Coupler Tinkering - Rapido pocket knuckle coupler bible-ish

[cteno4]

Again all hail the rapido!

 

jeff

[railsquid]

On 5/23/2021 at 11:49 PM, disturbman said:

Greenmax doesn't sell boggie-mounted Shibata couplers, as far as I know only Kato have these. I have some but the issue you mentioned spoils a bit the fun. I had trouble inserting them in some coupler pockets.

 

Tomix 0381/0382?

 

Tomix 103 series coupling replacements by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Top: Kato 11-703

Bottom: Tomix 0382

Edited September 23, 2021 by railsquid

[Das Steinkopf]

I have fitted all of my Tomix KoKi's with the 0393 TN's and the Kato KoKi's with the 11-707 close couplers, looks wise I prefer the TN's but when it comes to ease of fitting and use the Kato 11-707's are better, that said if you do hit an uneven section of track the Kato couplings can uncouple and you have stray wagons, something you will not have happen to the TN's as they stay stuck together, I will admit fitting the TN's can be rather tedious as you try and keep the spring in whilst trying to fit the coupler and clip the retaining plate back into position at the same time.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Das Steinkopf

[Wolf]

So, after a lot of "convincing" of the superiority of "not-arnold-rapido" couplers, I too went down the rabbit hole of coupler changing. Judging by this topic here I went with Greenmax 8055/8056 Black/Grey short ones, as they seemed to me as the perfect in-beetween of reliability (do not uncouple random due to being fixed) and looks.

I fittet my Koki's, my new Kato Wamu's and my Kato Tora's with them.

I spare you pictures of the Koki's, they are identical to what @disturbman posted, but as some might still be in the process of deciding to get the new Kato Wamu's, figured might be an interest enough headsup to post.

Kato Wamus fit well with the short couplers, I ran them for test on the smallest curve I had available, Kato R183, wich are shown on the pictures.

Kato Tora's are a different topic, these are not really meant for the short couplers. As you can see, the space beetween is insanely sqeezed, I will at a later time exchange these for medium ones.

As a short note to these trying to fit them on Tomix coupler pockets. After some struggle of getting the spring back in, I found that leaving a bit of the sprue on the coupler as a guidance rod for the spring helps massively to speed the process!
 

[nah00]

So in my absence I have been swapping out rapidos for better looking alternatives but seeing as I have more kokis than than I care to admit from both Tomix and Kato, does the Greemax coupler work in both of their pockets and with the Kato or Tomix locomotives? I don't care about automatic uncoupling or whatever. Takis are going to be a pain since the Tomix coupler looks good but doesn't play with Kato/MA cars.

 

Also what couplers do Kato wamus and yos take?

[disturbman]

The GM fits in any coupler pockets, unlike some of Kato couplers, and are compatible with Kato, Tomix, Microace and probably Greenmax rolling-stock. They are compatible with Kato locomotive knuckles. For Tomix, I use Re-Color TX091 (electric locomotives) or TX092 (diesel locomotives) adapters to fit Kato EF66 couplers (01-0224). They are available on YJA via your favourite proxy/personal shopper service. Check https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/18853-third-party-parts-manufacturers/ for links.

[Wolf]

I use the GM ones and they work well on KoKi, TaKi, WaMu (see above post for pictures), HoKi and ToRa so far (although on the ToRa you shouldnt use the short ones, again see above post).

 

Kato Loco Knuckles work fine, although some have about 1mm offset but as long you dont run inholy inclines thats no issue to reliability. I have not testet Tomix Locos yet but saw them working well at @disturbman.

 

[disturbman]

29 minutes ago, Wolf said:

Kato Loco Knuckles work fine, although some have about 1mm offset but as long you dont run inholy inclines thats no issue to reliability.

Interesting. The Re-Color/Kato EF66 coupler/Tomix loc has always been a perfect match for me so far. Wonder if changing the original knuckle to the EF66 one on the problematic Kato locomotive would solve that issue.

[nah00]

Question specifically about the Tomix couplers: I somehow bought way more of the 0397s that are for supposed to be for takis than I needed so I tried them on kokis, they seem to work without a problem. Technically you're supposed to use a 0393 on a koki but is that only a narrow radius thing? I've only switched a few so far because I don't want to find out that there's a reason not to.

 

Also don't try to fit Kato couplers in MA trucks. Luckily the pocket didn't completely break...

[katoftw]

9 minutes ago, nah00 said:

Also don't try to fit Kato couplers in MA trucks. Luckily the pocket didn't completely break...

