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I haven't used them between units; I tried it but didn't seem to get the close coupling that I wanted. The unimates still work best for me. That being said, I have installed quite a few of them on the front of A units that are in the lead; they look quite nice and I'm not going to couple anything to them anyways. Nate
Good to know. I got to thinking; of course the Kato F's have truck-mounted rear couplers, so I guess my question really only applies to the front end anyway...Mark in Oregon
There was a guy on another Forum who used HOn3 couplers from "Rail Line"; part number #116. They are a soft-ish plastic, and you cut the shaft to the desired length, and drill a mounting hole. I modified his design by putting a Micro Trains spring on the mounting screw, as you can't torque it down for obvious reasons. I also carved off the top portion of the coupler to get the look I wanted for N-scale; note how the side-view image of the couplers looks flat on top. The close-coupling couplers can be substituted for the standard Micro Trains couplers on the Intermountain F-units, at any time desired. So, if I want 2 A-units back-to-back, I can switch them out appropriately. BTW, there is no oscillation with this coupling method (good). OTOH these can't be uncoupled during an operating session (bad), so are most appropriate for multi-unit diesel sets, such as 1950s-era F-units, which the prototype operated in sets.
...and how have you done that? Would like to see some pics! Mark in Oregon
I just did a Kato FP7, which I assume is the same as their other (New DCC ready chassis) F's. It's a hole drilled and tapped into the back of the frame with a .030 long spacer made of styrene tubing (can't remember the size, it was in my scrap bin). Run a 00-90 brass flathead screw up through the coupler box and spacer into the tapped hole. I beveled the hole on the bottom of the coupler box so the head of the screw is flush, clearance is pretty tight. Clip off the truck mount coupler and round off the back of the coupler box to ensure clearance. The screw is not tightened down all the way, so the coupler box can pivot side to side, since the short Tru Scale couplers have so little side swing themselves. I used a little tacky glue as a thread lock to ensure it doesn't work itself any looser. The older split frame versions would be another story..........Tom L.Wellington CO (Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)
I'm curious why you would take such drastic measures with that Kato locomotive when either the Red Caboose or Kato dummy coupler would provide close coupling in a much simpler (and reversible) manner? I really wouldn't like the idea of butchering the Kato truck just to allow body mounting.
I have a short Milwaukee road local type passenger train that I use the single FP-7 on. It's a combination of Kato, Fox Valley and MT passenger cars that I have converted to Tru scale couplers. So when I got the FP-7, it looked like a pretty straight forward conversion and I wanted a consistent look of all the same couplers. I guess the whole thing could be reversed by buying a new rear truck,but I just don't care for how truck mounted couplers look, so even if I wanted something more functional back there, I could just replace the a Tru scale with a 1015.Tom LWellington CO
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Topic: "True Scale" Couplers on F Units... (Read 3061 times)
