Watch this before spending a bunch of money on replacement couplers for your N Scale rolling stock. 

Thank you!

Great if running train same way but not practical on layouts running stock in alternative directions with a lot of switching I have found it unrealistic but then again good for some and not so good for others.

Figure there are some people that haven't heard of it yet, or are new the hobby. 🙂

@@Trains-With-ShaneThis concept is so obvious that it done totally eluded me. Thanks for posting this tip. Am full noob with N scale but ran O and Ho back in the 60s when I was a little kid.

@@JohnHoranzy Thanks John. That's why I put most of these videos together. Everybody starts somewhere.

Thanks Kenneth. I didn't know the pins were removable. I may attempt this with one or two additonal cars as a test. Is there a default MT truck that you pick up or do you buy based on prototype accuracy?

While not as common anymore there was a time when some manufacturers were putting both types of couplers in with their locomotives and rolling stock. I seem to remember some of my older Kato stuff came with the Rapido couplers in the spare parts bag.

Excellent!

100% of the used rolling stock i've bought either on eBay or at train shows didn't come with a single spare replacement coupler. Now by rolling stock I mean just cars. I have bought plenty of locomotives with replacement couplers. Mostly with knuckle couplers already fitted. And rather than fit any of them with the included Rapidos I just decided to make a quick conversion car. Then it doesn't matter which cars I want to pull behind a given locomotive.

You're welcome, David. That's exactly why I posted this. Not everybody knows all the tricks. I learn a lot of stuff by watching RU-vid.

I might actually start picking up some conversion trucks and making a few more of these cars.

I'll have to give it a try! They looked like rivets so I didn't want to risk busting up a car. But if they're just little friction fit pins then that opens up a bunch of opportunities to do this on virtually everything.

@@Trains-With-Shane Yes. That's exactly what they are. Friction fit pins. Micro trains trucks come with 2 sets of extra pins. One for Atlas, Life like and Model power. And one for older Con Cor cars.

Thanks George!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

That's really why I decided to put the video together. Replacing everything with Micro trains, or other type of coupler, can get pretty pricy if you have a bunch of older rolling stock. In my case a bunch of my old stock is cheap and ancient Bachmann, Life-Like, etc. where the coupler kit would cost more than I likely spent on the piece itself. lol

Switching operations are DEFINITLY better with knuckle couplers. Especially if your layout has permanent or electro magnetic de-coupler points. I've got a few sections of that Kato track that have de-coupler magnets built in. Need to play around and see if I'm going to use them or not. Just haven't had time yet.

I've got such a mismatch of old and new rolling stock that the coupler mating cars are mandatory if i'm to run large trains.

Thanks William! Glad the info was helpful. 👍

Thanks for watching, Leo! Glad it helped you out.

Cheers!

The Rapidos work really well for me. I've also got a few old con-cor, atlas, and rivarossi lassenger cars and it'd cost quite a bit to convert them. I may do some of them in small batches. but until then it's adapter cars.

you have to practically stick your nose to it to tell the difference- especially on large layouts. not spending money on MT couplers for your cars will allow you to buy other goodies- like fox valley models' terrific brass wheelsets. they look good and sound great on the rails and do more for your freight cars than installing knuckle couplers can.

I may have to put together a few more. I just picked up a mix of Amtrak Phase III cars with Rapido and Knuckle couplers (2 different lots). So will need to put together at least one converter car to be able to haul all of them at once.

That is how I use mine as well. Often I run the transition cars back to back if I don't need an actual transition. This way I keep them on the track for easy access. If I want to switch engines I just remove the frontmost car if I need a transition.

good idea for making hot trucks for FRED's and cabooses

I should probably make some Amtrak conversion cars as i've got a mix of knuckle and rapido cars from various manufacturers. I've got a SP Daylight set as well but it's all rapido equipped because it's old Con-Cor

@@Trains-With-Shane The biggest issue I ran into was the coupler height not matching. The B unit has an ever so slight rake to it but the couplers stay connected so I can live with the rake.

Just need to swap out one side of a few of them and you can run any combination you want. Run them all 🙃

Body mounted couplers definitely lend themselves better to switching ops. I keep most of mine truck mounted to better deal with tight radius curves.

Yep the order is the only downside. But for me it's worth it for the cost savings. At least with most of the rolling stock that I have being older.

