Great article with simple

Great article with simple solutions!! Thanks...

Gary

UMMM....

This was written about months ago in a competitive print mag.

I've been using my jigs for a couple months now.

Just What I needed!

I've been pushing our club to use screws to hold the Athearn coupler lids on.

Now, I don't have to re-invent the wheel or teach. Just print it out and give it to the Superintendent!

Thanks.

If only one was available for N scale

then I'd be all set . . .

Not a problem for my N scale.

I use Micro-Trains 1015 coupler kits - the mounting screw passes thru the box, including the lid and so the lid can't fall off.

Hmmm

All a search turns up is a mention and some photos on a board that requires a cash subscription to view. Glad the tool is working for you.

Also good for those upside-down coupler boxes

This is a great tool set and really helps with worn out clip-on covers.  This tool also works great for those impossible to remove and change Athearn coupler boxes that are upside down and require the frame to be removed from the car body.  Some of the blue-box cabooses come to mind.  Just cut off the existing box, clean up the cut and then use this tool to drill and tap a (longer than shown here) screw through the coupler box to the car body.   

Subscription = yes

Yes, I PAY to subscribe to the "other" publication. I read and enjoy it as much as MRH.

True, there was only a short write-up in the mag, but there was a video "how - to" in the (yes) paid subscription area.

I don't mind paying for that subscription. My few dollars buy me enjoyment and information, and also help employ hundreds of my fellow citizens. I'm not so cheap that I'll complain about that.

If there were hundreds of paid employees at MRH supporting their families, I'd pay to read it, too. But there aren't.

And yes, the jigs work terrific! This was a well written and photographed how-to.

One thing I would ad is after the hole is drilled, I very lightly sand the post to remove any burrs from drilling. This is also a good time to clean up and polish any burrs in the box and add some coupler lube. I use the Kadee graphite in a tube.

Oh, wait ...

You mean I get paid to work, write, and photograph trains all day long?

Charlie

Hundreds?

I have the A-line Bulls Eys set.

I haven't got my work area cleaned out to have space to do modeling work, yet.  One thing that occurred to me is that some brands of rolling stock (Con Cor, I think) use rather large plastic pins to hold the trucks on the car.  These pins will tend to loosen and fall out after a while.  I have used #6 machine screws to replace the pins in the past.  I've also heard of people filling the large holes with styrene rod and drilling and taping for 2-56 screws.  I'm wondering if the pins could be glued into the holes sans the head, and the Bulls Eye tools used to drill and tap the pins for #2-56 screws.  When I get my work bench cleared and start modeling again, I'll have to try it.

MR staff size versus MRH

I estimate MR's full time paid staff size is about a dozen or so. MRH has 10, but we're mostly part time. We'd do more if we could afford to do more ... it's hard to compete directly with a firm that has 5 or 6 times your staffing in terms of hours invested each day. Their ads also cost about 12x what we charge.

Anyone Notice What Was Missing?

Did anyone else notice that the article never mentioned that this is an Athearn specific tool? No, the single caption mentioning an Athearn coupler box as an example doesn't count. 

Maybe

Informal testing here at Model Railroad Hobbyist global headquarters shows the jigs are also useful on Walthers and Con-Cor kits. It doesn't fit well on an Eastern Car Works or an Accurail kit. The utility of the tool is certainly not limited to Athearn cars. I didn't have a Tyco or Roundhouse kit handy.

That's Good To Know

Good know that it works on some other brands. A-Line seems to sell it as an Athearn specific tool. 

That Other Mag also reviewed it as Athearn specific.

No guarantee

To clarify, the A-Line instruction sheet says its tool is designed for Athearn metal clip coupler box repair -- these are the couplers found on the "blue box" kits.

Athearn has been consistent in these coupler boxes over the years, which makes claiming compatibility safe ground for A-Line. 

In theory, a tool that fit an NMRA-recommended  coupler box [ http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/rp22.html] would be useful on every manufacturer's rolling stock. This is a recommended practice for compatibility, not a standard.

In looking at the NMRA RP, I'm not sure the exact diameter of the coupler pivot post is called out.

In practice, manufacturers choose their own coupler box designs -- some have a straight post, some are shouldered, some follow NMRA RP22, some are smaller and compatible with exact scale couplers, and some are just plain different. I expect most model railroaders have installed Kadee couplers and found them to be either tight or loose on the center pivot in some cars.

Some boxes are too deep, allowing couplers to sag, but that's a different problem.

Charlie - should you be paying?

Charlie,

With a sweet job of writing about and photographing trains all day shouldn't you be paying MRH for the privilege?

Rick

Why are there two jigs in the kit?

I may have missed this in the article. Are both jigs in the kit different? I got my kit from Micro Mark and it came in an Aline package and only came with one of the brass jigs.

"tool is designed for Athearn metal clip coupler box repair"

 All one needs to do to make the metal clips work right is clean off the flash on the side of the plastic draft gear box so the clips snap on as designed. If the tabs are broken off a drilled screw hole would be necessary but if it's just not snapping on a little scraping with an exacto blade will cure it. Athearn plastic kits actually used covers with securing screws for a few years  but switched to the metal clips as an improvement .....DaveB

Two jigs

The 11003  kit reviewed has two jigs, an alignment jig for drilling the initial mounting hole, and a jig for aligning the 2-56 tap. A-Line also offers each jig separately.

The catalog web page: http://ppw-aline.com/tools.htm includes an instruction PDF.

The kit may have its roots in operations like La Mesa Model Railroad Club's  Tehachapi layout in San Diego.  They run much longer and heavier trains than most modelers, and these can put exceptional stresses on couplers.  The tip above is well taken, about cleaning up mounting lugs for the Athearn snap-on cover. But these can become worn and less effective over the years. A 2-56 screw is cheap insurance.

Drilling jig

Pretty much every Accurail car I have is already sized for a 2-56 screw to hold on the couplers and trucks.  MDC-Roundhouse were similar, but usually came with too-short screws. 

I have had enough Athearn clips fail over the years, having a jig should make drilling a lot easier.  Although the number of Athearn cars with clips in my fleet is diminishing...  More Accurail cars instead.