Best Of Notes on body-mount couplers (work-in-progress)

[GaryHinshaw]

Well, maybe there is a break in the clouds after all.  Lee just sent me a note saying he thinks he has the fixture repaired and that he can still make it work.  Now he just needs someone to assemble them.  (I suspect that last person to do the job was ham fisted and broke the fixture, and a bunch of couplers in the process.)

I offered to assemble them myself if that was the only thing standing in the way of completing my order.  Stay tuned, there is still hope.

-gfh

[GaryHinshaw]

Good news from Lee: he now has a working assembly fixture again and is back in the coupler business.  There are some changes to the ordering process and the price has gone up, but they are still quite affordable.  He is now asking $1.60 per pair with a minimum order of 50 pair.  Shipping is free within the USA and should be less than $15 for international shipping. 

This is a personal project, not a Bowser project, so he is only accepting payment via check or money order (US funds), sent to his personal address.  Rather than posting that address here, I would advise you to send him an email to confirm the terms, then he can send you the address.  He can be reached at:

Lee English <bowser at bowser-trains.com>

Replace the ' at ' with '@'.  I think Ed will be contacting those who have placed pocket orders to confirm quantities.  Contact him by PM if you would still like to order some and haven't already.

-Gary

[ednadolski]

I think Ed will be contacting those who have placed pocket orders to confirm quantities.  Contact him by PM if you would still like to order some and haven't already.

Yes, I will follow up with everyone who has previously requested some pockets.   By all means please feel free to PM me with any questions, changes, etc.

Thanks,
Ed

[ednadolski]

Awright! The set of test etchings has arrived and are looking good:



With this, and especially with the good news that Lee has fixed the assembly issues, I want to go ahead with the order for everyone.  Over the next day or so I will PM everyone to confirm quantities, and then I'll put in the order.  Also, it's not too late for anyone who hasn't yet ordered any parts.   And once again, no need to send any money for now, I prefer to handle that once I have the parts in from the etcher.



Thanks everyone for you patience on this! 

Ed

[ednadolski]

Good news, everyone!   I've just sent off the order for additional frets to the etcher, so it won't be long now before we have parts for all those who had requested some.   Once I have the parts from the etcher, I will contact everyone regarding payment and shipment.


I've also just received my latest order of couplers from Lee.   These are looking really good, so I'm glad to see that the assembly issues have been resolved.



Cheers,
Ed

[DKS]

Interesting that Lee is leaving the full trip pin intact. They are usually clipped off, because the trip pin does not work the way it is supposed to on these couplers. They were intended to be a magnetically-actuated coupler, just like MTLs, but there are multiple fatal flaws in the design that prevents this.

[GaryHinshaw]

The last defective batch I got had the pins clipped and seemingly inserted backwards.  I'll speculate that they're easier to assemble with an intact pin.  IIRC, the "naked talgo" order I got from Will a while back had the full pins too.  The first thing I do is trim them off.

[ednadolski]

Good news -- the etchings have arrived, and I will now be able to ship these out to the folks who have requested them.    Here is what they are looking like:



I'll be PMing everyone who has been waiting for parts with the shipping and payment info.   I'm really looking forward to seeing pictures from everyone, and discussing all the various installation scenarios.

Cheers,
Ed

[peteski]

Ed, these etchings seem to look like stainless steel (not brass). Or is that just the way the photo was taken?
Stainless steel doesn't solder easily...

[ednadolski]

That's the photo, probably just the way it picked up the reflections of the overhead lights.

Ed

[ednadolski]

Seems to me this thread is overdue for an update.   Here are some IM Trinity 5161 hoppers that I have finished converting. For these, I drilled & tapped for a 00-90 screw through the flat/simulated coupler pocket.   This part of the model is very thin, so you have to use a light touch, and be careful not to overtighten the screw as it is easy to strip the thread.  The other thing I did was to file the styrene rod flush with the top surface of the brass pocket, otherwise the slight bump can cause the coupler to tip downwards and hang too low.  So there is nothing right now (except friction) to prevent the pocket from pivoting on the mounting screw, but I will fix that with a couple of dabs of epoxy.   You can also see in some cases that I did not trim the mounting screw.  I'll take care of that later (probably when I get these to the detailing/weathering stage) altho even as they currently are I don't find the long screws to be too obtrusive, at least not while running in a train.