You're not wrong! They tend to handle tight radius curves better as well. Although that can also just vary depending on whether you're using shell or truck mounted couplers, etc. I have to say that as long as the coupler heights are anywhere near similar the rapidos tend to stay coupled.

There are probably more optimal ways to do it. Like to use a car with body mounted couplers and only convert one to a knuckle. I'll need to look up and see who's offering those custom conversion cars. I may put one on my layout.

@@Trains-With-Shane I just looked at the 3 that i have, 2 say atlas on the bottom and the other has no markings. but i'm not sure if it was something that was done by atlas or if it's something that the person i bought them from might have done. either way, they've been useful as they have military vehicles on them so i can run them behind my UP 'The Spirit' locomotive and mix them through the consist if need be.

Wow that's a long time ago! I don't think knuckle couplers were a thing in N scale till at least the late 80's. But if I recall O scale has had them forever. I wasn't sure how far Kadee went back in H.O. scale. Good old #5's. I've got a bunch of those as well in my old H.O. scale supplies that I just broke open today for the first time in years to help my brother get started who wanted to move from O to H.O. scale. I gave him a few old but trusty Atlas yellow box locomotives, some EZ track, and an old Bachmann power pack.

True. don't want to have 33's vs 36's or something. Would make the car slant.

I like Bachmann's newer couplers. They seem to work well. At least on the locomotives that I have purchased that have them.

Cheers, Mark!

My metal bachmann wheels roll pretty well. Although i'm not to the point of replacing them yet. I've got quite a few better pieces now. Mostly Microtrains, that I use for switching ops and the like.

That's one reason why I went with similar make cars here.

Me too. It's also easier to use during switching ops.

Thanks! I've got a bunch of older HO scale stuff and I think almost all of it is hook horn.

@@Trains-With-Shane the good news is that it's pretty simple to convert old rolling stock that has hook horn to knuckle couplers. When I first got into ho scale trains I bought dozens of old rolling stock and converted them to kaydee couplers and metal wheels with very little work.

@@Riogrande6400 I think I have a box of Kadee #5's somewhere.

@@Trains-With-Shane you will also need some kedee coupler boxes and glue. I would also recommend a coupler hight gage and a piece of flex track.

@@Riogrande6400 the height gauge I will need. I've got one for N scale but not H.O.

Thanks, Jack! I use mine often.

how about AC/DC rails? ADRX

Thanks Samantha! Glad you enjoyed the video! -Shane

You're welcome, Fred. I use mine all the time.

I still use mine often.

They're handy!

Thank you Matty

Derails are a fact of model railroading regardless of the track and the rolling stock that you use. Now that being said in my opinion Kato Unitrack is the best track overall. Especially for a beginner-intermediate modeler. It just clicks together and works.

I use them on my test track all the time. That way I never need to change out all of my rolling stock when I test a new (to me) locomotive.

You're welcome, Bill!

It usually varies greatly depending on manufacturer, train model, and when it was made.

It's not too bad. Although I did search through a lot of auction listings because I was trying to get out as inexpensively as possible. I lucked out with that weathered Pacific Fruit Express car being just about the cheapest one overall.

i throw them in my parts box as I use rapidos on all my plastic equipment. I am too busy working on locos, motors, and wheelsets- just don't want to play with couplers. i'm retired and do motor man work for a couple of local N scale groups and let those guys handle knuckle-coupler issues and those couplers have more issues than rapidos do- and guys pay extra for them? love fox valley model's brass wheelsets- i try to put the standard-tread wheels on everything. they sound nicer on the rails, too. not buying knuckle couplers enables me to pay for the wheelsets. i'm still seeing dummy knuckles on some new rolling stock- really hate those! they force you to touch your decorated and weathered cars. at least give us some couplers we can switch with! N scale's finally getting to be fun!

Hi Raymond! If I remember correctly I think even some of my brand new Katos, while they come with knuckle couplers pre installed, come with Rapidos as well as optional replacements. I'll have to check though.

You're welcome!

Wasn't sure if you did or not when you mentioned Rapidos on the other video 😛

Hey Freddy. I'm not 100% sure. I don't know if it'd be as easy as swapping a truck off of a newer model not knowing much about the Thomas The Tank Engine stuff that Bachmann made. But you could just as easily upgrade from the Rapido coupler to a knuckle style on one end of one of the Thomas themed cars. Although it may take a little bit of fiddling.

