Raising Coupler Height

[KD0R]

  I'm fairly new to 1:20.3 scale, and garden railroading.  So far I have a mix of Bachmann equipment both locomotives and rolling stock.  I am aware of the differences in coupler heights between the Big Hauler and early 1;20.3 stock and the newer Fn3, 1:20.3 stock.  I am also aware of the drop shank couplers available in the newer stock to lower the couplers to the older coupler height. 

  Looking at the NMRA Standard, S-2, Couplers, http://nmra.org/sites/default/files/standards/sandrp/pdf/s-2_2010.09.pdf, the height shown for Fn3, knuckle couplers is 1.125" +/- 0.063".   The newer equipment's couplers meet this standard.  The older equipment does not meet the standard.  It's too low.

  I would like to raise the couplers on my older equipment, a three truck Shay, and some Big Hauler stuff to the higher standard.  Is there a reasonable way to do this?  I'm particularly interested in raising the Shay's couplers as it is in fact an Fn3 model.

  Thank You,
David

[Chuck N]

David:

At first I was confused by your post.  I had to lower the couplers on my 2 truck Shay to couple with 1:20.3 cars with body mounted couplers.  I just went to the Bachmann site and looked at the drawings for the three truck shay.  I now see how they attach the truck mounted couplers. 

If you want to keep the truck mounted couplers, you can probably use Kadee #831s on the Shay.  I use those on all my 1:22.5/24 truck mounted couplers.  This brings the couplers to body mount height. 

Or you can add a body mount to the Shay, like I did.  I the link below is a post from me showing how I used the coupler pocket on the Shay and mounted the Bachmann stepdown coupler.  This mates with all my Big Hauler, LGB, USAt, Delton, and AristroCraft 1:22.5/24 cars with truck mounted couplers.  This also mates with 1:20.3 freight and passenger cars from Bachmmann and Accucraft.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,28064.0.html

Chuck