Last night I went to put 746's on my Atlas CZ cars and was surprised to see that the holes on the underside of the cars didn't line up with the draft gear box. Are the holes on the cars designed for Atlas scale couplers? I thought the holes would be the same for each since putting Kadees on Atlas freight cars is super easy.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
The mounting holes are set up for the Atlas couplers and boxes. The holes are threaded for 2mm screws.
You can "force" a kadee plastic box onto an Atlas car by carefully threading in a 2mmx8 screw about 1/3 of the way on the rear hole of the box, then pushing the box inward as you thread in the second screw. The box has enough play to squeeze in. You should also use a shim from MicroMark to get the coupler height right.
I used a simple but very effective way to mount Kadee 805s to the car. I bolt the coupler shank direct to the truck arm as pictured here. The 805s have a long and meaty shank. Use a dab of locktite or a caged nut.
If you do not have wide radius curves I'de leave it alone.
Good luck, Ron H
The holes weren't even close enough to see both at once with the KD boxes. Is there a source to just buy long shank Atlas couplers (or at least the boxes) so I can just use the existing holes?
Will
I just use one hole, and one screw, and quality double sided tape. Been doing this for years on Atlas rolling stock. Yes I do run long heavy trains. However that still doesn't put the coupler box in the correct location. Therefor I don't buy much Atlas.
clem k posted:Will
I just use one hole, and one screw, and quality double sided tape. Been doing this for years on Atlas rolling stock. Yes I do run long heavy trains. However that still doesn't put the coupler box in the correct location. Therefor I don't buy much Atlas.
Thanks! I think I'll go with that for now.
clem k posted:Will
I just use one hole, and one screw, and quality double sided tape. Been doing this for years on Atlas rolling stock. Yes I do run long heavy trains. However that still doesn't put the coupler box in the correct location. Therefor I don't buy much Atlas.
Interesting solution. I have a couple of particularly stubborn cars I'm going to try that on.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