Well the purpose of this video was to show you a way you don't have to. But if you have a locomotive that has a broken or missing coupler Most of them have some kind of conversion available but not all. It depends on the specific model. And most of them have some kind of plastic clip holding them together if there isn't a screw. But some you have to take the truck apart as it's held together by the individual pieces of the truck.

I believe Microtrains has a way to find out which coupler kit you can order on their website. Just feed in the make and model. It may or may not come with all the components needed depending on if you're missing the entire coupler boxes on the one you just got.

Yes they are. Not a new concept. I just hadn't seen a video solely about it in regards to N scale.

@@Trains-With-Shane Yep. I was just giving it a name and that's great that you created this niche video. I do the same on my business channel--try to create niche/one-of-a-kind videos. I just created a few transition cars an hour ago. I am a bit of a purist when it comes to old or antique things so it bugs me to remove the Rapido couplers but I keep it to a minimum. I like keeping them as they are since they are so old. It preserves their original condition. I'll just make enough transition cars to pull entire trains of Rapido coupler'd cars. I have 3 consists that way. I don't mind that they don't look like real knuckle couplers. The other issue is more important to me. Take care.

I’ve actually had more issues with knuckle couplers uncoupling than rapidos. But if I were doing a lot of yard switching operations I would be using exclusively knuckles for that.

make them body or floor-mount rapidos and they will outperform (and won't 'uncouple while rolling') any knuckle coupler including MTs. you can use the pockets, springs, and couplers you cut from the trucks. if parts are an issue, you can get used trucks cheap online from guys who converted to MT trucks. humping, staging, or backing long strings or trains- hands-down better reliability. you can release them easily with a rix-pix or bamboo food skewer. how much can a bag of those cost at safeway? the train guys i work for say to use a good two-part clear epoxy for the construction of the floors/bodies to the shim(s) and coupler boxes and rough up the plastic to help the epoxy hold. don't get glue inside the box or you'll regret it. makes sense.....

When you say coming apart do you mean that they're unhooking from each other or the couplers are coming off of the rolling stock?

@@Trains-With-Shane They are unhooking from each other.

@@larryholloway5222 That is strange. The only time I have issues with that happening is when there are transitions to steep grades or if the couplers are vastly different height or the springs are missing.

Sometimes the simple solutions are the best ones.

That's basically what I did here :)

LOL I appreciate it. Not my idea but just making sure I spread the word about it.

Knuckles definitely work better for switching ops!

Thanks. It's not something that I came up with. It's been around in the model railroad scene for a while but I hadn't seen any videos about it with a quick search. So I decided to put one together.

It is. but can be costly and difficult.

@@Trains-With-Shane so rolling stock is cheaper

@@vahidhosoda6614 Usually yes because the mounting is simpler. For ones with truck mounted couplers you can get trucks from micro-trains and other places that have total replacement truck and wheel sets. Just unscrew, swap, and you're done.

This video is about building transition cars.

If I remember right those were made by High Speed Metals and offered by Readers Digest or something like that. I had one of their locomotives that I picked up in a lot of other stuff. It was neat but I tossed it. Buyers of Southern Pacific units beware.

Yeah I got few of them. Got lucky though. They came in a cpl different lots I purchased. They weren't what I based my purchase off of.

I have found that they work pretty well. They aren't as suitable for prototypical switching operations, etc. But for hauling a bunch of cars around I've honestly never had a problem with rapido style couplers.

@@Trains-With-Shane If one is manually uncoupling for yard ops on a small layout, a simple "L" tool made out of 14 ga solid core wire (strip the insulation off the bottom L part) allows for easy uncoupling of rapido style couplers. Personally I found it far easier to use than trying to get a little screwdriver tool down in the knuckle couplers. Now on large yards with magnetic remote uncoupling, the magnetic style knuckle couplers are mandatory. I am over large layouts that I became a slave to in order to just keep them running. My little "legacy" switching layout is all rapido and in fact I just found a nice "new in box" 1992 Arnold RS-1 with rapido couplers that should work well too. The added joy of using older style rolling stock is of course they cost less and very few engines with rapido couplers are DCC and thus far cheaper than new engines with magnetic knuckle couplers and DCC chip installed. I run my simple shelf layout for fun switching puzzles using a card system and I really don't care how "real" it looks. It's a whole lot less stressful on both my brain and my wallet to just have fun and KIS (Keep It Simple). But having gone off topic, your idea is a good one I have used personally decades ago in HO allowing use of both horn hook style and Kadee magnetic couplers. (Yup I am that old to still call them Kadee) 🤣