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My dearly beloved wife bought me a very nice Kato set (probably way over paid for it, too). It's the 10-453, 8-Car 0-Series Tokaido Shinkansen. I have a couple of questions. I noticed that it came with Rapido couplers. I really like the Tomix TN couplers that I have on my 201-series Chuo line set. Can Tomix TN couplers be fitted to Kato's Shinkansen? If not, how about magna-matic (though less prototypical)? I hate to mess with something new in the box, especially a classic like this, but Rapido just won't do!

Another newbie question, so please bear with me. When I tried to install close-fitting couplers (part no. 11-703) on my Kato 0 Series Shinkansen, I realized that I would need to disassemble the power car in order to gain access to the existing Rapido couplers. There is an excellent DIY out there ( http://butsuma-tetsudou.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2012/09/kato-02000-807e.html ) that covers the close-fitting coupler installation process, and I tried to follow it exactly. But I'm still not sure how to safely remove the blue bottom plate (the part with eight tabs in the photo--needless to say, the image is not mine). Should I be using a flathead screwdriver to pry it off, and if so, where do I apply force? Thanks for your help.