Coupler Conversions 101

By Tony Caronia (Gargoyle)

One of the most basic things that you may need to do as a model railroad hobbyist is changing the couplers on your locomotives and rolling stock.  It doesn’t require much in the way of skill or fancy tools, but like anything else that you have never done before, it can be a frightening proposition.  I know it was for me, and that is why I decided to bring all the information I found out about coupler conversions to one place for easy reference.  Hopefully it will help you to get through that first conversion and on to other aspects of N Scale railroading.

Let me start off by introducing myself.  I’m a 49 years old model railroad enthusiast returning to N scale for the first time since the ‘70s.  Back when I was enjoying early ‘N-Gauge’ as it was called then, there was no Internet, no Micro Trains and no knuckle couplers.  The first thing I noticed on returning to this great hobby was how cool the knuckle couplers looked compared to the old Rapidos style couplers.   It wasn’t long before I was immersing myself in all I could find to learn all about the different manufacturers’ and the couplers that they produce:  MTL, Atlas, Red Caboose and Kato to mention the major ones.

If you spend anytime reading the model railroad forums on the Internet, you will find that most model railroaders have strong feelings and loyalties towards couplers. And they aren’t shy about sharing them. I’d like to say right from the start, it is not my intention to take any stand on the merits or benefits of one coupler vs. another. For the most part, for locomotive conversions the only coupler choice is the MTL coupler. And that is what I am going to start with first.

After collecting new rolling stock and planning my layout it was soon time to try running and enjoying my new acquisitions, To do that I needed to perform my first locomotive coupler conversions.  Now for people that have been in the hobby for a while this may seem like taking candy from a baby.  But for a novice, a beginner, a newbie; it is a procedure that can be a little frightening.  Why?  Well for me there were several reasons. My eyesight, which at one time was keen enough to read the copyright line on the eye chart now makes me struggles to read the instructions on a can of soup.  My fingers and hand to eye coordination, once steely and precise, now occasionally misses my mouth when I am trying to eat that same soup.  But most importantly, my fear, the fear any beginners face, is of the unknown.  Of irreparably breaking something that you just spent some serious money on.  In preparation I spent quite a while searching the Internet.  I looked through all the forums starting with this one, Nscale.net, but I was unable to fine a detailed step by step illustrated ‘how to change couplers’ for any of the many major locomotive releases that are common today.  There are plenty of tutorials on how to scratch build, kit bash and modify some of these same locos into esoteric models that may have existed for only a nanosecond or two somewhere in the Appalachians during the spring of the year 1937. But change a coupler on a Life-Like or a Bachmann?  Good luck, you are on your own.

So what follows is the first of hopefully several, overly written, overly photographed, overly simplistic ‘how-to’s’ on coupler conversion.  It is intended for the novice just getting into or back into the hobby.  But I certainly welcome any help, hints or improvements from others that have been here longer and may know or have found a better way.  For the most part, I have put together this tutorial by trial and error. I did my own research and spoke with the great and helpful people at Micro Trains Line, Atlas, Life-Like, Bachman and others manufacturers.  I hope that you find it helpful and that it makes getting into model railroading a little easier and a little less scary.

All Aboard!

Life-Like Item 7250

N GP 20 LOCO

UP # 474

Recently Life-Like has had the Union Pacific GP 20 Road Number 474 listed on their web site (http://www.lifelikeproducts.com/trains/nscalecars/nscalelocoscars.htm) on sale for $16.42, a great price for a great little runner. Unfortunately for me the locomotive comes equipped with Rapidos while most of my fleet is the newer Atlas Accumates^© or MTL Magne-Matics^©

Figure 1 The Life-Like GP 20

A quick look at the Micro-Trains website (http://www.micro-trains.com/conversions_.htm) lists the proper couplers to convert this locomotive as the 1015 or the 1016. (Figure 2) 

Figure 2 MTL Conversion Chart

 As you can see from the chart, there are two couplers listed for the GP 20.  I needed to figure out was which one to get, the 1015 or the 1016?  By looking at pictures and descriptions of the couplers on-line, I was able to figure out that the difference between the couplers was in shank length: short for the 1015, medium or regular for the 1016.  My layout…okay my temporary layout, the Placeholder Railway, whose motto is “…holding the place for a really great railroad that I will build someday…”, has curves with a minimum radius of 9.75 inches.  Even though the short shank couplers would look more prototypical, allowing the locomotive to couple closer to the car attached to it, I decided to go with the medium shank couplers. My thinking was they might be less troublesome on the tight radius curves on the Placeholder Railway.  My style of enjoying model railroading is the power company’s dream come true.  Turn them on and let them run! I love continuous running, having several loops running at once, all day long.  For me, trouble free running takes precedent over

prototypical look.  So a call to my favorite Internet dealer (Chuck Ciaccio of Feather River Train Shop on the west coast) had the couplers in my hands two days later for $1.25 in postage.  He did tell me that Micro Trains offers the choice of purchasing the 1016 Coupler unassembled or assembled, in brown or black.  With this being my first conversion, I opted for assembled (in black).  I have read enough horror stories of N-scale veterans having trouble assembling MTL couplers.  I’ll save that experience for some future day, after I have the Lasix surgery. 

