Won this IHC 4-6-2 (HO Scale) off Ebay recently but the seller neglected to say that the tender coupler was not a standard horn hook that I (thought) could easily change out to a Bachmann EZ-Mate or a Kadee but THIS is a different animal entirely!! I asked Sam at Kadee if he had any idea about it and he said they had nothing on file regarding this although that it COULD be a Mehano (Slovenia) built model. I'm in need of input here before I open up the pocket and wreck the thing in doing so. Hard to tell from the pictures but it doesn't look like a regular screw to open the coupler pocket up but rather some sort of bolt, but the bottom looks like a screw. Any help out there would be greatly appreciated in changing this out to a Kadee or Bachmann EZ-Matehttp://s607.photobucket.com/user/dsenzio/media/20160701_144559.jpg.html?sort=6&o=16http://s607.photobucket.com/user/dsenzio/media/20160701_144619.jpg.html?sort=6&o=17
If you want to have your pictures actually visible in your post, click on the icon with the "mountain" symbol and paste the link to your picture hosting site in the box that opens, then click OK and now you will see them in your post like this:
The coupler you show looks like a British style tension lock coupler with missing parts which apparently was riveted into the coupler pocket. You will have to remove it carefully before installing a Kadee or any other compatible coupler. Make you get the height correctly.
It is a very old Mantua coupler. You may be able to get to it by removing the tender shell, some were put in that way.
If the above does not work, it may be best to completely remove the old coupler box and replace it with a Kadee box and coupler. Here is a how-to. I did this before whisker couplers came out, they may be a better choice these days.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx
Due to something in the way the forum software works, you will have to copy and paste the link into your web browser
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
G Paine If the above does not work, it may be best to completely remove the old coupler box and replace it with a Kadee box and coupler. Here is a how-to. I did this before whisker couplers came out, they may be a better choice these days. http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx Due to something in the way the forum software works, you will have to copy and paste the link into your web browser
Unfortunately, you cannot insert a link to a page within this forum - for whatever reason.
The Mantua coupler was very popular for a long time and Mantua kept selling them (although not advertising that they did) well into the 1960s and maybe even the 70s. They had a mount that was totally proprietary, so if you were converting to or from Mantuas you had a bit of a task in front of you.
Dave Nelson
Here's what should be a working version of George's link: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx
or, perhaps this one.
EDIT: Well, this site's latest "upgrade" continues to baffle me. One week ago, I included this link in a post and it worked (and still does) just fine.
George's link will work if pasted into your computer's search window, but it should also work if copied as a link location from it's source and used thusly, but with the ( ) brackets replaced by these square ones []:
(url=copied link location pasted here)the word or phrase you wish to appear(/url)
My working link, above, was typed in as shown below,but with these [] rather than these()
(url=http://bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=1180)HERE(/url)
...and here's a working link to the thread in which that working link is located.
The info which you copy and place between the [url= and the next ] should be copied using "COPY LINK LOCATION", not simply "COPY".
Wayne