I decided shortly after their release that Micro Trains' True scale couplers were the couplers I wanted to use. I've been slowly installing them over the past few months and thought I'd share how I did it in the hope that someone might find it useful.
Converting truck mounted couplers is fairly straight forward and I'll go over it later but the harder conversion is with cars that have body mounted couplers with integral coupler boxes. These usually come with Accumates, MTL 1015s, or 1015 clones and are quite common on recent releases.
The TSC coupler box has two pins, whereas most other couplers only have one; one for the coupler to pivot around and another for the mounting screw. It seemed that the only way to get the new coupler onto the car was to cut off the existing coupler box and I wasn't enthusiastic about cutting up $25+ dollars of car, especially with my habit of not finishing projects.
Well, I had a brainwave this morning and figured out how to install the TSCs in the existing box in such a way that if I decide to switch back to standard couplings or sell the car it is reversible. It's also very quick.
Here we go:
I'm working on one of Atlas' new PS1 boxcars. Here is the underside in its unmolested state.
Remove the truck, unscrew the coupler box. Keep the screw and the lid, do whatever you want with the coupler.
Go find some 0.045" (1.2mm) brass wire. Drill a 0.045" (1.2mm) hole in the coupler box half way from the center of the mounting screw hole to the front edge. Inset the wire.
Make sure the inside end of the wire is filed flat.
Put the lid back on the car and adjust the wire so that it touches the other side of the box but still allows it to sit level.
Trim the extra wire off and file it flat. It doesn't need to be flush but the closer the better. Depending on how snug it is in the hole it may need to be secured with a small drop of superglue. Put this on the outside.
Next, assemble the coupler on the brass wire.
Install the coupler on the car, reinstall the truck, and you're done. Add the brakeline if you want. (I will, I just haven't done it yet.)
All done:
Hope this helps.