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

[Robbman]

and a real hats off to Bluford and their 86'ers... the high degree of thought that went into that body mount design is evident -

Hat's off would go to Walthers on that design. 

[Sokramiketes]

Hat's off would go to Walthers on that design. 

   :  And do you know who used that system before Walthers, Robb?

[lock4244]

Hat's off would go to Walthers on that design. 

Ok, then hats off to Bluford for bringing it to N... truck mounted couplers on the 86'ers are less than adequate.

[Robbman]

   :  And do you know who used that system before Walthers, Robb?

Bluford borrowed the design from Walthers... that's from the horses mouth. 

[Ryan87]

   :  And do you know who used that system before Walthers, Robb?

Accurail?

[James Costello]

Warning! --- Thread Drift --- Warning!

Lets not undo Gary's fine documentation here eh?

[GaryHinshaw]

Continuing with my obsession with minutiae (literally) and tank cars (apparently) we come to my favorite N scale tank car on the market today: the Atlas corn syrup tanker:



I just love the squat lines and fine detail on this car, but it poses a bit of a challenge for body mounting because the under-frame is attached with two mounting lugs outboard of the bolsters, leaving very little room for couplers (this precludes using MT truck-mounted couplers for example).  Instead of tank-mounting the couplers like I did with the ethanol tanker, I found the end platforms to be stiff enough to support the coupler box, so I went that route with the Full Throttle coupler:



There is *just* enough room to accommodate the box w/o overhang, but the lid of the box was fouling the tank, so I cut it shorter, as illustrated here (though not quite as short as the lid in this picture):



I then drilled a #60 hole in the lid about 8 scale inches behind the front face, and a corresponding hole in the end platform (where the dimple is) to accept a .040 round styrene pin for strength.  The lid and pin are glued to the platform with Goo, then the box is snapped in place.  Here's the result, along with BLMA trucks, air hose, & cut lever:



[The whole shebang still needs painting & weathering, of course.] The couplers sit at exactly the right height with the BLMA trucks, without having to file bolsters or any such nonsense.  One of the best things about this change is that it brings the car spacing in by about 50%, and it just looks cool with those air hoses & cut levers:





I really like these couplers.  Time to start testing them in a long train... I'm a little antsy about the end-platform-mounting.

-gfh

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This is really awesome. The only thing missing now are shelfs!

[GaryHinshaw]

The only thing missing now are shelfs!

Add that to the list please, Craig.   ;D

[ednadolski]

I coulda bet money that had to be HO!  Great work Gary!   You are definitely advancing the state of the art!

Ed

[Craig Martyn]

Add that to the list please, Craig.   ;D

Done and done!

Looking great Gary!!

[DKS]

I coulda bet money that had to be HO!  Great work Gary!   You are definitely advancing the state of the art!

Ditto. Most excellent work! Please keep it coming.

[lock4244]

Gary, you're work warrants a...

[GaryHinshaw]

Just occurred to me that it might be helpful to show how the Full Throttle coupler compares to the standard N fare side by side:



Front left & right is an FT in its box and out of the box.  Back-left is a standard MT truck-mount box and back-right is a McHenry shank.  The FT box is about 2/3 the size of an MT box in each dimension, and the shank is about 2/3 the size of a McHenry shank.  This compactness really opens up a lot of options, but the knuckle itself is almost as tall as an MT, so the height tolerance is not much tighter than normal.  Add to this: no slinky effect, no McHenry spring, and we have the ideal package.  If only it were available separately....

[I do like the shape of the McHenry knuckle, just wish it weren't so big.]

-gfh

P.S. Thanks lock, the check is in the mail.   

[Coxy]

Gary, lovin this thread. What's the scoop on uncoupling these new designs and what is your preferred uncoupling tool? I'm trying to figure from the pics if a bamboo skewer will do the job with the FT couplers. Not necessarily a problem if it won't, just trying to understand the cost for the great benefits you've been posting. 

(Quality, cost, delivery; you can have any two you want by sacrificing the third!)