# N Scale Conversions



## Daknife (Aug 14, 2021)

I'm a new model railroader and I'm struggling with conversion of my cabooses and engines to knuckle couplers. Is there a good way to determine the exact conversion kit needed for a specific brand and model of engine and caboose? Right now I'm primarily interested in converting an Atlas GP30.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Try here….

Microtrain Coupler Conversions


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Daknife said:


> I'm a new model railroader and I'm struggling with conversion of my cabooses and engines to knuckle couplers. Is there a good way to determine the exact conversion kit needed for a specific brand and model of engine and caboose? Right now I'm primarily interested in converting an Atlas GP30.


Daknife;

Are you converting to Micro-Trains brand knuckle couplers? If not, you should be as they are, far and away, the best couplers available in N-scale. The easiest way to convert a caboose, or other car, to Micro-Trains couplers is to replace the original trucks with Micro-Trains trucks with their excellent couplers attached. While Micro-Trains offers specific "coupler conversion kits" designed to fit particular locomotives, the kits are much more expensive than just using normal Micro-Trains couplers. For instance, most steam locomotives will accept a normal coupler on the tender, and most current production diesels have their original couplers mounted on the body, rather than on the trucks. In most cases, a normal coupler and the box that holds it, can be mounted on these diesels. You may need to do some trimming to make room for the coupler box. Older N-scale diesels had their couplers attached to the trucks. These typically needed a conversion kit in order to fit couplers to the trucks. The alternative would be to cut off the entire truck-mount and coupler, and then body mount a M-T coupler box. This is not easy and you may need to practice on an old loco you don't care that much about. The first file below has a lot more information about couplers. I highly recommend reading through it before you get too far into changing couplers. There are many things to consider, before spending a lot of time and money creating possible problems for yourself. The other files are some I wrote for new model railroaders like yourself. Look through them if you wish, and at your own convenience.

Good Luck & Have Fun;

Traction Fan 🙂


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

I have found that most new Micro Trains cars come with truck-mounted couplers, so I wouldn’t change that….


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## Daknife (Aug 14, 2021)

Thanks for the replies.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Daknife said:


> Thanks for the replies.



Daknife;
As you may have read in the file "A lot about couplers", the problem comes up when you have some body-mounted couplers (most new locomotives have these) and some truck-mounted couplers. (As Old Hobo said, on many cars) The other factor is tight curves. If your layout has curves tighter than about 14" radius, The body-mounted coupler on the loco will tend to push the truck-mounted coupler on the first car toward the outside of the curve. It also pushes the entire truck assembly to the outside. The pressure can cause a wheel to climb right up & over the rail. It is better to use either all body-mounts, or all truck-mounts. The worst case is to mix the two types.

Traction Fan


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## Daknife (Aug 14, 2021)

I have these engines that I bought on Ebay that the listing didn't identify the type of engines they are. The file added above gives great info on the correct couplers to put on different brands and types of locomotives. Unfortunately I don't know what type of engines they are. The one on the left says ATLAS Yugoslavia on the bottom and the other simply says Japan. Any help on how to identify the type of engines they are would be appreciated.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Left one, Alco RSD-5……right one, Alco RS3, probably built by Kato, Japan….


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## Daknife (Aug 14, 2021)

Old_Hobo said:


> Left one, Alco RSD-5……right one, Alco RS3, probably built by Kato, Japan….


Great, Thanks!!


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