I'm new to the hobby and am building a railroad and collecting locomotives and cars.
I'm going to focus on the railway as I would like it to be in the future. That means modern equipment, locomotives as SD90/43MAC an AC4400. - The cars are mostly intermodal, tank cars and eventually centerbeams and hoppers.
I have read that the Micro-trains couplers are the best and therefor I will start converting my rolling stock to have MT couplers and the cars also MT trucks.
I have code 55 from Atlas so I need to use low profile wheels.
- When I will order trucks shall I have long medium or short shanks on the couplers and how long are they? - My locomotives are from KATO and the couplers on them are very short and the cars pulled by the SD90's easily derail in spite of easment and 45 cm (18") radius. I guess that it's short shanks on the locomotives? - What about plastic wheels or metal wheels? MT don't semm to hav metal.
The cars I will start converting are Atlas flatcars with trailers on.
Do you have any tips to give me?
I have already bought the MT coupler starter kit. so I guess I have at least some of the tools for the job.
Thank you in advance!
Posted by Conducter1 (Member # 4364) on :
First off you will have to check on which coupler will work for that car. On my own I use short to medium depending on were the kingpin sits. Some cars sit further back so you need med. and others sit closer were short would work. On my autoracks I use the long ones. It's just what suits that car. Just eyeball it to see if works for you.