# MTL to Rapido coupler conversion



## HockeyFan1972 (Apr 17, 2019)

***DISCLAIMER****
I HAVE searched for this answer, but to no avail. Even outside this forum.

Whew! With that being said:

As some of you know, new to the hobby. I have assembled my N Scale track and went on to ebay and bought a bunch of rolling stock "Lots." Got my two DCC engines (One with sound and one without) and am finalizing the NCE Power Cab purchase.

So lo and behold i find out when i start to connect all my rolling stock, all but 5 cars have what i have now been told is Rapido couplers. The other 5 have MTL Magnetic couplers.

I have 15 other cars with Rapido couplers. Now, i have researched the KITS that can convert these cars to MTL magnetic but am not good at building the small kits. Pre Made trucks and couplers are quite pricy to replace all 15 cars.

SO, i was wondering if there is a way to convert one of my MTL Magnetic couplers on my Atlas Burlington Northern Engine to a Rapido coupler so one engine can pull the newer type of cars with more modern couplers, and the older engine can pull the other 15 until such time i feel like converting over or whatever.

Any help would be appreciated. My Atlas Engine has a screw where i can remove the MTL Coupler. So access seems easy enough...

Thank you all in advance.

Felix


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## bewhole (Dec 31, 2016)

To me the easiest and cheapest way is to see if you can convert one end of a freight car to a Rapido coupler and haul that behind the locomotive. Someone here must have an extra one or you can take one off a "Beater" to use. Have one end a Rapido coupler and the other a MTL Magnetic coupler.


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## HockeyFan1972 (Apr 17, 2019)

bewhole said:


> To me the easiest and cheapest way is to see if you can convert one end of a freight car to a Rapido coupler and haul that behind the locomotive. Someone here must have an extra one or you can take one off a "Beater" to use. Have one end a Rapido coupler and the other a MTL Magnetic coupler.


Thank you! I will see if any of my rolling stock can do such a conversion. That makes sense and seems cheaper than the trouble ive run into trying to go from MTL back to Rapido.

Appreciate it!

Felix


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## rrjim1 (Mar 12, 2015)

I have been in n-scale for over 45 years. I have cars that I paid less than a dollar for. I tried changing just the couplers to MT but soon found out that my cars with Kadee/MT trucks ran better. I ended up changing all those cars to Kadee/MT truck with couplers. One of the best decisions I have ever made in model railroading, another is going DCC with Digitrax.


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