I'm finding it handy to assemble these in batches.  Here are my key steps:

a. Cut the covers & bodies from the frets with an X-acto blade.  Be sure to remove all the tags.
b. Drill out the cover holes with a #59 (0.041") bit.  Drill from the inside surface, to avoid creating a burr that can interfere with the coupler.
c. Form the bodies and the tab on the back end of the cover.  (I don't form the air hose or cut lever hook at this point.)
d. Mount the cover on top of the body.   To do this, I have a small strip of wood with a thin groove cut into it.  I lay the pocket body flat and top-down on the wood, with the strike plate in the groove.  This holds the body in place while I put on the cover (and in the next step when I solder it).
e. Once I have enough pockets assembled (typically 8-16), I solder the covers to the bodies.  I use the Supersafe green gel flux and as little solder a possible. I only solder where the tabs come thru the slots in the cover.  All parts are then cleaned with alcohol.
f. Paint the parts with a light gray primer from a rattle can.  To hold the parts for painting, I take a piece of corrugated cardboard and punch some slots with the tip of a screwdriver.  I then place each pocket into a slot, end first so that the coupler end is sticking up.
g. After the paint dries, I install a coupler in each pocket.   Place a coupler in the pocket and line up the shank hole with the holes in the pocket.  Insert a piece of 0.040" diameter styrene rod from the bottom side of the pocket and out thru the top hole.  It takes a few twists on the rod to 'screw' the rod thru the upper hole in the coupler body, since this hole is slightly smaller than the bottom hole.   Once the rod is in place, trim it off on the bottom side with a flush cut pliers.  I also cut the trip pin off the coupler at this point.
h. Install on a car as needed.  Form the air hose and cut lever hook, and then paint/weather as desired.


Ed

[Ian MacMillan]

...I'm finding it handy to assemble these in batches.  Here are my key step...

Reading this and seeing all of that... this comes to mind

[GaryHinshaw]

Looking good Ed.  I'm actually taking a bit of time out of layout work to go through a similar exercise with some ACF 2- and 4-bay hoppers.  (Will post some pics eventually...)  I follow pretty much the same steps to assemble them - and doing the soldering and painting in batches is very helpful.  I like your idea for a painting handle.

One thing I've found useful in some installations is to leave some styrene rod exposed on the top of the pocket and drill a second .040 hole in the floor to receive it.  This helps prevent pocket twist.  Sadly, this does't really work for the 5161's because the pockets extend beyond the under-frame just enough to preclude it.

-gfh

[ednadolski]

I've also been working on a coupler pocket for locomotives.   Here is something that fits in the Kato C44-9W:






The holes and the interior measurements of the box are the same as the regular pockets.  For this pocket I was trying out the 'folding box' idea, which works fairly well.  The only minor thing is that (as you can see in the picture) the box doesn't want to stay fully closed by itself, but that's no problem once it's installed in the model.

The installation of these was pretty simple.  I just used a 00-90 screw set into the pivot hole that was already there for the factory coupler, after tapping it for a 00-90 thread. The only thing to watch out for is to make sure that the screw isn't too long, otherwise it will come out thru the walkway (and no, I did not have to learn that the hard way  ).

To get the correct height, I used a shim of 0.020" styrene, ACC'd to the top side of the pocket and drilled out to clear the screw.  Sorry but it is hard to see the shim in these pictures.  I haven't tried this on any other models except the Dash-9, but I expect it should fit on most Kato diesels.

This does of course leave some significant gaps in the pilot since the original opening is so oversized.   It should be straightforward enough to fill the gaps with some styrene strip.  I'm also thinking about some kind of etched overlay for the pilot, but that's a project for another day


Ed


PS - Gary, I'm looking forward to seeing those hoppers!

[GaryHinshaw]

That's really slick Ed!  A few questions:

• How do you like the folded box compared to the lid?
• It's fortunate that the shank length allows you to use the existing hole location for the pivot screw.   Do you know what kind of minimum radius is required when two Dash-9's are coupled with FT's?
• Do you think a box like this would work as an insert in the new generation of body-mounted-MT-equipped rolling stock?

-gfh

P.S. The biggest challenge I have had with pusher ops so far is when a consisted rear unit, with long-shank Kato couplers, pushes against a truck-mounted couplers and torques the last freight car truck off the rails.  The combination of body-mounts on the freight cars, and the shorter shank FT couplers on the locos will solve that - and look way better to boot.   (The current incarnation of short-shank Kato couplers produce the wrong coupler height on the Dash-9's.   )