Converting TO Link Couplers

[skippygp123]

My wife had my old American Flyer train set repaired as a Christmas present.  All of the cars have link couplers.  I'd like to buy some newer cars to add to my set but they all have knuckle couplers. 

How difficult is it to replace the knuckle couplers with the old style link couplers?  I'd like to keep the old style...childhood memories, you know.

Thanks!  Ed

[cwburfle]

Some people use transition cars to enable them to operate cars with different types of couplers.
To make a transition car, choose a link coupler car, and convert only one coupler to knuckle.

 

[Major]

Portline Hobbies, on line, have the conversion knuckle couplers.  I have made a few transition cars where I have a link coupler on one side and a knuckle coupler on the other. This way I can run whatever I want behind any link or knuckle coupler locomotive. I also have transition cars, K-Line, with Flyer knuckle couplers on one end and Kadee couplers on the other.

[stebbycentral]

skippygp123

How difficult is it to replace the knuckle couplers with the old style link couplers?  I'd like to keep the old style...childhood memories, you know.

To your specific question, the answer is that you simply can't go that way.  The truck mounting for a link coupler is a vertical piece of metal with a hole in it.  The mounting for a factory installed knuckle coupler is a horizontal U-shaped piece of metal with no hole.  Rather it wraps around the shank of the knuckle. 

When Flyer made conversion kits to allow you to go from link to knuckle, they split the shank of the replacement knuckle down the middle so that it would fit on the old coupler mounting.  They also drilled a hole through the shank to accept the replacement attachment rivet.

There is no arrangement that allows you to attach a link coupler to a knuckle truck.  The orientation of the mounting is all wrong. However you can still buy retrofit knuckle coupler kits from aftermarket Flyer vendors.  As suggested above, you could use one of those kits to replace one of the link couplers on a car and have a transition car.