Kato and Atlas autoracks

[Bob]

Hi!  As anyone replaced trucks and couplers on Kato or Atlas autoracks, or otherwise tuned these up?  The Katos and pretty badly underweight, and I hate their couplers.  Has anyone replaced them with Microtrains trucks and couplers?  Any recent experience body mounting couplers on these cars?  Thanks!

[jagged ben]

Years ago I body mounted 1025s to some Atlas articulated autoracks.  I recall it being pretty straightforward.  Also changed the wheels to FVM.

No experience with the Kato ones.

[mat82]

I glued 6 small nuts into Kato autorack to get their weight up.
Then cut of the Kato couplers and installed MT1016.
To prevent the shell from winding up the frame i had to glue the frame to the shell on some spots with CA.
Worked well on 12 cars on 4day continious operation on a fremolayout

Marc

[Bob]

THanks for your recommendations, guys.  I am going to try body mounting - I have some 1025s and 1016s that I can assemble and test out.

[MetroRedLine]

Years ago I body mounted 1025s to some Atlas articulated autoracks.  I recall it being pretty straightforward.  Also changed the wheels to FVM.

No experience with the Kato ones.

Is that true? Your post made me get some 1025s to body mount on my Atlas articulated auto racks, but I've found out there's a "ridge" protruding from the edge of the body (when the car is upside down) that prevents any "straightforward" installation of any coupler. Did you have to shim the 1025 to make it even with the ridge, or did you have to cut/file off that ridge to make the coupler sit level?

[jagged ben]

Hmm, it was a long time ago.  Maybe I did have to use a shim, although shimming is pretty straightforward, too.  I'm positive I didn't do surgery on the existing carbody, I'd remember that.  I'll see if I can post pics when I'm back home.

[MetroRedLine]

Hmm, it was a long time ago.  Maybe I did have to use a shim, although shimming is pretty straightforward, too.  I'm positive I didn't do surgery on the existing carbody, I'd remember that.  I'll see if I can post pics when I'm back home.

Thanks. Would love to see what your solution looks like. I just got done body-mounting all my MTL & Red Caboose 89' autoracks, so my Atlas articulateds are next.
Although, I did put 28" wheels on my Atlas autoracks as per the prototype, I hope that doesn't lower the body mount too much.

[socalup]

@MetroRedLine @jagged ben any updates on this? I want to body mount my Atlas articulated autoracks and want to try something that's been proven.

Thanks!

[jagged ben]

Welcome to the forum!

So it turns out that I shimmed the couplers and cut off a bit of the front of the 1025 lid.  I'm not sure of the styrene shim thickness but I'd guess .040".  Hope these pics post okay and you can see well enough what I did.

[Bob]

DId you use 1025s on the MT and Red Caboose autoracks or 1016s?  THanks!
Bob

[jagged ben]

DId you use 1025s on the MT and Red Caboose autoracks or 1016s?  THanks!
Bob

Those cars have the 'underslung' MT coupler.  1019 I believe.  I did a couple red caboose and for those I cut the coupler box off the truckmounted coupler.  Actually those parts are separate from the truck.

1025s or 1015s will be too low on those cars.

[socalup]

Thank you! Looking forward to having body mounts installed!

[MetroRedLine]

Forgive the Zombie Thread here, but I was running some autoracks the past few days and decided to bring out my Atlas Thrall articulateds. I rarely run them since they still have the stock truck-mounts. As I was re-researching how to body mount them, this thread came up in a search. I was cutting some .030" shims for the 1025s when out of curiosity I was trying out some other couplers, as the top lip of the 1025s had to be cut/sanded off to match the mount on this thread.

Then it dawned on me: Why not try the trusty old 1015?

Since the trucks are set back far enough from the coupler, having a narrow draft gear box like the 1025 is not necessary as truck swing doesn't interfere with the coupler whatsoever.

It was mentioned earlier on this thread that the 1015s will hang too low. But I put the mouth of the coupler flush against the ridge at the end of the underframe, and noticed the roof of the coupler was about equal thickness as the ridge. AND best of all, the coupler was still able to freely swing. Hmmmmm!

So I drilled and tapped it. I didn't know the underframe was all metal so I lubricated the drill bit with a drop of Labelle.

Voila!





This actually made the coupler too high. But I countered that by lowering the car using 28" wheels like the prototype. I had some Fox Valley .553" axle width 28" metal wheels handy (you can still find NOS in stores and on the FVM site as 28" wheels aren't as in demand as 33" and 36" wheels). Note - I did not cut off the truck-mounted couplers from the stock end trucks. I happened to have some Atlas trucks sans couplers in my parts box so I used those and stored the stock end trucks away in case I decide to sell my Atlas autoracks in the future and convert them back to stock configuration.

The mount looks pretty good so far.



I finished mounting two of my cars (it took a while as I discovered I ran out of pre-made 1015s and had to assemble one more...you know how that goes).

But I ran them in my autorack train and they played nice with my body-mounted Micro-Trains, Red Caboose and ScaleTrains 89' auto racks. The only derailments happened when they were run behind my still-truck-mounted Athearn Auto-Max autorack car as it ascended a grade on a curve. But after moving that to another part of the train, they all ran flawlessly.

The 1015 mount on the Atlas articulated autoracks matches up with the MTL coupler height gauge (maybe just a hair lower but still very much within reliable coupling range). And best of all, due to the slightly set-back position of the draft gear box, this allowed for close coupling!



Note: I have 18" minimum radius curves on my layout. I placed one car on some 9 3/4" Atlas snap track and it was still able to mate with a body-mounted MTL 89' autorack. The overhang looks ridiculous, and I wouldn't recommend it on 9 3/4", but it seems the 1015 mount will work fine on 11" or 12" radius curves.

[jagged ben]

Looking good, I like that you got the 28" wheels on there.

[MetroRedLine]

Looking good, I like that you got the 28" wheels on there.

Thanks. I've learned since then that FVM 28" low profile wheels are the most sensitive things you can put under your trains and they will detect any and every track flaw you have. All was good until I ran my autorack train with the Atlas articulateds with 28" wheels on my 2nd main and they derailed once they hit one of my grade crossings (BLMA etched metal concrete grade crossing plates). I had to remove the pieces, scrape off the CA residue from both the tops of the styrene shims and the bottom of the grade crossing plates, sand off any raised areas in the shims, and glue again (NOT easy when you're working with fast-setting thin CA!). The Atlas cars rumble when they run through them but at least they stay on track.