3rd Rail Tender Electrocoupler Mounting?

John,

I've done this in the past, you might have to find a rear truck that will fit the tender, and has the electro coupler mount on it already. But now you're getting into length width and height issues

How about some close up photos of the existing 3rd rail tender truck, so i can see if it's one I've done in the past

Alex

They're a little fuzzy, but I think you can see what I have.  The coupler is actually mounted upside down from the typical EC.  It's mounted on the frame and not the truck on this tender.

John,

From looking at your pictures, it looks to me like the electro coupler will fit without a problem

What I'm i missing here. I've installed an electro coupler on an engine like this in the past

Alex

I would be looking at Lionel couplers with a type A or D mount. A is centered on the coil and D is below as opposed to the more common Type B and C where the mount is above the coil. Type As come in a few different lengths. This assumes you can fit a T bar along with coupler mount.

Pete

I've done many of the 3rd Rail Pennsy "coast to coast" tenders.  I like Atlas electrocouplers from their Erie Builts since they are nice and short, but almost any will work.  Basically you take the 3rd Rail coupler mounting plate and flip it upside down so the bump is on the side toward the track, add a styrene shim (0.040 if I recall correctly) and you're set.  Here are a couple of photos.  It looks like I used a Lionel A mount coupler on this one but I can take photos of an Atlas top mount installation if you need it.  Basically the 3rd Rail plate can be shimmed and mounted on top or below the bracket on the tender to adjust for any type of coupler.

Thanks Bob,

  Now that you posted the pictures, I think that's what i did

Thanks,

Alex

Here is another mounting using part of an Atlas (two piece) articulated coupler on a Rich Yoder GE 44 tonner.  

Thanks guys, that really helps.  I looked at flipping the plate, that makes perfect sense.  I think the issue was I wasn't holding the correct coupler to it, so it didn't look like it'll work.  I'll look and see if I have any of the A mount ones.

I used to have a graphic with all the Lionel coupler mounting types, anyone have that chart handy?

I ended up cutting the ends of the mount down a bit and shimming it up on top of the tender bracket instead of underneath.  It comes to the right height and works perfectly.  I didn't see a way to get the height right with the coupler plate below the tender bracket, but this works just fine.  I could even use all the old coupler hardware to mount it.

Of course, in the middle of this effort, I found out the tender bracket was not soldered and just hanging there, so I had to solder that back on!

John, If you go to the Lionel replacement part page and search on coupler then select any of the ones that say electrocoupler you will get pictures of the 4 styles of mounts A-D.

Good news if you are looking for mount style but not so good if you want to see what the actual coupler looks like.

Pete

I knew I found it somehow, I saved it again, maybe I'll name it something more mnemonic this time so I can find it.