Tyco Trains

Welcome to the forum.

	Username:

	Password:

Save Password

Register
Forgot your Password?

[ Active Members: 0 | Anonymous Members: 0 | Guests: 28 ] [ Total: 28 ] [ Newest Member: alebozzo ]

Select Skin:

All Forums

The Builders Depot

Customizing & Kitbashing

Don't Burn the Coupler Springs

All users can post NEW topics in this forum
All users can reply to topics in this forum

Printer Friendly

scsshaggy
Big Boy

Status: offline

Posted - January 24 2025 : 5:05:10 PM

For when I want a 1-car passenger train, there's this Penn Line combine car:

One day, I went to use it and found that the centering spring on one side of a coupler wasn't working, so the other spring always had the coupler hard over to one side. I opened up the coupler box and found one whisker of a Kadee whisker coupler burned off. The trucks are metal and are grounded through the wheels to one rail. Clearly, the coupler had become grounded to the other rail, either through its uncoupling lever or the one on a coupler to which it was coupled. The short circuit made short work of that tiny whisker spring.

The coupler box is one piece with the metal truck, so the metal coupler is in contact:

I wanted to put a plastic shank coupler in the box, but the coupler box was too small for a regular Kadee centering spring, and the plastic shank couplers do not come with whisker springs.

I cut the sides and the center pin off of the coupler box with a jeweler's saw and filed the top flat.

I drilled and tapped the top of the metal box for a 2-56 screw and fastened coupler in a plastic box to the talgo truck:

Because the top of the plastic box pushes the coupler lower than it's meant to be, I used a drop-shank coupler to put the coupler at the proper height.

The screw needs to be cut flush with the top of the arm on which the coupler is mounted, so I used an acetyl plastic screw that comes with a Kadee coupler to fasten it. The plastic screw is easy to trim.

All this work chipped up the paint badly, but a dab of black enamel covers a lot of ugly.