Installing a coupler on a steam locomotive

Your best bet is to use a dummy coupler from a steam locomotive. Lionel offers a few versions. They are made to fit in the box that houses the scale coupler. This is one of them.

 

 

Installing an electro coupler is fairly involved and usually requires custom machining. These engines appear to have engine trucks which makes it even more difficult or impossible to fit without either doing away with the truck or having the coupler stick way out in front of the pilot. BTDT

 

Pete

Both engines have the "scale coupler" cast into the pilot. How would I remove that?

If you have tight curves, coupler will have to have a wide swing.

I didn't realize they were cast in. In that case I guess you would have to cut it off and open up the box with drills and a dremel cutter. Is the coupler box cast onto the pilot as well? It might be easier to remove the whole box and replace it with a Kadee box and dummy coupler.

 

Pete

Underside of the Mikado:

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving, Dan I have the same dilemma with my Pennsy MTH Railking and Imperial line engines.

I looks like your Montour engine has the same front pilot as most of my Pennsy engines.

 

On my engines if you put one of your engines up against the coupler on the tender the cast in coupler I think is to high.

 

On my MTH Imperial M1a I tried coming off of the front mounting screw for the front pilot truck.

I used a coupler off of a Weaver Coal Hopper.

I drilled the coupler out so it would pivot freely on the mounting screw for the pilot truck.

I added some lube also in the coupler pivot bore.

 

I replaced the original mounting screw for the front truck with a longer screw to accommodate the thickness of the coupler.

 

On this engine, doing this put the coupler at the exact height to the coupler on the tender of my Railking M1a.

 

The only problem is the step boards on the pilot does not have enough room between them and in a O42 curve it will derail the front pilot truck.

 

I have not got back to this project to see want else I could come up with.

I might be able to shave down the sides of the coupler to gain some more room.

 

I kind of hate the idea of taking a Dremel tool to the front of an engine and start cutting.

I would want to have a good plan before I started.

 

Myself I think it is a shame that MTH gives you the capability for a lash up between engines but on the Railking Steam and the Imperial Steam there is no front coupler to hook these engines together.

 

I have one Premier Pennsy L1 Mikado and when I put together a Lashup with this engine and a M1a it is really cool and sounds great.

 

If you come up with something let us know I am sure there is more people out there with the same problem.

 

Happy Thanksgiving !!!!!!!

 

You will not be able to get an electro coupler onto a PS-2 3V engine where the circuit board is in the tender unless you give up headlight or run another wire from the tender to the engine.

 

For PS-3 where there is a boiler board it would be doable, but you need the small wire and contacts which are not readily available.

 

If this was a older PS-2 5V with the board in the engine, it would be easy to add the additional coupler wire to the 12 pin connector.

 

G

Would it be easier to try adding the coupler to the 2-8-0?

Dan, the picture of your Mikado is the same as most Railking engines that I have.

The pivot screw shown is the screw I removed and made longer to add the front coupler.

 

I forgot, but I added a spacer to get the coupler down below the existing bottom edge of the front pilot, sorry about that.

 

The spacer I used was a spacer off a Lionel steam engine side rod, Lionel Part #226E-28

 

The 2-8-0 might be easier if you can get the center of the existing coupler carved out enough to get a coupler slid in to the existing coupler.