MT conversions

[untabubba]

I'm looking for some practical experience to help me begin my quest to convert many of my favorite cars from Rapido to MTs. I'm thinking it might be easier and better to just "swap out" the whole truck, rather than engage in hand-to-hand combat with those darn little springs! To that end I went looking and found there are quite a few types of trucks. How do I know which to use? Is there a prototypical protocol, or is it a matter of "taste"? Will they all fit? Also, I went, numbers in hand, to a very good LHS. I didn't tell the guy I had the numbers. I wanted to see what he would give me. Sure enough, he gave me a different number! I divulged the number I got from the MT website. He said they'd both work. I took the ones HE suggested and it was a breeze! No alterations required at all. So, what's up with THAT?? I'd appreciate any suggestions, stories or help anyone can give. Marc

[g-pa1]

Pete, I put some Kadee couplers on some roundhouse oldtimer kit cars that I bought for my Christmas HO layout. They did couple nicely. Do all the ON30 cars come with the Kadee or are they McHenry as well? You are right in stating long ago that the larger scales are easier to see when working on them.For instance those N Scale springs cause my eyes to glaze over!! Gene

[ginzokid]

Gene, That is not the scale size; that is my martoonies rubbing off on the group. You are just begining to feel the effects, that's all. Most On30 equipment I have seen comes with McHenrys or none. There isn't much out there in that scale yet as Bachmann broke into the market with basically a new scale combination, so most of the stuff is Bachmann. Other firms are now following suit, but leaving the couplers off their car kits to accomodate the end users choice. Take two olives and don't call me in the morning. Dr. B-)

[beastranger]

Has anyone had problems with KD couplers uncoupling under heavey load? The other day just for the hell of it MUed a LL FA+B set with a LL GP-18 and 3 LL Gp-20s all powered and started dragging around 75 cars. The first car was a transition car to a KD coupler equipted car. Whenever the engines got up to the top of the grade it would uncouple between the transition car and the KD equipted car. When I moved the KD cars to the rear of the train it ran fine. Am I just asking too much of these couplers? This train is allmost 25ft long! Punk

[ginzokid]

Punk, Kadee? What scale was this train? I thought you were in N scale for the most part. You must mean MT couplers, right? You answered your own question in a way. The uncoupling took place at the top of the grade. I'm willing to bet you have a small "hump" at the transition point of level to the grade going down. This will cause one coupler to ride up over the other as these couplers do not move up and down like they do from side to side. MT has redesigned the face of their couplers to what they now call "reverse draft" to help them grip better and prevent accidental uncoupling. But, if the trucks are forced up and out of level by uneven track work, you will get the uncoupling. That is why it is also important to use the MT height gage on all cars. Also, the longer train will put a strain on cars that are not properly weighted and cause the over-riding of the couplers at any humps or dips in your track work. Your 25ft long train put strain everywhere, and possibly "stringing" at curves too. It is not the couplers' fault. As long as the shanks don't break and the knuckles are not pulled out of shape, the couplers will do their work. You have other problems I suspect. Aren't you sorry you asked... B-)

[untabubba]

As long as we're talking about "running trains" for the moment. Do these things experience "fatigue", or something? I've been running two 16 car consists. (Looks about right on my layout) They run fine at first, but after a few trips around the layout things start to happen. A loco will "split" a turnout point. A car (and there are certain repeat offenders) will just derail. What frustrates me is the seemingly random timing of these events! Everything starts out fine...then....a train wreck! And you got to know it's "Murphy's Law"; it happens the moment I become distracted by a side project and stop watching the actual trains running! It's hard to iron out track problems if the occurrences are not consistent. Any of you guys have this experience? (Let's call it "Running Fatigue".) Marc

[beastranger]

Pete You are right on all accounts, N-scale and a transition in the track. Thats kind of what I figured was happening. The transition is fairly smooth with a couple of dips leading up to it, plus a curve starts right where they uncouple. The dips will be taken care of when I ballast. I've seen pictures of prototype couplers that have a little hood cast into them to prevent the coupler from riding up and out, be nice if our model couplers had that feature. Marc I've learned the hard way to always keep my hand on the throttle and to listen for a derailed wheel when running anything longer than a track cleaning train. My problem is that I will have a train that will make 20 or more circuts of the layout running fine and then bang it derails. Of course most of the problem seems to be the Atlas turnouts which would all be changed to Peco if I had the extra cash to blow. Punk

[ginzokid]

I'm not blowing my horn here guys, but I just don't have derails more than once. Then I fix that area of track or offending turnout or replace the wheel set; whatever it takes to "fine tune" the track and adjust the coupler height. I have left the room and come back after a trip to get another beer or whatever, and the trains are still running just fine on my return. I mentioned some problems with the new layout a while back with dips etc. These have all been fixed now and I guess my way to test this is to run the trains for a long time before the ballast is put down. Adjustments are easier that way. Dips will cause derails and uncouples. The top of a grade is a reverse dip and must be just as smooth a transition as the bottom. Doug, I've never seen this type of coupler. Where did you see them? Marc, I don't think "Fatigue" is the right word. I think it has something to do with Murphy though. B-)

