Is there anyway to remove the copper air hoses on Micro Trains N scale freight cars? I clipped them off flush with a nail clipper, but want to get rid of all of it. Is this possible? I can't figure out how to remove the small piece still stuck in the coupler.
Tony, If you remove the 'glad hand' entirely the coupler will not work. The 'glad hand' extends from the top section of the coupler (knuckle) through the bottom half and keeps them properly aligned. If you still want to remove the 'glad hand' it can be done more easily by using a pair of needlenose pliers and "GENTLY" pull the part from the top portion (knuckle) of the coupler. The Atlas and Kato couplers don't depend on the 'glad hand' to properly align the two pieces of the coupler. Unfortunately, and this is my opinion, neither of those two brands of couplers delay uncouple reliably.
Scott in Balto Cottingdon-Mochel Branch of the PRR
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You DON'T want to pull it out completely, it's the hinge pin for the knuckle!
Don
-- snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net
I don't think so. The pin is what holds the coupler's knuckle together.
T "Is there anyway to remove the copper air hoses on Micro Trains N scale freight cars? I clipped them off flush with a nail clipper, but want to get rid of all of it. Is this possible? I can't figure out how to remove the small piece still stuck in the coupler."
My error. I thought they were assembled the same way as the HO ones. The one's I've seen looked like they were.
Don
There have been a number of replies stating that the remnants of the hoses are necessary for alignment of the coupler parts. This is quite simply wrong.
I have put quite a few of these together from the parts, and can assure you the hoses are in NO WAY necessary. Alignment of the parts is taken care of by the ingenious design of the interior of the coupler and the spring action inside. I have many couplers in which the pin was _never_ inserted, and they operate every bit as reliably as those with them (except for magnetic uncoupling, of course).
I'm playing with one of them as I type this, and the hole in the bottom segment of the coupler (thumb) is sized so that the uncoupling pin doesn't even bear on it. The pin serves _absolutely_ no function in maintaining alignment of parts. That is all accomplished by the internal design of the coupler.
The only thing that the pins do is limit the expansion of the knuckles for those couplers. If you're not doing uncoupling then they are indeed not really needed. I do consider that the removal of the pins to be a bit backward tho as being able to uncouple cars, especially passenger cars with diaphragms on them to be a nice feature of the couplers. If the low height is a problem, bending them up a bit would be a much better thing to do and if the color is bad, a quick dip in some blackening solution will fix that real fast.
-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!
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