Preview of upcoming MTL True-Scale Coupler system

[JoeD]

 Depending on how these do I would like to do shelf knuckles and different boxes.   

Joe
MTL

[jmlaboda]

Wow!!! A Micro-Trains coupler I can assemble!!!  And its a beauty!!!  Win, win, win for me!!!

[eja]

Please make the initial production run large enough so that they don't sell out in 2 hours and the rest of us have to wait for months to get them 

[sundowner]

Do this fit inside the 1015 box? Are you guys going to sell them without the box to retrofit cars that already come with a 1015 size box?

[dougnelson]

Two thumbs up!  Definitely on the fronts of locomotives, and between loco units for closer coupling, maybe the rear of cabooses.  Maybe some fixed consist passenger or freight trains.  Converting entire fleets probably not realistic.

I will miss springs that go flying - not!

[JoeD]

No, the box is the same outside dimension, but the interior is different.

Joe

Do this fit inside the 1015 box? Are you guys going to sell them without the box to retrofit cars that already come with a 1015 size box?

[C855B]

In general, fantastic. That you have let us know the 1015 box is your baseline at least lets me move forward on a project where I was waffling between 1015 compatibility or biting the bullet and installing 903s to get closer to a scale appearance.

You say "push the cars together". Does this mean by hand, or is the coupling force small enough for operators to still rely on normal switching movements? I'm perfectly fine with skewer uncoupling.

[CBQ Fan]

These look fantastic!  Thanks for the preview! 

[Kisatchie]

I have two questions:

1) will these new couplers fit in the coupler boxes on Micro-Trains trucks (saying they fit in 1015 boxes doesn't mean much to me)?

2) how much force is needed to couple these new couplers. Do they "kiss" like the current MTL couplers, or do you need to use your hands to coupler them?


Hmm... just slam them
together to be sure...

[JoeD]

These will not fit into truck mounted coupler boxes, but if we see a demand for them then that is something we can address.  The outside dimensions of the draft gear box of the True-Scale Coupler and the standard 1015 coupler are near the same.

Depends.  well, nothing is going to join like a MTL coupler given the parts pretty much float.  In testing and running, backing into a car wasn't a problem but it does take a little more force.

Joe

I have two questions:

1) will these new couplers fit in the coupler boxes on Micro-Trains trucks (saying they fit in 1015 boxes doesn't mean much to me)?

2) how much force is needed to couple these new couplers. Do they "kiss" like the current MTL couplers, or do you need to use your hands to coupler them?


Hmm... just slam them
together to be sure...

[thomasjmdavis]

Hmmmm, now to retrofit 1,000+ pieces of rolling stock...     

I'm planning to pear down to about 500 myself (I never throw anything out, but truth be told, just don't need some of what I bought 40 years ago).

But it begs the question- can we get a bulk rate?

BTW Joe- thanks for the heads up that these are on the way- I was just about to get into a project to bodymount and standardize many of my passenger car couplers- can't imagine what my blood pressure would have been if I had finished 50 or 60 cars and THEN these were announced.   

[jmlaboda]

But it begs the question- can we get a bulk rate?

Not that I need it necessarily (unless I want to add to my collection of parts) but bulk packaging is likely something you might want to look at.

Also, consider offering the air hose castings separately... passenger cars at least would really need two per end to make them look more appropriate, one for air, one for steam.  Hopefully with a little warming it will be possible to bend the hoses just a little bit to make them look a little more accurate...

[wazzou]

Nice.  It would be cool to see a video posted of their operation.

[peteski]

This is an interesting development Joe.  But . . .

I assume that the reason for producing a scale-size coupler is for increased realism (especially since this is a manual coupler).  If realism is the reason then why not make it more realistic looking?  As-is the coupler might be small, but it looks more like a shrunken down Kato coupler than a true representation AAR coupler.  The shiny finish, the very angular facets don't make the coupler look very good. It is not automatic and not compatible with N scale knuckle couplers. So all they have going for them is their smaller size.  That is not really that much of an improvement to me.

Other than the size alone, what would be a good reason for me to migrate to this coupler?

Arnold recently produced a very nice looking coupler which is almost universally compatible with other N scale couplers. Those slightly oversize couplers look much closer to the AAR couplers and have some good details on them.  Your new coupler is not much smaller than Arnold - if they can give us a more-detailed coupler, why can't you?

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Sorry for being blunt, but I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this.

[JoeD]

They will be available in bulk, not sure of the quantities at the moment but will find out.