N-Possible Coupler Announcement (Nashville 2022)

[Jimbo]

There is a tax form for sellers at the Swaparama that allows a vendor of any type to declare sales, pay the tax, and not have to have a tax ID number.

And with room sales, we do not officially acknowledge their existence, and therefore if any tax goes unreported, it also does not exist for the host.

There is nothing preventing these being sold at the event other than they aren't ready for retail as yet or you aren't comfortable selling them yet.

Well, there IS the issue of bringing them over the border.  Andrew COULD declare them as commercial items intended for sale in the US, but he’d need to pay the customs duties (and pass that cost onto the purchasers.). I’m not sure of the process, but I THINK he could get refunded for any unsold product upon his return back into Canada.

BUT… now there’s a record of what’s been sold.  And states have been getting pretty aggressive about chasing down lost sales tax opportunities.

Sounds like a lot of hassle that Andrew probably wants to avoid.  And I appreciate that he has enough integrity to follow the rules.

And these issues with customs aren’t just because of the current political climate, either.  Even in “simpler” times, violating customs laws resulted in problems.  Mark ( @spookshow ) references one issue from the 1970s with a company called Flint Models, who allegedly got caught smuggling brass castings for Rivarossi N scale locos across from Canada.

From Mark’s website:

https://www.spookshow.net/loco/riv080.html

“Trivia -

Back in the 1970s, a Detroit-area company called "Flint Models" produced brass shells for the Atlas/Riv C-Liner, 0-4-0, 0-8-0 and 4-6-2 models, along with Arnold's 0-6-0. The original concept was to improve traction/operation, what with the added weight allowing the engine to pull more and maintain better electrical contact. Rumor has it that these Flint shells were actually "lost plastic" castings, IE a plastic shell was destroyed for each brass mold produced. From what I've been told, the shells were actually made in Canada, and at some point the boys over at Flint actually got caught smuggling the brass across the border and went out of business rather suddenly.”

Jim

[BCR 570]

Well, considering N-Possible is based in Canada, that shouldn't be a problem!

Excellent; even better!  I have dealt with Credit Valley once or twice before. 


Tim

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Reminded me of this.  Standard gauge PRR X-29 boxcar on narrow gauge trucks at the East Broad Top, with drop in coupler adapter to allow narrow gauge cars to couple up to the standard gauge car.  (not my photo):



If you aren't familar with EBT's operations, they had a crane at the PRR interchange where they would lift the cars up to swap out the trucks.  They found this cheaper than transfering the freight from on car to another.  A critical piece was that EBT maintained high track work standards, which allowed the standard gauge cars to run on their track without problems.

Bob

Yessir. That was absolutely one of the inspirations for the adapter.

[BCR 570]

I had an opportunity to try out these new couplers this past week.  On Monday evening myself, Michael (Dayliner) and John visited Gary Hinshaw for an opportunity to operate some trains equipped with the couplers.  (Gary has retrofitted a portion of his fleet so far.)  He showed us a Micro-Trains gauge re-equipped with one of the new couplers which serves as a reference point for installations:




Gary's layout has near constant curvature and gradient which makes for a good testing round for trains equipped with the couplers.  My train is holding for a meet with an oncoming train:




I was able to pick up and set out a few cars at one point which provided an opportunity to try out coupling and uncoupling:




Gary provided me with several pairs to experiment with, so I did so at our monthly model night last evening:




I began by re-equipping one of my coupler gauges, and one end of a standard MT boxcar:






I assembled the second pair which had longer shanks and attached them to an Atlas 50' boxcar:




My initial impressions:

- clever design; well thought out; I like the transverse divided spring arrangement
- I was able to assemble them in a few minutes with no instructions and no jigs or tools
- re-equipping cars was a case of removing the MT couplers and re-using the existing mounting screws and holes
- there are some height discrepancies which will need to be adjusted with the supplied adapter or with shims
- I found that the screws had to be backed off to allow the shanks to swing, but then the coupler boxes would swing (same problem with MT 905s)
- scale appearance and more realistic coupled distance between cars; need to sort out which shank length for which cars
- cars couple together with very little force; slow speed gentle coupling is easily achievable
- I found uncoupling to be inconsistent; sometimes I got it right away; other times it took a few tries (might have to experiment with finding the right tool)
- no random uncoupling (yea!) and no slinky action; operation in train is excellent

All in all very promising; I am thinking of re-equipping some work equipment first and experimenting/practising with them for a while, whenever I can get my hands on some more.

Thank you for the efforts to bring these to market, and thank you to Gary for the opportunity to try them out!


Tim

[Mark5]

Thanks Tim! Stoking the fire while we common folk wait. 

