Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - Printable Version +- (https://bigbluetrains.com) +-- Forum: Mainline (https://bigbluetrains.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=17) +--- Forum: HO Modeling (https://bigbluetrains.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=21) +--- Thread: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips (/showthread.php?tid=9549) |
Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - tompm - 03-16-2022 (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. RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - tompm - 03-16-2022 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 RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - tompm - 03-16-2022 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 RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - tompm - 03-16-2022 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 RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - doctorwayne - 03-17-2022 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 RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - CNR5103 - 03-17-2022 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. RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - jim currie - 03-17-2022 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. RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - tompm - 03-17-2022 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. RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - BR60103 - 03-17-2022 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. RE: Adding a Screw to Athearn Coupler Box Clips - doctorwayne - 03-18-2022 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.... 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 |