Mth New Style Couplers with no tabs

They still have tabs. You push them back instead of down and they're a bit smaller than the original "thumbtack" style uncoupler tabs. But you're right; they're a pain to uncouple if you have to reach.

They look better this way.

 

Ron

 

I have a couple of newer MTH cars that only seem to have the tabs on one end? Even had my grandson examine them and he could not find them. Wonder if I got a defective couple of cars? Does anyone else have any like this?

 

Will go find the cars and report back with the product numbers.

 

Here they are, all newer coal porter hopper cars.

#20-97764 - BNSF (both road numbers)

#20-97792 - KCPL (both road numbers)

 

The coupler on the one with no tab appears to be a non-opening coupler, it looks different than the one on the other end that has the tab. Also the one with no tab can be rotated 360 degrees by holding the lobster claw and twisting it. The other end with tab does not rotate. Tab is on the brake wheel end.

 

It looks like they were meant to be used in a rotating coal dumping machine (not sure what the real name for these are) like they have a real power houses where the cars are dumped without having to un-couple them. They are just turned over and dumped out. Not sure how this would work with rotation on only one coupler and no rotation on the coupler on the other end?

 

I also have these two sets of the same cars. I am guessing they will be the same, but I have not opened either set, they are still in their shipping boxes as they were when picked up from my LHS.

 

#20-90740 - BNSF (6 car set)

#20-90866 - KCPL (6 car set)

You are correct about the rotary dumpers. The cars have a marking on one end that indicates the rotary coupler end. Couple a rotary to a fixed coupler and you always have rotational ability at the dumper.

 

On one end, the rotary coupler remains stationary, coupled to the fixed coupler behind it as its car spins around its axis, while on the other end the fixed coupler spins with the car, rotating the coupler on the car ahead.

 

---PCJ

RailRide,

 

Thanks for the info, I guess that makes sense about the one coupler still being stationary and using the next rotating one. I hadn't thought of that.

 

Does MTH make a dumper that actually rotates the cars to simulate the real thing in a power house? In case I 'have to have one to go with these cars'.Maybe a new accessory is in the works for these? I don't recall ever seeing one, but than doesn't mean much as I just re-entered the hobby a few years ago and am still re-learning everything with all this new technology they are using in the trains.

 

Thanks again for the info.

Lionel made one. MTH has yet to.

 

Or they intended theirs Coalporters to work with the Lionel dumper.

 

---PCJ

Yeah Ron, It looks better

It's not functional, but it look's better.

Like I said earlier

With only a handful of companies making train cars, with MTH being one of the major player's.

The lack of interest in this thread,and  all the nonsense that is talked about.

It really makes me wonder, it's all yapping, but how many are actually running, changing car's,

I've got 2 track's and 4 train's made up at any given time.

I'm constantly changing car's around, taking this one off of this one and putting it over there. Put this one on here, and that one over here.

It's the same thing with PS2 to PS3 variety of sounds

PS2 to 3 I think is backwards not forward, same with the coupler's.

PS1 and 2, when the engines uncoupled, they  make a really neat sound,

PS3, nothing

Is anybody going, boy that's better.

I just like running trains....if I need to uncouple I move the train to within reach. Altering the 'tabs' isn't done because people only collect and not run trains.......just those that want to couple and uncouple tend to use remote tracks and 'coil' couplers.

I have a box full of old Walthers fixed couplers that I will use on scratch built freight cars.....needless to say they never uncouple without a 0-5-0 switcher (my hand)

USE AN UNCOUPLING TRACK?

