Amfleet couplers

[r0bert]

Since they run as a set, I only changed the couplers on the ends of the set , the rapidos actually couple the cars closer than you can get with the MTs and stay together well so all the "inside" couplers were not changed.
Here's a how-to with two different options
the first is to body mount the coupler onto the diaphragm retainer box, the lower retainer clip will have to be trimmed to clear screw, and drill hole for screw as far back as you are comfortable with.


you may have to add a shim plate above the coupler box depending on ride height.

The second method is to attach the MT box to the factory coupler arm.

the coupler end is cut off leaving the vertical section of the arm.

drill hole for coupler scrw up thru vertical section of arm arm can be filed down to correct coupler height after hole is in.


Screw coupler box to arm and reinstall arm into car



now for the pickups;
the pickups are in the center of the truck


pull the pickups out of the truck and bend into a slight "V" shape to relieve binding on axles
arrow points to bind point, not where to bend, the V is over the entire length of the pickup

pickup out of truck



Finished product all reassembled

[TCWORLD]

I think the second mod - of the coupler arm- is probably the better one, as it will allow for better movement around corners.

[herc driver]

Those are two GREAT tutorials!  Thank you for taking the time to post them.  I will try both as soon as I can.  I agree with you about changing out only the one end of the AmFleet coupler.  With the rapido couplers, I never have a derailment on my 11in curves, and the cars are closer together than if I used a MT anyway.  But I would like to change out the rapido on the HHP8 engine and the last AmFleet car just for appearance sake.  Also, I too have real problems with the binding on the wheel pickups...I can only pull two cars with my HHP8.  I've tried several "fixes" but think yours might do the trick.  Thanks again!

[herc driver]

Well, I modified my wheel sets and was able to pull one more car with the Bachmann HHP8 engine.  I have 7 Amfleet cars and could only pull two with the HHP8, but after modifying them, I can pull three.  I had really hoped to be able to pull more - for a more prototypical length - but I just don't see how that's possible.  My layout is a flat dog bone with 11 inch curves at each end, but there isn't enough traction (even on clean rails) to pull more than three coaches.  I'm seriously thinking about taking all the electric pickups out of the trucks, just to see if that solves the problem.  That would be too bad since Bachmann did such a great job with the coach lighting on these cars.  I guess if I want to pull a seven cars, I'll have to invest in another engine to gain tractive effort.  If I put four cars on the HHP8, there's too much wheel slippage, the engine just can't overcome all the friction.  Just to see how much power it would take...before I modified the Amfleet's trucks and pickup tabs, I modified a ConCor Budd Amtrak car with a rapido coupler at one end to couple with the Bmann Amfleet cars.  It took two Kato P42's to pull the seven Bmann Amfleet coaches (plus the one Concor baggage car).  One Kato just couldn't pull the unmodified Amfleet cars without slipping.  I would guess that since I modified all the Bmann Amfleets that I could pull all seven plus the hybred coupler baggage car with only one Kato P42.  The friction has been reduced, but not enough for the little HHP8 to pull more than three coaches.

As a side note...I widened the area the wheel axle has inside the wheel truck assembly.  I very carefully used a file to open up the inside diameter where the wheel is held by the truck, being careful to not increase the opening that prevents the axle from falling out.  That seemed to help decrease the friction on the axles.  I also added a small amount of graphite where the axle touches the metal pickup and truck.  This helped reduce the overall friction on the axles as well.

[TCWORLD]

If you were to remove some of the pickups, then you would get less friction so in thoery morw could be pulled. You could still keep the coach lighting by running a bus wire from one end of the carriages right through to the other (the Left pick from the front carriage and Right on the back carriage or even somewhere in the middle of the rake, or vice versa). If you were to buy some fine Decoder wire then you could make it look quite realistic. Between the carriages you'd have a longer length of wire than the join for realism and to allow turning a corner, and could also then - if you could find small enough connectors - have a join in the wire so that you could mix and match the order of the carriages - although this would depend on how resiliant the connectors are.

[keithwarltier]

r0bert,  could you please let me know the reference numbers for the MT couplers you used for the Amfleet coupler modifications? 
Regards,
Keith