Pet peeve: colored couplers

[nkalanaga]

Yes, I know, peeves make very poor pets.  Want to adopt one?

And, I don't really know if this belongs in "Product Discussion" or "Prototype Railroads", but I'll put it here.

I've recently bought three used MT freight cars, a blue GN box, and two red CB&Q hoppers.  Both have the couplers, and coupler boxes, cast in colored plastic to match the cars.

The boxes are fine, especially since I cut them off anyway, to body mount the couplers.  The draft gear is often painted to match the car.  I do that with my 1025s.

The couplers are another matter.  First off, it's against the AAR rules, and maybe the FRA's regulations, to paint coupler knuckles.  They're left unpainted to make cracks more visible.  So, half of the coupler should be "dirty" cast metal.  For MT, that would mean black or brown.

I have seen painted bodies, on cars fresh from the paint shop.  I haven't seen any with visible paint remaining after a few trips. 

I wish they'd go back to using plain couplers on these cars.  It would also simplify production, as they wouldn't need to cast special couplers just for these.

[peteski]

 Since the couplers and coupler boxes are on the same parts tree, they get molded together. They don't want to discard the colored couplers from the entire run, to replace them with separately-molded black or rust colored couplers.  But I agree that it looks very silly

[learmoia]

Just color the coupler with a sharpie pen......

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  They are?  Interesting.  On the regular 1025s they aren't.  You can buy just the boxes, and probably the couplers, separately.  I have 500 pairs of boxes I bought just to reuse truck-mounted couplers.

~Ian:  An idea, but I don't know how well it would last.  Also, many Sharpies are semi-transparent, which could give some really strange colors. 

Fortunately I buy very few MT cars, as most of what they make, I already have, many painted and lettered myself years ago.

[wvgca]

I give couplers a quick wash of the ame paint I used to stain my track .. it's a krylon mix , I think of three or four different colour .. it's lasted ten years , lol

[peteski]

Peteski:  They are?  Interesting.  On the regular 1025s they aren't.  You can buy just the boxes, and probably the couplers, separately.  I have 500 pairs of boxes I bought just to reuse truck-mounted couplers.

~Ian:  An idea, but I don't know how well it would last.  Also, many Sharpies are semi-transparent, which could give some really strange colors. 

Fortunately I buy very few MT cars, as most of what they make, I already have, many painted and lettered myself years ago.

I don't have any original unbuilt 1023s (or is it 1025s?) but I could swear that the coupler boxes and couplers are all on the same parts tree.  Same goes for the other couplers (like 1015s).  I guess  that  is something that @MTLJoe could answer for us.

Why are couplers on some MTL cars molded in the same (non-black) color as the draft gear boxes?  Are the molded on the same parts tree?

[Dave V]

I thought all the way up until the transition era, couplers were painted.  I could be wrong.  That said, the paint doesn't last long on the parts that contact each other.

The Colorado Railroad Museum and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic RR go to great lengths to follow documented D&RGW narrow gauge practice right up until the mid-50s or so and the couplers on the equipment are all painted the car body color, as are the trucks.

[nkalanaga]

Dave V:  Painting the coupler body wasn't unusual into the 70s, as it would have been too much work to mask it.  But after a few runs, the paint usually didn't show, if it was still there.  The couplers weren't prepped and primed like the car body, so the paint didn't stick that well.

For a collector, it wouldn't matter, as they want "paint shop new" models.  For anyone running trains, it looks odd, especially with blue, green, yellow, etc couplers.  Even the CB&Q hoppers look odd with bright red ones.

Peteski:  1025 is the kit, unlike the Nn3 version, where 903 is the kit and 905 the assembled ones.  Odd...

I do have a package of 1025-B (brown) couplers.  They have four couplers, 2 pieces each, on one runner, and four boxes/lids, each pair on it's own very short runner.  The boxes I bought separately have longer runners, but still only one each box and lid on each runner.

And, the truck-mounted couplers use different boxes, so that's yet another factor.  I'm sure they are a separate part, so could be cast in color regardless of the coupler color.

[bbussey]

The 1015, 1016, 2001 and 2004 couplers and boxes/lids are molded on the same runner.  They may be able to gate-off the couplers from the boxes/lids, because I've bought both coupler knuckle parts and boxes/lids/spacers in bulk on-runner separately.  The brown couplers and the black lids for the Low Side Gondola kit is an example.  But the runner was designed to include the parts needed for a pair of couplers/boxes.
 

[peteski]

Interesting info, but we still don't  know why MTL molds the non-black couplers for their RTR car offerings the same color as the (truck mounted?) coupler box cover.  Maybe Joe will chime in and inform the ones with inquiring minds.

[nkalanaga]

Bryan:  Yes, I've noticed that most, if not all, non-1025 couplers have coupler and box on the same runner.  I suspect they did the 1025 separately because it was used, from the beginning, for the truck-mounted couplers, which required a different box.  To do everything together, they'd either have to throw away a box for every coupler used, or tool two separate couplers, so that each could have its own box.