Good news-Bad news from Micro-Trains

[Walkercolt]

In the Feb Micro-News I saw the new "short-shanked" 2003 coupler for many newer Kato engines. Sounds good. They are only available un-assembled at this time, so Eric better put on a second shift making those darn tiny coupler springs for me. The MT "assembly fixture" isn't that much help putting these together, and the "micro-touch with a soldering iron" to seal them up isn't my strong suit either. BTW, would you like the "brown" and "rust" colored LP wheelsets to be "toned-down" in color? IMHO, if they added about 50% dark grey to both, they'd look better.

[Chris333]

Those wheels look orange to me. 

[Nato]

  Sorry I don't like the profile of their current Lo Pros versus old ones , I say go with Fox Valley or IM metal ones, but it is nice that they are now doing another leingth coupler to fit Kato Locomotives.          Nate Goodman (Nato).

[mavrick0]

Actually the 2003 isn't another length.  All it is, is a 1015 coupler in a 2004/2001 coupler pocket.  But I am glad they finally released it and saves me from buying 1015's and 2004's and having extra parts kicking around.

[David Leonard]

Instead of using a soldering iron, I light a candle on my workbench and hold a pin in the flame for a short time, and then use the hot pin to melt the coupler box lid to the box. The downside is that I have to heat up the pin before each use--that is, I can't do both sides of the coupler box at once.

[CoalPorter]

I weather all trucks and wheel sets, so I don't care about the plastic color. As for MT wheels- they all look kind of silly :- go with Fox Valley. :-*

For the heat sealing process, I do just as DL explained, except I use a knife over the kitchen gas range. Make sure the knife has an insulated handle.  ;D

[SecretWeapon]

I ordered 10 or so #2003's from Chuck like 2+ years ago when they were called for on Kato's SD-70. Chuck had to speical order them. He sent them to me & they didn't have a hole to put the pin through.  I had to get a friend of mine to drill & install them. I told Chuck. He ordered extras. He went & looked at them & couldn't believe what he saw. I've used #2004's since.

[Mark5]

So do the "new" 2003s come with holes?

[Walkercolt]

The ones in the photos have the "glad hands" installed. Sorry, I prefer plastic wheelsts, and I don't bother to weather the wheelsets at all. Truckframes, sometimes, sometimes not. What I need to seal-up MT couplers is about a 150* "soldering iron". My solder station won't go that low. Knives, needles, etc. are more problem to me than a soldering iron, but nothing is what I want so far.