An N-Possible journal

[garethashenden]

The Atlas Offset 2 bay hopper has two dimples in the metal underframe. The outer one is correct for mounting N-Ps. Its a really simple conversion, drill and tap the hole, mount the coupler. I used a short shank scalebox, coupler height was correct without any tweaking needed. Just cut off the couplers from the trucks before reinstalling them.

[Kentuckian]

Atlas Alco S-2 This is just one way to do it, YMMV, etc.

The first decision to make is which shank length to use.



The top coupler is the stock Atlas coupler, the middle is the medium shank n-possible, and the bottom is the short shank NP. I chose the medium length.

The packing foam was used to protect the handrails, and the loco went into the foam cradle. The scalebox was assembled and installed using the stock Atlas screw. I did cut and file off the lip on the box top because the box had to be recessed into the pilot for the screw holes to line up. I use my new friend that Boomer Diorama introduced me to, Matthew Medium, to keep the coupler box from twisting. Only use it on the front of the box, and not on the coupler shanks!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

You're all killing me. Lol

Guess I know that I'm doing this week.

Please let me know if I'm good to post your work to the blog and, most importantly, your real name.

[garethashenden]

I tackled an Atlas 1932 ARA boxcar but did not take detailed pictures, its a Scalebox with a short shank attached to the underframe of the car, all very simple.

The more complex one is Broadway Limited's USRA/NYC steel boxcars. I went with a short shank universal retrofit for these. Using a cutoff wheel in a dremel, I removed the back half of the coupler box. That gave good coupler motion, but it was too low. Then I remembered some discussion from when these cars were released about them being too low, so I added  Micro-Trains washer and that fixed the coupler height.




These are the four cars released to traffic with N-Possible couplers.


I'm getting the hang of assembling these and I really like how they couple and uncouple. Next up some sort of locomotive...

[vermonter_railfan]

Still tinkering with some of @samusi01 prints but it appears that the universal couplers (tested with a short shank, probably need medium) will work fine on his 3D printed flats and coupler boxes no modifications needed.

[GaryHinshaw]

^Cool.  I have created a new index category for these.  I would love to hear how this car performs on curves, coupled to different length cars.

[samusi01]

I would love to hear how this car performs on curves, coupled to different length cars.

I should imagine it'll perform somewhat like the prototype, recalling anecdotes of the SP using cameras to investigate wheel lift on 89' flats forty plus years ago... @vermonter_railfan and I were discussing this yesterday and I floated the idea of some short cars like the Athearn acid tanks with body mounts coupled to this flat.

With MTL 1015 they perform better with longer curves, as might be expected; my layout is optimized for the average 1960s era car length and the longer cars suffer through some areas.

Hoping to get my hands on some of the N-P couplers at Altoona.

[learmoia]

I'll be doing an unboxing and the first few installs live on Youtube tonight around 1930CT
https://youtube.com/live/Oa5TRdlDoh0

~Ian

[GaryHinshaw]

A duo (trio) of quad hoppers.  Coal traffic has never been very prevalent over Tehachapi, but I have a small fleet of hoppers to power the cement plant at Monolith.  This entry covers the Tangent and Trainworx  quad hoppers:



The Tangent cars can be converted with a simple retro-fit kit.  (It helps to pop the lift bar off the corner support when removing the draft gear lid, otherwise it gets in the way of replacing the couplers.)  I filed the inside of the box a little bit to ensure the couplers would recentre properly, but no other mods were required:





The first release of the Trainworx hoppers came with MTL truck-mount couplers.  The A side was easy to convert: the scale box could be screwed directly to the frame using the pre-drilled frame hole:



The B side hole was a little too far in for my taste, so I filled it with 0.04" styrene rod and drilled a new hole a bit further out:



(Alternatively, you could trim the lip off the box lid and use a medium shank coupler, but it wont look as good.)  I replaced the 70T trucks with Trainworx 100T offset bolster trucks.

The later body-mount version of the car was a bit trickier (but it does have the correct trucks).   The screw that holds the box together enters from the top of the box and it is quite tricky to remove the screw without damaging the slots.  It is probably even trickier to get the screw back in once you have removed it.  (The centre sill/coupler assembly is a separate part, so it might be feasible to pop the whole piece off the car for servicing, but the fit is quite tight, and I could easily imagine breaking it.)   

I opted for a scale box conversion.   Once the screw and coupler parts are removed, the sill looks like this:



Alas the hole is too large to capture an M1.2 screw (and it is counter-sunk on the other side) so I reamed it out with a tapered pilot bit and filled the hole with 0.08" styrene rod.  I also removed the raised portion of the sill to give me the same height sill as the truck-mount cars:



Now you can mount a scale box as before:



I can't wait to grime these up. 

[ednadolski]

So what are folks using for an uncoupling pick?

Ed

[garethashenden]

So what are folks using for an uncoupling pick?

Ed

A pin. A blunt end, such as a bit of wire, won't work. Or at least it hasn't for me. A pin right at the tip of the knuckle seems to do the trick.

[ednadolski]

I "massage" one one of the spring around the boss to eliminate any residual torsion in the spring.

@GaryHinshaw sorry if i am being a bit dense,  could you pls. describe in a little more detail what you mean by 'massage' in this instance?   I guess, something like rubbing over a part of the spring w/ the tip of a toothpick, fingernail, or such?

(probably the sort of thing that is easier to do than to describe in words )

Thanks,
Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

Hi Ed.  I admit that 'massage' is a pretty vague description.  Let me try again.    Basically, if the two shanks are splayed like this:



I will line the shanks up and hold them closed with my fingers, then rub the 'back' side of the spring (right side in the photo) up and down with my finger so the spring-shank connections twists a bit and relaxes any built-up torsion in the spring.  This usually works pretty easily, but you sometimes encounter a stubborn case where it is easier to unseat the spring on one side and re-attach it.  Your goal is to have the shanks stayed lined up even if you disturb them a bit (I test this by dropping the assembled coupler onto my work mat from a height of ~1 cm):



If you don't correct this, the couplers will still generally work fine, but the split shank will be more noticeable.

[Sokramiketes]

I've changed up my method on the last couple dozen.  I was manhandling the couplers a bit much to get the two knuckle halves together.  And that was causing the springs to pop off one side on me. 

Since the springs are pretty easy to re-seat with the two coulper halves together... well... now I just assemble the two coupler parts.  Then the spring on the toothpick to get it on the long post, snap it into the short post, and use my fingernails to pull the last coupler coil fully seated. 

Since the coupler halves are starting in alignment, this stopped me from farting around with the splayed coupler step. 

Another note as I get better, use the graphite/pencil sparingly on the coupler shanks only.  It started to affect the boxes staying snapped shut on me.  My bad!

[NtheBasement]

A pin. A blunt end, such as a bit of wire, won't work. Or at least it hasn't for me. A pin right at the tip of the knuckle seems to do the trick.

Are these suitable for switching ops?  I've been wondering how difficult is it to uncouple these compared to, say, picking a pair of MTLs.  The N possible website has a video that makes it seem like uncoupling is quick and smooth but for all I know they had to film twenty attempts and five derails before getting that one.