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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Closer coupling for Bachmann Amfleet Cars

Greetings Blog Followers,
I have noticed that me Bachmann Amfleet coaches couple up with a pretty big distance between the cars. While some clearance is needed so the cars can negotiate the curves on my layout the current spacing really does not look good to me. In examining in the cars I ascertained that 3 cars have talgo mounted couplers (couplers attached to the trucks) and two cars have body mounted couplers. The large spacing is the fault of the talgo mounted couplers. These cars originally came with the old horn-hook couplers and were converted many years ago to knuckle couplers by using Bachmann easy mates mounted in the original coupler mounting holes like the horn hook couplers. This causes the knuckle coupler to protrude a fair distance from the body resulting in the extra space between the cars. I came up with a quick fix by removing the couplers and cutting of the coupler mounting pin. I then placed the knuckle coupler further back into the mounting arm  leaving just enough clearance for the knuckle to swing back and forth. I then drilled a new hole and secured the coupler with a 2-56 screw. Here are some before and after pictures.
  
The car on the left has body mounted couplers while the car on the right has the talgo style couplers. Notice how far the coupler shaft protrudes from the talgo mounted car.

Here are two cars with the couplers repositioned. Much closer, looks better and operates fine on 22" curves

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