replacing couplers

[Jim449]

just getting started with N; where is  best place to find directions for changing a car from rapido coupler to knuckle coupler?  Thanx!

[railtwister]

The Micro-Trains couplers come with conversion instructions, and their website (www.micro-trains.com) has lists by loco model & manufacturer of which conversion kits fit which locos. That's a good place to start.

Bill in FL

[Albert in N]

Bill gave good advice since Micro-Trains has supplied great working N scale couplers for many years.  Since N scale brands sometimes have different size truck pins and bolster heights, M-T often furnishes shims and different sizes of pins.  If you have Bachmann rolling stock and locomotives with old style Rapido couplers, Bachmann dummy knuckle couplers or newer working magnetic couplers are an option.  Newer Bachmann cars (since 2000) have trucks fastened to the car bottom with a small phillips head screw.  The coupler is held in place by a small plastic clip on the bottom of the coupler.  Snapping off the clip with a small flat screwdriver exposes the spring and coupler.  It is easy to replace with a Bachmann knuckle coupler, snap the clip back into place, and reattach the truck.  I have also converted a few Bachmann freight cars with M-T couplers, but found that it was necessary to do more fitting to convert (not like changing out Atlas or other brand rolling stock).  Cost is also a consideration.  Regardless of choice, you will not miss the Rapidos once you convert!

[Ron Zee]

As someone once told me, changing the trucks is another way to go. I bought a card of 42535 trucks which will convert 12 cars at a time. Take off old trucks, take wheels off them, install wheels onto new trucks, install new trucks. And since they're Bachmann trucks, they go right on with no mods. Of course though, this works most of the time, not always. Some cars (like my Amtrak ones) wont accept the new trucks. But all my freight ones did. And it helps a lot to make a car with Rapido on one end and the new connector on the other end to make a "transition" car so you can run both kinds. It was like 28.00 total on e-bay for the card of trucks.