GP9RM is here! Now some questions...

A

Agatheron

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Nov 8, 2003
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Hey all,

The first of two Life Like Canadian National GP9RM's has arrived... zebra striped workhorse #4012, just waiting for my impending layout! Detail wise it looks great, and will serve me very well as a road switcher on whatever my layout is going to look like.

However...

The locomotive comes with body-mounted Rapido couplers... Not surprising, and I did actually expect that. Since this is a road switcher, I am going to want to change the couplers to Micro-Trains. Does anyone have any suggestions on which of the Micro-Trains body mounted couplers I should look at and will most likely fit?

Also, I am also planning on equipping this with a Z-scale decoder from digitrax, but I'm not going to worry about that just yet... :)
 
Yup... 1015 with a shim on the bottom ... maybe better to use a 1016 if you have sharp curves (10" and lower).

prepare to use your patience at its maximum. I spent 2 hours of various swearing and religion-terms using trying to both remove the rapidos and install the MT's.
 
Given the potential size of my layout MIGHT have 9 3/4" turns, if I can't work it any other way, I may have to do the 1016 route. That having been said, how thick does the shim have to be? I have some plasticard readily available to me...

My CN SD40-2 has MT couplers on it already (yay ebay!), although my Kato Via Rail P42DC has the standard Kato knuckle couplers on it. Not sure if I want to change those just yet.

As for how well it runs. I don't know yet :D I'm so new to this that I don't even have a basic power pack... just some track :D However, that should be my next purchase... get a cheap power pack/throttle to see how they run... and then start saving up for a DCC unit.

Thanks... Any other advice?
 
I priced out the 1015/1016s yesterday. Nice and inexpensive, even from the expensive LHS. I probably won't get around to doing the coupler replacement work until I acquire the second locomotive and have some track to run it on.

That having been said... it's good that it's easily available.

One more question:
In installing the couplers, what is best to use as shims?
 
The couplers will come with shims straight from MT they are the same shape as the coupler box.

If you really want to see your new loco run get a fresh 9 volt battery .Put the loco on the track.If it is just a straight piece of track put something at the (preferably soft) to stop the loco from heading into the concrete canyon.

Take the fresh 9 volt battery and turn it upside down.Now place the battery on the track with each contact touching a rail.To reverse direction of the loco just turn the battery around.WARNING! you will have no speed control :D
 
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