[trmwf]

Doug, Those are what they call top shelf couplers and are "required" on tanks of haz mat. You are correct in that it is designed to keep the adjacent coupler from riding up and out of the coupler of a car equipped with the top shelf coupler. The explosion on the N&W in the early 70's at Decatur, Ill. was caused when 11 car loads of LP gas were allowed to roll free into a track. They gained speed as they rolled since most yards have a slight "bowl" shape with the low part in the middle to facilitate better rolling while switching. They struck a single empty boxcar that was coupled to 50 cars of grain which of course did not move. The force of the coupling caused the empty boxcar to jump up, allowing its' coupler to lift vertically out of the coupler of the adjacent tank car and it was then driven through and punctured the end cap of the tanhk car. The LP gas, loaded under extreme pressure, immediately escaped in to the atmosphere, and since it is heavier than air, and settled like a dense fog over the entire East half of the yard before it was ignited by an unknown source. When it went off, it instantly killed 7 employees, burned and injured 25 others, destroyed 9 locomotives, 952 freight cars and literally wiped out the entire east half of the yard that was 3 miles long and 95 tracks wide, collapsed two schools, damaged or destroyed over 400 houses, injured over 250 citizens, shattered windows in the downtown area 4 miles away and otherwise created quite a stir. Yours truely just happened to be standing nearby, but was leaning against a large concrete bridge pier that was between me and the blast talking to another guy. I felt the blast and heat but was basically protected by the pier. The guy I was talking to was blown over and rolled almost 25 feet with some small cuts and abrasions and a severe "sunburn" from the flash. Just my lucky day I guess as I then got to work 16-18 hours a day for 84 days straight while we continued to try to operate trains in and out and clean up and rebuild at the same time. As far as you and Marc's derailments, I agree with Pete. I haven't had a derailment in at least a couple of years unless it was something that I caused by not paying attention. I think if you look back you will see that me and Pete have always stressed good track work. A bad spot will always get ya. Maybe only once out of every 10 or 25 laps but it will get ya.. Check for mismatched joints, cross-level, reverse crosslevel, dips and humps, and of course the good old common Atlas turnout. prof

[crazyd37]

What a story Mike! Glad you are still with us. I can only imagine the havoc that it caused. Dot

[untabubba]

Prof, WOW! I'm a little afraid of the LP tank on my gas grill. I can't imagine the devastation you described! Just unbelievable! Your lucky day indeed!! If you weren't a "church going man" before, I bet you were after! Marc

[trmwf]

Dot, Believe me, I've had some very bad days in my lifetime of working for the railroad but this one and the three months afterwards are by far the worse. Most major railroads are self insured. However, at the time the N&W had an insurance policy with Lloyds of London that had a 20 million dollar deductable which was a whole lot of money back then. This was the only time they have ever been able to use it. prof

[ginzokid]

Oh ye of the singed eyebrows, glad you are still with us. As for the trackwork guys, bullet-proof is what we are looking for. Slow and steady guys. Do not rush track laying. B-)

[trmwf]

by the way...it was this incident that spawned the development of the top shelf coupler and made them federally mandated for tank cars of haz mat....not to mention all kinds of regulations and rules on the handling of haz mat shipments, like train placement, switching, paperwork and documentation, placards etc. prof ps: we were still lucky though. At the time there were 157 other tank carloads of flammable gas (chlorine, propane, jet fuel, gasoline etc) and 36 carloads of high explosive bombs and artillary shells in the yard that did not go off in the resulting fires that burned for a few days.

[beastranger]

WOW!! sure glad you were behind that pier prof! I agree with you guys about bullit proof trackwork and will deal with the dips when ballasting. As for the Atlas turnouts, I'm stuck with them for now. When funds allow it I will replace all the mainline turnouts with Peco. One problem piece of track that I have eliminated from the mainlines is rerailers, they seem to cause more derails than doing what they are supposed to. Pete I read about those couplers in one of the modeling magazines just can't remember which one MR or MRCraftsman. Punk

[untabubba]

I found a great source for MT stuff (couplers, trucks, etc.) on ebay today. He's selling a nice variety of NIB stuff BIN for less than N scale supply, with lower S&H! I picked up 2 sets of Barbers, a "sampler" of roller bearing (1 pair of each shank length - total 3 pair), one pack of 1015/1016 (unassembled couplers) and a 3 pack of CM Shop's Coal Loads for my hoppers, as Pete recommended. All this cost 23.55 + 3.95 S&H = $27.50 I saved about $5.00 over N Scale Supply and about $7.00 over the LHS. If the transaction is smooth, I will probably buy some bulk packs he has up for really good prices. That was my rainy day on ebay! Marc 😄