Preview of upcoming MTL True-Scale Coupler system

[Maletrain]

"That's the first time I've been skunked at MBK...all short shank gone by 8A Central.  Guess I'll wait."

I've been skunked there more than once.  Especially on new B&O releases.  They do not take reservations, but have a "notification" system that I am attempting to use (on some other items) for the first time.  Has anybody on here found out by actual use whether that prevents the "sold out" problem if they know you want it, or can the items all be gone by the time you wake-up in the morning and read the "notification?"

[C855B]

MTL coupler conversion in the wild. Insert usual disclaimers for iPhone grabs. "Old" end:



"New" end:



What was (mildly) interesting was they showed a UP gon in the flyer as one of the conversions. They ran out of stock, and substituted this. It would've been my first pick had there been a preference, so I'm pleased.

[chessie system fan]

That's the first time I've been skunked at MBK...all short shank gone by 8A Central.  Guess I'll wait.

Sorry that was partially me.    They only started out with twelve sets though.

[C855B]

Views of five different coupler types that happened to be sitting on my desk. Oooooooh, do I have a lot of work ahead of me. 





In order of appearance: Rapido, Accumate, McHenry, MTL Magne-Matic, MTL True-Scale.

I apologize for not having a sample of the MTL 905. A bunch are on my bench, but never got the round-tuit to install on something.

[Scottl]

These do look good, I think I will try these on a unit train.  I' won't bother competing for the first rush.

[C855B]

Closely studying the True-Scale... beautiful, a huge leap forward, but they are very unlikely to work on our club's N-Trak layout. No doubt they will require meticulous attention to trackwork, and if you noticed the pics of our club's yard in Weekend Update, the module condition is anything but meticulous. Plus I discovered an evidently longstanding problem during setup yesterday that left me shaking my head.

But I will soldier on, and start converting my ore car fleet (110+ cars). It will get one try on the club layout. The problem I see coming is one of the pitches for these couplers is running rather than operating, and there's no "just running" environment like an N-Trak loop. Given the general age and track quality of most N-Trak modules of my experience, and that most "runners" do everything they can to avoid modifying models, I just don't see it happening as billed. In club settings, these couplers are for you FreeMoN and Modutrak folks who give a damn about track quality.

[wcfn100]

For cars like the Atlas ore car and MTL standard box car with notched ends, it's debatable whether it makes the car look any better.  Looking forward to seeing coupler box solutions, hopefully I'm on Chuck's first wave of shipments.

Jason.

[learmoia]

For cars like the Atlas ore car and MTL standard box car with notched ends, it's debatable whether it makes the car look any better.  Looking forward to seeing coupler box solutions, hopefully I'm on Chuck's first wave of shipments.

Jason.

In the world of transition era cars, i can see that.. but To be fair, the notched end is where the crossover walkway would be on modern cars..  And we also have to consider radius limitations and getting uncoupler picks in there.

You can always drill and tap your own mounting hole..

Baby steps..

~Ian..

[wcfn100]

In the world of transition era cars, i can see that.

You mean like the cars I pointed out.

Even with the crossover, a notched end with a tiny coupler and huge coupler box looks silly. When someone makes a more scale pocket and paints it body color, you'll  get it.

Jason

[nscaleSPF2]

For what it's worth, I started to experiment with the coupler, in an attempt to try to reduce the coupling force.  The force required to couple 2 cars together is not that great, but it is higher than MTL's standard coupler.  Anyway, the sketch below shows what I did.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

This did seem to significantly reduce the coupling force.  Initial results showed that taking the material from the "outside" of the finger spring did not otherwise affect the function of the coupler.

I submit this post as a starting point for others of you who may also want to experiment.

[Maletrain]

Thanks for the info on thinning the spring arms.

I notice that there are sprue marks on the faces of the knuckle and lip shanks that face each other.  Running my thumbnail over those surfaces indicate that mine have raised surfaces at those marks, so I suspect that increases the force needed to move them across each other to open the coupler, thus increasing needed coupling force.  As soon as I get the chance, I intend to try smoothing and lubricating those surfaces.  If anybody beats me to it, please post your results.

[nscaleSPF2]

As soon as I get the chance, I intend to try smoothing and lubricating those surfaces.  If anybody beats me to it, please post your results.

Haven't tried that.  No doubt it will help.  I only removed material from one spring arm, the knuckle side.

[ednadolski]

I only removed material from one spring arm, the knuckle side.

Is the 0.003" an estimate, or did you measure it? (micrometer?)   Did you try other amounts?

Ed

[nscaleSPF2]

Is the 0.003" an estimate, or did you measure it? (micrometer?)   Did you try other amounts?

Ed

Ed, my eyeball isn't quite good enough to measure .003in, so I used my mic.  I tried removing .002in, but that did not seem to have much effect.  I scraped the material off with a No.11 blade.  I also felt that removing more than .003 might significantly weaken the spring. YMMV, though.

Edit:  If I remember my Basic Physics correctly, the stiffness of this kind of spring is proportional to the cube of its thickness, so a thickness of .012in is going to result in a spring rate 1/2 of the original (.015in).

[Maletrain]

Well, I just received my e-mail of "New at Model Train Stuff 10.9.2016" posted at "Sunday, October 09, 2016 4:29 PM," which is at least 6 hours after the short-shank True Scales went out of stock, there.  Good thing I "reserved" them at NSS, and actually received them before MBK/MTS even put them up on their site (at midnight).

But, this raises a question in my mind: did MTS and NSS get the same number of packages of these new couplers?  NSS is still listing them as if they are available, but has a history of doing that and then ordering them from the manufacturer after receiving my order. So, it is hard to tell how well these are actually selling.

Does Joe have a handle on "opening day sales?"