Intermountain coupler boxes


leestevenson

leestevenson

ONE TRACK MIND
Just wondering if anyone else is noticing that the Intermountain coupler boxes easily come off. Specifically in RTR. Can someone recommend a good solution for this issue that has become more frequent to me. A few of my bathtub gondolas and cylindrical hoppers are the culprits. Looks to be flimsy glued on.
 
I didn't believe it at first when you said the coupler boxes are glued on. So I got out my new Intermountain ACF hopper. This is my first Intermountain car. Low and behold the coupler boxes are glued together. Since I need to change it to a kadee #58 or #158, I will be using my pin vice to drill a hole for a self taping screw of a suitable length.

If you don't like drilling (and some careful measurement is needed too as the hole must be dead on the car's centreline and at the right distance from the end), then just use CA glue to reattach the cover plate of the coupler.
 
I was expecting a little more from intermountain especially on the price point. It's even more of a drag that I have close to 100 of their cars!
 
I've got several of their cars as well and hadn't noticed this. I did find on the 70ton flats that I had to remove the brake line hoses next to the couplings 'cause they were preventing the coupler from swinging to that side. Seems that there is a tradeoff between high detail and production costs at even this price point. Oh, and yes, the ends of the coupler cut-off bars are made from a very soft material and bend extremely easily. They do bend back just as easily, but I don't think they would stand too much of that.
 
So is the lid coming off the box, or the box coming off the car?

In either case the best thing to do is drill & tap a hole for a 2-56 screw and use the Kadee box. End of problem :D I had this happen with several kits I built, and I used the hole that the Intermountain box locator pin went into. Kind of a pain, but I upgrade a lot of this stuff anyway. It's a "must do" if you're going to run long trains. I also had to replace all of the couplers on my MTH Daylight train with Kadee #5's. The plastic couplers they installed at the factory could not handle the weight of a prototypical consist. The life of a train guy ain't always an easy one! :rolleyes: :D
 
Correction to the coupler cut bars I said were on the IM 70ton flats. They havent got any, but in this case they do have screws securing the coupler box lids and metal couplers.
It's the MTH 60' wood deck ones that have the bendy cut bars.

Something that did happen to the IM's though was that on 3 of the 6 cars I got , each had a partially broken lateral cross rib underneath the deck. IM's plastic packaging for these relys on depressions for the trucks and raised "buttons" which fit quite tightly between those cross ribs to prevent movement of the model. So watch out for that if you buy any because it probably happened at the factory. Could have happened in transit, but there was no damage to the parcel or boxes.
 
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Somewhat good news. IM has become aware of these poorly designed coupler systems. After calling them about this, I got a phone call from them today noting that they are trying new designs out. Hopefully soon!
 
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