Athearn Bombardier BiLevel Coupler Problems

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of these cars, and I've found Kadee #58s to be a straight drop-in - though I did have a few problems with couplers jamming and not self-centring (solved by making sure the mounting box was free to swing, and adding some of Kadee's "Greas-em" powder). I did have to check for moulding flash on the covers before reassembling, but I've had no problems since, except when coupling on less than perfect track - I plan to operate them as a fixed set (never uncoupled magnetically) so this shouldn't be a problem, and the #58 does look good on the front of the cab car, compared to the original E-Z mates. I need to buy another Metrolink coach to complete my formation (I've been buying individual cars rather than the pack of 3). I would say that these cars seem to be more vulnerable to trackwork problems than the Walthers equivelents, probably due to the very fine wheel profiles (again, these do look very good!)

Edit: I also found that the cover plates are "handed" - they have a "right side up", and it's important to get them correctly oriented. I got them upsode down first time and was puzzled why it didn't work!

[Don Gibson]

REPOST your message as 'Athearn Bombadier problems' and see if you get more takers.

It's a new product and not many people have them yet.
Sorry, but I do not own (or plan to buy) any.

There is a problem solving column in MR. If they select your letter, they'll print it and the staff will have an answer.

Hang in there. - DG

[Anonymous]

Don & Dale
Perhaps I've not been too clear (wish I could put a picture in here). The couplers themselves are fine, its just that they bind on the edge of the cover plate which Athearn has screwed to the frame, and extended out beyond the end-sill. As Don said earlier, regular Kadees won't fit in these shallow boxes anyway.
After I cut off the end of the plate which held the end-sill down, everything worked fine, but the body is now lopsided[:(]

PS- Dale, hope you enjoy your visit to our city.

Mike

[Don Gibson]

I agree. If these are going to be run as a set why change couplers - except for possinly the Engine connection. The car-to-engine couplers should be the same so the throw dynamics are the same.

Substituting wheelsets may have gotten rid of an out-of-gauge wheel problem, but you said "Coupler Problems"

EDIT: The #58 will not solve any problems. It may however add to them.

[cnw4001]

Hi,

I can't specifically answer your question but will relate my experience with the cars. (Also in GO Transit livery) I run them in push pull operation on our club layout which has wide curves but some uneven trackwork, especially getting in and out of the yards. With the "out of the box" couplers they operate just fine in rakes of five cars. One has a Trainline F40 and the other has an Atlas GP 40 and as I said they go fine in either pull or push mode. I did have the "wheelset" problem but after replacing all the "first run" wheels with those supplied by Athearn the derailment trend went away.

Don't know why you want to change the couplers but if you're going to operate them as regular rakes, you might just want to avoid changing the couplers.

Dale

PS. Hope to make use of the prototypes next week while in Toronto.

[Anonymous]

Thanx Don,
Here's how Jim Hediger described the couplers in MR Dec 2002:

"Acetal plastic magnetic couplers are (body) mounted in coupler boxes designed to swing from side to side for operation on tight radius curves. Small plastic whiskers on each side return these boxes to their centered position. The coupler box cover plates lock the body and frame together and they’re secured with a pair of screws." And you are correct, these are very shallow boxes, that don't really have a lid for the box - just this large separate plate which fastens to the frame. The open side of the box sweeps across the upper surface to hold the coupler in.

The problem is in the way the covers perform their function to lock body to frame, they don't sit horizontal, and bind the shank. I haven't replaced the couplers yet since the one I modified does work well with my other Kadees - some forum info suggests a #58 may be good in this case. What I need is a way to free the couplers and keep the body vertical.

Mike

[Don Gibson]

I don't have your "Go Train Cars" but are they 'body' mounts, Talgo's or in between?Athearn has always had a 'thing' with Kadee couplers.

I find the new Athearn coupler boxes too thin with the thicker Kadee shank metal couplers.They bind.

If the 'lip' on the Kadee standard #5 box won't seat, file it off , or use #20 series with the very short one-sided box. That worked best on my Genesis engines.

A general key with long Passenger cars: Longer couplers (such as #6, 26, and 46) work better on tighter curves.

[Anonymous]

My Athearn triple set of Go Train cars doesn't seem to accept replacement magnetic couplers well. The plate covering the coupler is catching the top of the end-sill groove under the coupler shank, causing the couplers to bind & point sky-ward, and I can't get them to match the height gauge reliably. I tryed making new plates that didn't enter the end-sill groove, but it seems these plates have a function to hold the body down on the chassis - as now the bodies are sitting tilted. Also, my set had no exploded-view/parts list from Athearn (something I always thought was good) so I'm reluctant to dismantle these cars for fear of breaking off some tab holding it together.[?]

Anybody else had this problem with these (admittedly excellent) commuter cars and come up with a neat solution?