From time to time I have described previously my various experiences maintaining the rolling stock on my layout. Much of this effort is routine and of no particular interest. But from time to time, I do find something that is either new to me, or that I think might be enough out of the ordinary to be of interest to others. (For one prior example, see this earlier post about trucks: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/06/comments-on-truck-maintenance.html .)
An important issue that can arise in operating sessions is coupler height, and of course the ancillary problems of the Kadee trip pin height, and sticky knuckle springs. These of course should be checked long before an op session, but things can go wrong. I’ve had couplers exhibit a brand-new droop in an operating session, and fixed it by just tightening the screw in the coupler box lid!
About the sticky knuckle springs, I have long known that when I operate any of the freight cars I inherited from my late friend Richard Hendrickson, I have to double-check coupler operation. Richard never had an operating layout, so details like this understandably escaped him. He was quite meticulous about coupler height, but a fair number of his couplers, properly painted very dark brown, did get paint into the knuckle pivot pin, easily remedied with a drop of paint thinner onto that knuckle pin. (For background on Richard, for who who didn’t know him, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/07/in-memoriam-richard-hendrickson.html .) He passed away just ten years ago.
Another point on couplers: over the years, I have become accustomed to one of the banes of the rolling stock operator: the press-in coupler box lid. I realized this is an economy for manufacturers, just mold the box lid with a pin to fit into a hole in the coupler pivot peg in the box. And it is also quick and easy to assemble when building a kit. Many of the Proto2000 kits had this kind of design: coupler box at left, underside of lid at right.
Sooner or later, naturally, that peg in the hole manages to loosen or completely separate. I hate to glue it, in case coupler replacement or repair ever becomes necessary, so I would usually drill out the hole in the box, drill the lid centered on where the peg was removed, and tap both for 2-56.
I do something similar with InterMountain cars, some of which have a clunky coupler box. Here again, drilling and tapping for 2-56 works (as I showed earlier: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/01/improving-freight-car-part-2.html ), but this is a good example of where a Kadee box might be as easy, and perhaps a somewhat better final result.
An even worse design is the old Athearn “Blue Box” tank cars, in which the cover plate for the coupler box was pressed into place. This was durable for months at most. Below you see this cover plate from underneath, and what friction there is, is right at the end sill.
Since that tank car is a good starting point for most of Southern Pacific’s tank car fleet in my modeling year of 1953, I have upgraded a fair number of them, and have a method for fixing the coupler pockets (shown in this post: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/05/fixing-athearn-tank-car-coupler-pockets.html ).
Finally, in an operating sessions a few months back, I noticed that one of my passenger cars was kind of “limping” along the track. The train returned to staging all right, and after the session I pulled out the car to take a look. The metal “tire” on one of the plastic wheels had become separated, and had slipped to one side. I considered trying to glue it back in position, but instead replaced all the wheelsets for the entire car. (Like many passenger car models, these were 33-inch wheels, not the prototype’s 36-inch wheels.)
All these things are ongoing maintenance issues, and as every experienced layout operator knows, any piece of rolling stock can, at any time, suddenly exhibit a new problem. I try to be proactive on these and watch for them in setting up operating sessions, but naturally some come to light in the relatively intensive use of rolling stock during sessions. I have learned not to be surprised.
Tony Thompson
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