (that's what I have), the long shank might have worked.

 

I plan on converting most of my rolling stock, but I still haven't decided on a standard, maybe if I put it off long enough, somebody will come out with the perfect coupler.

I had actually pretty much decided on Accumates a while back, but now they're no longer available separately. A lot of people complained about the Accumate coupling distance being further than Micro-Trains, but that is a function of the trucks, not the couplers (the trucks are designed to take either an Accumate or a rapido). The Accumate coupler will work in a Micro-Trains coupler box and give the same coupling distance as Micro-Trains couplers.

I'm still trying to decide between McHenrys, medium shank E-Z Mates, and short shank E-Z Mates because they each have their advantages. In my opinion the McHenrys look better than the E-Z Mates (both McHenrys and E-Z Mates are bigger than Micro-Trains, but not by much and I think they both actually look more like a real coupler so I'm ok with the trade-off). They have a better shape and the spring is darkened while the brass spring on the E-Z Mates is more visible. The McHenry springs are available separately and I've even considered using them to replace the springs on the E-Z Mates (not a fun job, though). The medium length E-Z Mates drop right into a Micro-Trains coupler box with no modifications - as mentioned above, the others require trimming or filing the coupler box (or you can file the coupler head). The short shank E-Z Mates give you closer coupling distances.

 

One of the first things that I do when getting new rolling stock is to replace all plastic wheels with metal. I run DCC and yes if you derail on a turnout; you will trip the circuit breaker (a must IMHO). I always inspect rolling stock for issues and fix them or pull the car.
I am not a fan of the slinky effect. My layout is based upon a loose interpretation of the midwest - Chicago area, with no grades. Depending upon my era mood, I run BN, SF and CNW or BNSF, KCS and CN. All of my freight trains get an over-weighted caboose (even if they don't normally run with them) with soft plastic wheelsets to create a drag on freight to "reduce" the slinky effect.

Brian

 

Will the ez mates drop into the micro trains truck mounted couplers (in case I get lazy and don’t body mount them). I’m thinking they would still need some minor modification? I ordered some ez mate short shank will prob order some mchenry short shank as well just to do some comparison. I will let y’all know how it turns out.

 

The Micro-Trains coupler boxes I was referring to earlier are on the trucks, so the medium and long shank will drop in and work with no modifications, and the short shank will need the box trimmed or filed or the coupler head filed. I don't think Micro-Trains sales the body mount boxes separately, in fact, the only commercial N-scale coupler box I know of that you can get separately are McHenrys (there are some coupler boxes available on Shapeways). As I believe I mentioned before, if you do body mount them, your going to have to cut the coupler box off the truck anyway.

If you do decide to body mount them and you trim or file the box, do it before removing it from the truck, it makes it much easier. If you have a small round file, filing is the better way to go, if you trim it you do run the risk of the box breaking when you cut it, though it's not a bad idea to trim a small notch to center the file.

Here's some samples:


These are all Micro-Trains trucks. On the far left is a Micro-Trains coupler. Next is an Accumate, currently not available separately but I figured I would include it for reference. Then an E-Z Mate medium length - drops in with no modifications to the coupler or box. Next is a short-shank E-Z Mate with the coupler head filed back to drop in with no modification to the box. That truck has extended draft gear that sticks out from under the car body. Any trimming I do on the box will be visible so on those I will likely file the coupler head instead, even though it is more trouble, or use a medium-shank E-Z Mate. Next is a filed truck and box with no coupler so you can see the modification(that box snaps over the coupler on the truck, it's not a body mount box, though the truck mount can be cut off the truck and used as a body mount). Next is a McHenry coupler with the box modified. The McHenry is the same overall length as the medium length E-Z Mate, but because th ehead is more elongated it requires the box modification. Last but not least is a short-shank E-Z Mate with the box modified. At the bottom is the file I use to modify the boxes. I usually cut a small notch to begin with to center the file (small to lessen the chance of the box snapping into) but do most of the material removal with the file. How much you have to remove will vary from railroad to railroad and car to car, depending on how much lateral motion you need to allow for.

In my testing, all of these options work with all of the others with no issues whatsoever as long as you don't need magnetic uncoupling. I've just started doing some testing with that so I don't have any answers there yet.