I have some kato knuckle couplers fitted to MA rapido pockets.

Edited January 8, 2023 by katoftw

[disturbman]

I have also fit some to MA sets.

 

@nah00you don’t have issues coupling your wagons together? I found that 0397 was too soft to be used as a coupler. They were almost impossible to couple as the couplers would just bend away.

[roadstar_na6]

Me too, but I had to file down the couplers quite a bit

[nah00]

16 hours ago, disturbman said:

I have also fit some to MA sets.

 

@nah00you don’t have issues coupling your wagons together? I found that 0397 was too soft to be used as a coupler. They were almost impossible to couple as the couplers would just bend away.

 

On takis I haven't I haven't so far, a long as I make sure I'm pushing the cars straight together they go together well. Only 'problem' is they stay together MUCH tighter than the Kato couplers to the point I worry about durability uncoupling them. On the Dowa Mining taki 29300s they did make a really big difference in the train's appearance, probably because they're smaller anything that cuts down the space between cars helps.

 

I've got the Kato coupler to fit a Rapido pocket on MA stock, only problem is it takes me about a half to do one car...

[Kamome]

Does anyone have some go-to couplers for MA locos? Looks as if the Deki 300 will take a Kato knuckle coupler with a bit of coupler modification. Considering a magnetic Kato knuckle coupler on the loco.

 

It needed some plastic shaving off the rear pivoting section plus some plastic shims to stop any droop. 

It really doesn’t move that freely although it is a similar assembly to Kato locos. The challenge is the pivot pin is further back than the Kato fixing hence the need to remove some of the plastic. 

 

If anyone knows of a better alternative.

 

I’d also like to replace the Woki and Wokifu rapidos with close couplers, possibly Greenmax Knuckles or Kato close couplers. As it’s sort of a fixed rake of 20 hoppers, the intermediate couplings could use either but like the idea of a magnetic on the ends. 

 

Has anyone tried Greenmax close knuckles with Kato knuckles? Does anyone know if they connect? 

[disturbman]

1 hour ago, Kamome said:

Has anyone tried Greenmax close knuckles with Kato knuckles? Does anyone know if they connect? 

They do with 28-187 and with Kato loco couplers. Not with the regular 11-702/11-707.

 

1 hour ago, Kamome said:

It really doesn’t move that freely although it is a similar assembly to Kato locos. The challenge is the pivot pin is further back than the Kato fixing hence the need to remove some of the plastic. 

We talked about it yesterday on the Discord. You need to file the back of the coupler, and apparently they droop a bit as the pin is thinner than Kato's.

Edited January 9, 2023 by disturbman

[roadstar_na6]

When I pre-ordered the Tomix Hokkaido Freight Train set a while ago I thought about how to modify them to take Kato knuckles. So inspired by the method for how to use 11-702 with Tomix 2-axle freight cars shown here I thought about why not 3D print brackets instead of chopping a kitchen sponge into teeny tiny bits. I constructed something that should work, but due to the lack of a decent 3D printer and the Tomix cars I had no chance to test it yet.

Last Saturday I paid a visit to @Martijn Meerts to pick the set up (we combined shipping) and since he also has a 3D printer we did a bit of prototyping and improving of the design.

 

Here's a short pictured instruction how they work:

 

First the car has to be disassembled and the Rapido coupler has to be removed. Then, the post by which the Rapido was held in place has to be cut off:

 

Next, the bottom of the 11-702 shank has to be filed flat; you could probably modify the 3D file to have a cutout for it as well but for the sake of rigidity I just felt it was easier to file the coupler down a little:

 

Now the coupler and bracket can be inserted into the coupler box:

 

Finally, the lid has to be put on again and it's done:

 

Feel free to download the file here. It's a really tiny part, so a resin printer or a filament printer with a really tiny nozzle are needed, additionally depending on how good the printer did its job the brackets have to be filed a bit narrower for the lid to go back on, but that's not too much of an issue I suppose 

Edited March 20, 2023 by roadstar_na6

[Falcon]

Hi,

 

I found a picture with the knuckle couplers from 1 to 9 , but I forgot to notice the brands !

 

Can someone help ? Thanks

 

Rainer

 

[disturbman]

Here, https://www.orientalexpress.jp/z05-0746_knuckle/

But, @Falcon, I invite you to read the above thread as well.

Edited July 7, 2023 by disturbman

[Falcon]

Hi,

thank you ! That was the page I was looking for !

 

Rainer