Mark

[GaryHinshaw]

I have an alternate version of Tim's first photo, which pretty much sums up my MR'ing activities over the past few months:   



RE Tim's experience with the swivel: my guess is that the 3d support nubs on his shank ring need to be filed off first.  My experience is that the shanks swivel and re-centre freely even when the mounting screw is tightened town quite a bit.  I have ~100 pairs of scale boxes installed now and box swivel has not been an issue for me.

At some point soon, I will post my installation notes and photos...

[turbowhiz]

@BCR 570

As Gary mentioned, if you’re finding that the couplers are binding when the box is tightened down, give both the top of the knuckle shank and the retainer base ring (its subtly raised, but only on the retainer) a quick cleanup with a fine grit diamond file. Nail files and emery boards work wonderfully for this task too; Something flat with a fine grit. It won’t take much at all. I’ve intentionally made the tolerances around the box tight; It’s a tradeoff between making it loose enough for the worse case part and introducing a little slop all around, or sometimes needing to just a hint of cleanup. Since it’s so easy to do, I’ve settled on the subtle cleanup > sloppier box fit. A quick cleanup always before mounting the spring is a good practice.

A file like this:



(NEVER file the inside surfaces of the couplers!)

When working with URS retrofit parts into existing boxes, due to variability in internal box heights, sometimes you need to file the retainer support ring entirely off.

I find with binding that you can overtighten, exercise the coupler back and forth in the restricted state, and then loosen things until the coupler snaps back to center. Half the time you’ll still have things tight enough without needing disassemble to file. But ANY binding will potentially cause less reliablity, so it’s very important that you ensure that your couplers are not binding, even in the slightest.

I’ve been working up the instruction documentation all weekend.

[Mark5]

and I expect to have stuff in some US retailers hands in short order too.

Sounds good.

Please point us in the right direction when it happens.

[BCR 570]

retainer base ring

Thank you; I will try that.  What part exactly is the retainer base ring?  Not labelled on your drawing . . .

Drawing also shows air hose - will these come with that?


Tim

[N Scale Train Boy]

I can't wait to get into some N-Possibles. I unfortunately was unable to make it out to KC for the NSE convention, but one of my friends who decided after getting home that he didnt have it in him to think about swapping out the hundreds of MT couplers he installed is sending me the free samples he got from the booth, so I'll have the opportunity to try them out (and show them off on my YouTube page )!

[turbowhiz]

Thank you; I will try that.  What part exactly is the retainer base ring?  Not labelled on your drawing . . .

Drawing also shows air hose - will these come with that?


Tim

@BCR 570

The retainer is subtly different then the knuckle, in the sense it has a subtly raised section around the pivot which I've termed the "retainer base ring". In some retrofit scenarios, you might end up entirely filing that ring off. You would not want to do so for Scalebox installs. But giving this section a quick file, along with the entirety of the top of the knuckle shank, you shouldn't have any binding even when tightly screwed on.

Gary's entire lot of couplers were equipped with the Retainer extension, which is only useful in URS (retrofit in Non-N-Possible box, i.e. model integrated); This extension ideally should be clipped off in Scalebox installs, not sure if he mentioned that to you or not. This is something that retail packaged Scalebox couplers do not have.

Yes, airlines are provided, with two spare in retail packages. Gary has them too, but I don't think he's been fussing with them. Clear out the airline mounting hole with a .3 mm drill bit (buy tungsten carbide ones super cheap on amazon, you don't even need to mount them in a pin vice), and add a touch of canopy glue to secure them in place, so they're a tad flexible rotationally and they're serviceable if you break it. I recommend doing this AFTER installing the coupler box on the car. They're remarkably robust, but certainly not indestructible. I didn't loose or break any on any of the cars at the booth in KC. I experimented long and hard to make them friction fit, but after consideration and tolerances the canopy glue is perfect for this application.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

As if I needed to whet anyone's appetite even further, I whipped this solution up myself for solving the "backwards compatibility" problem.

https://conrail1285.com/solving-the-backwards-compatibility-problem-with-n-possible-couplers/







You can grab them on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7091476), or mention you want a pair in your order notes on https://conrail1285.square.site/

[N Scale Train Boy]

Ed, I dont know if you made it big enough, I think it needs to be at least 20% bigger LOL!

[Sokramiketes]

What's the venn diagram of folks "worried about backwards compatibility" and "are actually, really considering converting to scale couplers in bulk"? 

We made it through the Rapido era just fine... I heard the same concerns working at a hobby shop in the 90s.  Then it was DCC.  "I'll never be able to convert my entire collection of engines!" 

What they were really saying is "I'm good where I'm at, but have fun with the innovation without me"

[Mark5]

Ed, I placed an huge order! 

But seriously, I got tired of waiting for N-Possible couplers and started using these:



https://www.trainz.com/products/lionel-55-28-tie-jector-coupler?srsltid=AfmBOopOXkz1ThXQrkPPWc34TZ1UqVIa7FmNL4yZw0Odmh7pjzfSxL_j

Mark