I just acquired in a post-Christmas sale the starter kit for Microtrains Magnematic coupler system. So far of my locomotives and rolling stock, I have 1 locomotive and 4 intermountain cars that are already fitted with the MT couplers. In all I have 6 more locomotives that are fitted with either the Kato standard or with the Rapido couplers.
In order to make everything compatible, I decided to go with the MT couplers. However, with that, comes a few questions... I know for the rolling stock, replacing the trucks with MT trucks is the way to go... or even do body-mounting if I want to get really fancy... However, my question isn't there, it's on my locomotives.
Over the past while, I have acqured an Kato C44-9W, and three Life-Like GP9rm's (a Canadian only product). The MT 1015 coupler set is what is recommended for the GP9rm's, and one set of those came with the starter kit from MT.
My trouble is that when I looked at the assembly instructions for the GP9rm and the underside of the locomotive, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to actually remove the coupler assembly. Granted, I didn't have any tools on me, but it's clear this isn't going to be as straightforward as I first thought.
This is also pressing, given that removal of the couplers is also necessary if I wish to remove the frame cover for both DCC decoder installation and if I want to spray down the shell with Dullcote in order to do some weathering...
Does anyone have any expereince with this, or can refer me to a place that may have a step-by-step instruction on how this is done?
Getting a move on with my layout is one of my new year's resolutions... so any help would be much appreciated.
In order to make everything compatible, I decided to go with the MT couplers. However, with that, comes a few questions... I know for the rolling stock, replacing the trucks with MT trucks is the way to go... or even do body-mounting if I want to get really fancy... However, my question isn't there, it's on my locomotives.
Over the past while, I have acqured an Kato C44-9W, and three Life-Like GP9rm's (a Canadian only product). The MT 1015 coupler set is what is recommended for the GP9rm's, and one set of those came with the starter kit from MT.
My trouble is that when I looked at the assembly instructions for the GP9rm and the underside of the locomotive, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to actually remove the coupler assembly. Granted, I didn't have any tools on me, but it's clear this isn't going to be as straightforward as I first thought.
This is also pressing, given that removal of the couplers is also necessary if I wish to remove the frame cover for both DCC decoder installation and if I want to spray down the shell with Dullcote in order to do some weathering...
Does anyone have any expereince with this, or can refer me to a place that may have a step-by-step instruction on how this is done?
Getting a move on with my layout is one of my new year's resolutions... so any help would be much appreciated.