Last year I purchased 10 Accurail box car kits, is there a trick to attaching the air hoses to the couplers. It takes me quite a bit of muscle and time to get these hoses into the slot in the coupler. Any advice would be appreciated.
I think your referring to the uncoupler trip pin. I think most folks switch to KD's. I have used #148's and are happy with them. Once upon a time I seem to remember trying to put them together, similar frustration that you are having.
Good luck,
Richard
Woodman,
Accurail offers nice freight cars kits. However their Accumate couplers leave a lot to be desired. Do yourself a favor, toss the Accumates in the trash and install Kadees. Use the effort saved to weather the cars.
Having run out of Kadee #148 "whisker" couplers, I recently installed the incuded Accumate couplers in the last two Accurail kits I assembled. I started to try to insert the trip pins, but because I don't use magnetic uncoupling (my brakemen use wood skewers), I quickly gave up on this step. Thus, the only installation tip I can offer is to substitute Kadee #148 couplers for the Accumate couplers. The Kadee #148 couplers make a great upgrade, are easier to install than both the Accumate and Kadee #5 couplers, and are fairly reasonable in price when bought in bulk packs from sources like M.B. Klein or Trainworld.
Hornblower
Yes, they are very easy to use - you leave them on the sprues and leave the air hose pieces int he box and install Kadees when building the car.
The air hose piece does need some force to fit in them, it snaps into place in the plastic of the knuckle part. You do that BEFORE installing the coupler on the car. But Kadees do work 10x better.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
All the kits I assembled, including a fair number of Accurail kits, were equipped with Kadee couplers: #5 or, more recently, #148. Do the same, you won't regret it.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
Someone in my club uses those for actual air hoses on his cars (read as does not install them in the coupler). It looks okay. I prefer the brass wire method for air hoses.