Marx tilt coupler quirks

Ace

Most of mine are tin but the uncoupler tin foot does short out on some switches causing an immediate direction change. Same problem more or less.

Steve

I used to paint the foot with fingernail polish. That would prevent it from shorting out on switches. After it wore off I would paint it again. I think that it only shorted on Lionel switches.

I trimmed down the "uncoupling arm" on each coupler with a Dremel tool so they wouldn't bump on Lionel switches. I see an advantage to these being plastic coupler versions so they don't short, and they were easy to trim. Photo shows how the "uncoupler arm" hangs underneath, before modification, on a switch. I trimmed less than 1/16" off the bottom edge of each. 

Ace

I do no switching so I have removed the shoes on a number of mine so I can run them on the Trackers layout without issues.

Steve

I also run the cars with the metal arm, and they short out on our club's Ross and Gargraves switches (I assume they will on my home layout's K-Line switches as well). They will trip the breakers unless I'm running them pretty fast . I've thought about painting the tabs with something to fix this, but I haven't yet. Perhaps the nail polish mentioned above is just the ticket.

I've been trying to find this brush on insulation we used to use at work but have been having trouble.

Thanks for the tip,

J White

Robert Grossman carries a tube of liquid insulation.

Thanks for that tidbit. I've got a few parts on my list that I need to get from him...

J White

Hi Ace, What you're experiancing is normal and expected with Marx tilt couplers over Lionel & most other switches. They are designed to be used with early Marx switches with full open frog design, meaning the entire swivel rail assembly rotates which eliminates the frog & seperate center rail. A few other brand switches are built this way, but not many.

    The problem as you know is the "opener" tab is so low it rubs the center rail as it passes. On metal couplers it will most often short on the center rail as it passes over on a switch, and also on some uncoupler sections. At the same time, sometimes the loco slider can power a UCS blade & the following tilt coupler can short on that even...

   Plastic tilt couplers don't short but can pop open.

    I ended up cutting the tab off all my tilt couplers.

   There is a clever little gizmo you can get that clips onto the coupler arm & is triggered by a Lionel type magnetic uncoupler. Dick Reichard makes them.

  Here's a link with  photo of them:

  http://www.toyandtrainguides.c...tin/misc/magcoup.htm

      On a side note, if you have some tempermental metal tilt couplers that don't like to stay together properly, take a sharp pointed tool & bent the little tiny sharp point down a bit more so it "hooks" into the hole of the ajoining coupler better. Too much & it won't want to upcouple right though. Obviously the little hairpin spring must be good also.

   Very best, Don Johnson

Thank you all for the information about Marx tilt couplers! I guess I won't be shy about trimming down those uncoupler arms. The cars are easy to uncouple manually anyhow.

Superotrackdon brings to my mind another point about the fork-tilt coupler.  Those V-shaped springs can be spread to give more tension, as long as they aren't total rust.  If they need replacing - Robert Grossman again.

I've found that those Marx coupler springs can be easily made with wire pulled from a wire brush - it looks like the same material with the wire bent 180° in the middle.

I got curious after reading these posts, and inserted a pair of the later model plastic-base Marx switches into my trackwork.  The metal fork couplers will run in one direction only; they short out going the other direction.  That's really the only problem I've noticed after testing them for about an hour - Marx on Marx.  Probably the plastic switches were made just after the metal couplers were replaced with plastic though.  Lionel, K-Line, Williams and Marx engines have all run through the switches all right, although one small Kughn-era Lionel steamer and one Williams diesel slow down a bit.