Don't know if this questions belongs here or in the 3-Rail forum.
To the more experienced than I at kitbashing who happen to own the Lionel M7 cars, I have a question about the drawbars.
I was finally able to find and get a Metro North M7 set (NIB and got its first run on my club track today) to go along with 2 Metro North M7’s cars that I already had. The singles that I have are the 3rd and 4th (Rear) cars in the set order and I’ve used them as a static display. Based on what I’ve been able to surmise, the 2-Car Add-Ons (#4162, #4167) to make it a 6-car set would be inserted as the 2nd and the 5th car on the train.
Until I buy the 2-car Add-On Set, I was able to use the 3rd car (#4150) as an “Add-On” to make the train a 5-car train to run this afternoon. The 4th and last car (#4155) doesn’t have a drawbar connection at the rear end (the one with the motorman's cab), so I looked underneath the car to see if there was a way that I could make one. Comparing the end of the end car to another one with the pin attached showed that I could unscrew the non-functional realistic looking coupler feature and place a pin in its place. However, where the pin could go wouldn’t line up with where it is located on the cars that are made with pins and the cars would be too close together.
So my questions are:
Is it safe to presume that the pin would be available from Lionel as a spare part? Or should I create my own and glue it on the bottom of the car?
Or is better to drill a hole and jerry rig a pin in the correct location so that it can accept a drawbar?
Down the road, I would eventually like to buy a second M7 set to go along with this one and the “official” 2-car add-on to create a more realistic looking 10-car train (yes, I know the MTA runs the LIRR and Metro North as 12-car trains) and I will have to find away in order for the 2 designed #4155 rear cars to connect to each other. The two powered units would be at each end of the train (one set in reverse)
Sorry for the rambling.