First Release Kato F3 A & B

[arbomambo]

John!
great to see you around here!...
for the front clip that holds the front pilot couplker...no need to squeeze anything together (it's not that complicated); a small flat screwdriver inserted under the clip and a little pressure will pop it straight down out of its housing (intact)

I'm actually using the short shanks between the PAs and E units (both ends) and am not having difficulties on 13" radius curves ...however, I haven't installed diaphragms yet, and want to do so.
~Bruce

[strummer]

John

Thanks again for all the help; the link to your "play by play" was especially helpful, as I wasn't quite clear where exactly the angled cuts went on the Unimates. Now to find a couple of old Rapido coupler springs...

Mark in Oregon

[strummer]

Bruce

Thanks for the clarification; sounds pretty straight forward.

Mark in Oregon

[strummer]

Project completed, (the Unimates look nice) except for the front coupler on the "A" unit. Will have to find the suitable MT for it.

My thanks to all who weighed in, with extra kudos to one Mr. Sing....thanks, John.

Mark in Oregon

[atsf_arizona]

Strummer,

Regarding the Kato F unit front coupler, found this old thread of mine on the old Atlas Forum, it's still there:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=60424

A picture from that thread:

Kato knuckle coupler; Micro-Trains 2004; Micro-Trains 1015 using MT 1159 kit:


I trust that will help this discussion as well.

[arbomambo]

I use MT Z scale couplers in the front pockets of all my Kato cab units....the 905s actually can screw right in the area after removing the clip that holds the original coupler and opening the coupler pocket up toward the anticlimber per the proto pics...
~Bruce

[strummer]

Hmm...905s...that sounds easy and I'll look into it.

Thanks.

Mark in Oregon

[leikec]

Boy, this thread was perfectly timed for me. Thanks, everyone!

Jeff C

[strummer]

So Jeff

Which route did you end up taking?

Mark in Oregon

[leikec]

Unimates on the back, and right now the 1159 conversion up front. Eventually I'll do Z couplers on the front.

I mainly model Wabash at around the time of the N&W merger (1962-1964), and diesel assignments were pretty much anything goes on the power short railroad as long as there was enough horsepower to move the traffic.

That's a great thing to model for variety, but it also means that the neat AB sets and ABBA sets of F units almost never happened on freights west of Detroit during that era.

Jeff C