(03-14-2022, 07:28 PM)BR60103 Wrote: [ -> ]Tom: Could you do a description of how you modify the Athearn cars to put screws in the couplings?
Here is the promised thread.
Over time I have grown frustrated with the Athearn Blue Box kits and their coupler box clips. I have had them fall off numerous times during operating sessions. I find couplers loose in the box. I have even had a couple of cars lose their couplers just sitting on the layout.
As part of my tuning up program I have begun adding a screw to the coupler clip to keep it from falling off. The following is how I go about doing it.
Here is the car I am going to modify. An undecorated box car I painted and used dry transfers to make it a New Haven boxcar.
Before the conversion begins
First remove the truck
Remove the coupler clip and coupler
For the drilling I am going to use a No. 50 Tap Drill
I am also going to use the A-Line Bulls Eye Drill Jig to guide the drilling. This jig was made especially for this purpose
The drilling begins
Drilling is complete
Now I am going to a 2-56 Tap to tap the hole
Tapping the hole
Insert coupler and flat spring
Put the coupler box clip on
These are the screws I am going to use. A-Line 2-56x1/8. These are recommended by the jig instructions
Screw added and coupler checked to make sure it moves freely
Put the truck back on
Check coupler height
Conversion completed
Nicely done, Tom, but I don't think I've ever had an Athearn clip-on cover fall off.
Most of them ship with the open portion spread just a little too much - the cover will sorta clip into place, but if subjected to a little rough handling, either in a train or in the box, it can easily drop off.
Once I realised that the sides of the clip-ons were not at right-angles to the cover, I used small smooth-jawed pliers to adjust them properly. Once they're squared-up like that, the cover needs to be pushed onto the coupler pocket straight down (not one side , then the other) as that often re-spreads the sides of the clip-ons.
There were similar problems with the early Accurail cars, too. The cover for the couplers was a flat piece of black plastic with a pin (part of the plastic cover) that was supposed to fit into a hole in a nub in the coupler pocket. It often wouldn't seat properly, leaving a gap between the cover and the coupler pocket, and with the car either in a train or in its box, it didn't take too long for the lid to drop off. After a couple of incidents like that, the cover often simply dropped out, as every time it was inserted or removed, the hole simply got looser and looser.
To fix it, I cut off the mounting pin, then drilled a hole where it had been located. I used the same drill to enlarge the hole in the nub inside the coupler pocket, then tapped it to accept a 2-56 flathead screw.
Later, I began using a larger drill bit (usually the same size or a little larger than the diameter of the screw's head) so that the screw's head was mostly countersunk into the coverplate, making it a lot less noticeable.
Wayne
Interesting thread and good modeling technique.
But I agree with Wayne. After two or three fallen cover, I learned to adjust the sides of the cover, either with a plier or more simply with my fingers, so it won’t fall anymore. For plastic or resin covers I use small tabs of "Canopy Glue". The cover will stay in place but the glue can easily be broken if needed.
By the way, I like the finish on this car. Nice weathering.
interesting I've learned like Wayne that the clips needed to be at 90 deg. did have a couple of Athearn cars that the casting on the coupler pocket were bad so i just drilled the center pin out till i could put a small wood screw in it.
Wayne you stole my thunder.
I was going to do a post on the Accurail coupler box cover because I do the same as you described.
The other thing I do with the Accurail cars if they use a pin to secure the trucks is I tap the hole and use a 2-56 screw to secure the trucks. I think it is 3/8 long. Accurail sells the screw for this purpose and for the coupler covers.
Thanks, Tom. The first Athearn kit I made had screws in the coupler boxes. (It also had those rubber plugs instead of truck springs.) ca 1957-58.
I found that the metal clips liked to scrape off the plastic nubs on the side of the box.
My first HO scale trains came from a variety of makers: Globe F7 diesels, a Varney metal boxcar, two plastic Varney hoppers, one covered, one open, and a plastic Varney tank car, along with an Athearn all-metal 50' flatcar, an MDC cast metal low-sided gondola, an Authenticast depressed-centre flatcar, and a Silver Streak caboose.
All of them had Kadee K-type couplers, in metal draught gear boxes with rivetted-on cover-plates....
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attachment=38385]
Most of the draught gear boxes were held in place with Pliobond contact cement, and/or cut-down straight pins in drilled holes. The one exception was the Athearn flatcar, which was stamped metal with a balsawood underbody. It too had the Pliobond, but the cut-down straight pins were simply pressed into the balsawood.
I still have all of those cars, although the flatcar and caboose are not in use. The A-B-B-A diesels, originally in Santa Fe "Warbonnet" colours, were later painted in CPR grey and maroon, and then later again, re-painted in EG&E double grey and green, now all long gone.
Wayne