LIONEL 1988 Hiawatha; can cars be coupled to the new Hiawatha locomotives tender?

The Rail Chief cars have a knuckle coupler.  The same knuckle could be used for the Hiawatha cars.  The Rail Chief knuckle has a lot of vertical play so the cars uncouple from the locomotive unless you modify the coupler.

I looked on the Lionel parts site and could not find these cars.

Do you know a part # for the coupler?

Is it attached by a screw?

This is the Rail chief knuckle coupler from the bottom.    It is floppy when mounted.

The hole is .2" to slip over the pin on the car.  The od around the hole is .425"  The flange is .050 thick and centered on the coupler.  Overall length is 1.25".  The distance from the end to the shoulder on the knuckle is .6" the neck width is .25" wide.  Measurements +-.02"

This is the top.  There is a ridge on the knuckle to keep it from dropping down when connected to the tender.  You can see it in the bottom picture also.   The lip at the end of the mounting hole appears to be there to hold up the spring when you try to remove the coupler from the car.  I don't think it is needed for function.

A  6009090018 dummy coupler or similar might be modified to work.   

I  made a 3d printed version and tested it on my Rail Chief set.   The 3D files have been submitted to the 3d cataog.  I tested the fit on my Rail Chief set.

Val, thank you so much.

Your 3D printed coupler works perfectly!

It fit right over the small metal post on the head end car (the post is used by the flat metal bar of the tender of the 4-4-2 tinplate Hiawatha loco).

With your coupler in place, I found I can go forward and reverse, at any speed, and through switches, and it stays coupled.

And I can quickly remove the coupler if I want to use my original 4-4-2 Hiawatha that came with the set.

Glad it worked.  The 3d models in the 3D catalog now.