Now came the moment of truth.   What to do with these things?

It was time to examine the GP 20 and see what lay ahead.

The Rapido couplers are held in place by a plastic retaining clip that anchors itself to the body by spreading into the front and rear steps (Figures 4 & 5).

The copper strip that is visible in the photos acts as a spring for the Rapido coupler.

The first thing that I did was remove the copper strip by holding the loco with one hand, using a pair of tweezers in my second hand and gently pushing back on the Rapido with my third hand (Figure 6).  This step may or may not be necessary, but I wanted to get an unobstructed view of the retaining clip before removing it. The copper strip can now be recycled into a gondola load, placed in a small box in your parts kit, never to be used again or left on the layout where it will no doubt find its way into the gears of your finest running locomotive.  You have a choice here so choose wisely.

Figure 6 Removing the Copper Strip

Using the tweezers you can gently pull the plastic retaining clip straight up and out. (Figure 7)

Figure 7  Removing the Plastic Retainer

Next remove the Rapido, pulling it straight out of the loco.  (Figure 8)

Figure 8 Removing the Rapido

Because I have the power of editing I will come clean and tell you that for the next hour and a half I struggled with how to get the Magne-Matics^© in place with the plastic retaining clip.  Eventually I did find a way, which you will see shortly. Unfortunately however, after I was all done, in checking the coupler height I found that my couplers were attached way too high to mate with other MTL Magne-Matics^© or Atlas Accumates^© knuckle couplers.  MTL anticipates this and packs shims in with the couplers just in case this problem occurs.  (Figure 9)

Figure 9 The Shim

  I needed to remove the couplers and add a shim between the loco body and the coupler in order to lower the height of the coupler.   A great trick here (thanks go out to Joe at MTL) is to add a dab of Goo^© or rubber cement between the coupler and the shim.  A tiny dab is all you need, don’t overload it.  You only want to keep the parts together for a moment while you put them in place and secure them with the retaining clip.

Figure 10 Aligning the new coupler pocket

Figure 10 shows the placement of the coupler/shim back into the loco and lined up the mounting holes.  (MTL also packs screws in with the 1016s but they are not necessary for the Life-Like GP 20 application)  Next the plastic retainer goes back over the MTL, its center prong going into the hole through the coupler.  The tiny tabs on the legs of the retainer go behind the steps and the retainer snaps into place.  While the locomotive and coupler appear delicate and the retainer small, one thing I did find out, is that this combination is tougher and more resilient than they look. To paraphrase an old Timex advertisement, this combo took a licking and kept on ticking.  I had several close calls and near misses before I got everything lined up and snapped in place correctly. The coupler and loco both came through my less then gentle handling unscathed. 

The easiest way I found to get the retainer into place is to position it with the tweezers and push it home a carefully placed finger tip.  It is good to reference the photos of the Rapido before removal, to see just how far down the retainer needs to be pushed in.

When you have one side of the locomotive finished, it is the same exact procedure to do the other end.

I don’t own a coupler gauge so I check my coupler conversions against other locos and cars.  I used an Atlas GP-35 that came with factory installed Accumates^©.  With the shims in place, the GP20 mated up perfectly to the GP35. (Figures 12 & 13)

Figure 12  Front coupler height check

Figure 13 Rear coupler height check

Lastly a check of the trip pin vs. the rail height is needed.  I use an automotive spark plug gap tool here, but a thin piece of cardboard (the MTL 1016 hang card package) will also work. A few laps around the track to make sure there are no snags on turnout points or frogs and the GP 20 is good to go!

Figure 14 Trip pin to rail height check

All right! I made it through and finished my first locomotive conversion.  It wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought it would be.  Nothing got broken, nothing got bent.  It took a little longer than I thought it would, but it was actually enjoyable time spent modeling. And the feeling of satisfaction that comes from accomplishing something in the hobby is the true reward here. 

Figure 15 The coupler converted GP 20

After further research and checking I found that several other Life-Like locomotives share the plastic retainer clip Rapido mount (Figure 18).  The same techniques and procedures that apply to the GP 20 will also apply to the Life-Like SD-7s and SW9/1200. 

Figure 16 SW/1200 Rear Coupler

Figure 17 Life-Like SD-7 Rear Coupler

Figure 18 Life-Like Loco that accept the MTL-1016