 

 

I run O for Christmas. The rest of the year it is N. From my high horse, in a poor imitation of an old man, with a Brooklyn Jewish accent I say "Oy, you O scalers, you don't know how good you have it "
Unless MTH changed couplers this yr, I prefer the  new style on the rail king line. I will play wih the few Premier cars I have, but the plastic bit on the side, does interfere and I frankly dont see well enough for that piece to add anything, on the carpet. With the vintage push down style, I am constantly pushing too far and then I need to realign the pin. For the most part, I use the lift method, to couple. I dont have PS3, but if they took away coupler sounds, that's a plain and simple poor decision. Memory is cheap in 2014 and they have the sound file. If they went to a solenoid that doesnt make a mechanical click, and you miss it, I am with you, on not all change is good.
As to how many actually run... I don't know.I enjoy the hobby. You seem to enjoy the hobby. I was with a friend yesterday that runs 3 and soon to be 4 loops stacked as a ground level village subways and an m and m hand car. He only couples when he sets up, or changes out one of a few cars. His family LOVES the Christmas layout. Even the most unhappy posts here, seem to be from folks that enjoy the hobby. Try not to stress how anyone enjoys it. At least the overwhelming majority of 3 rail has matching couplers.   In N, I change some, run them with like couplers and work with "compatible" couplers that vary a bit more than I might like. But! U do love my n scales stuff too.

Hey Marty

Nice thoughts

I'm not stressing over this,It's just surprising the lack of interest on something almost everybody has and uses.

You right , that's what I've been doing, the lift and move method.

I have 4 uncoupling tracks, But tonight if I go to the train room, within those few hours there will be 2 or 3 or more times I will need to uncouple cars.

As for PS-3 there is a thread from 11/9/2013 I started "A railking fan disappointed"

Read what MD Mikey  wrote, that pretty much sums up those thoughts

Thank's Marty

Here Marty

On the PS3 stuff,see if this worked

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...07#22688761642298507

Joe
gotcha... not all change is good. Rats if anything mth could add a chatter frequency option, similar to smoje volume and individual sound volume. Ah well..

Transman,

   Joe you are the 1st person besides myself that thinks parts of the P3 upgrade is not really an up grade at all.   I do not own any P3 engines yet, my P2 stuff runs perfect with lots of different functions, including the uncoupling sound effects, missing on some P3 stuff. 

PCRR/Dave

At any given time, like right now,look at all the subjects being discussed.

Of all the hundreds and hundreds of topics

And all the people that own MTH products

You don't see for PS3

Hey, what happened to the uncouple noise they had in PS1 and 2?

Hey, did anybody notice the idle cab chatter is not as frequent as PS1 and 2

Don't get me wrong,PS3 detail is real nice, the engine idle sounds are beautiful

The detail is like older Premier engines

But with all the advances in technology,they went backwards or a tleast not a step up from PS2 with variety

Exactly Dave

Of the hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of people and posts on here,and the amount of people owning MTH products, and how many people just got a new PS3 engine just a day or so ago

Not a peep

Its the old" What color is your caboose" threads

Hey Dave

Regarding the PS3 stuff

Heres the engine my wife got me for Christmas 2 years ago

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-20056-1

It was my first PS3

I  have about 12 PS1 and 2s,mostly 2s

They are all on my layout

The detail on the PS3 is beautiful,the lights,the engine idle,all beautiful.

It's really like old premier, also the size of the PS3 railking seems to be closer to older Premier

I'm kind of engined out

There's really nothing more I think I'll want,but if I happen to decide on a specific engine I want, I would start by looking in PS2 Premier

 

Transman.  You just have to keep a longer fingernail on your uncoupling finger.   My problem is I can't remember which way to push the little tab, fore or aft.  In my yard though, I have uncoupling tracks, which solves the problem.

.....

Dennis

Dennis I agree

I just can't believe that was a MTH business decision to move forward and eliminate the tab

 

Yup!  Problem solved. You might also look at OGR's Run 176, December 2000 - "Uncouple Anywhere on Your Layout".  Good stuff there.

Wild Mary

Got 4 of em

I'm talking about just the every day reaching over to uncouple a car for any of a dozen reasons

No tab

 

Transman Joe is right.  There are several places I just uncouple by hand.  I have some sidings that are close to the table edge so no uncoupling tracks are needed.  Also in my other room storage yard I can reach every track so likewise.  I think what I will do next for those cases is have a small flashlight in my pocket and make a stout stick out of a 1/8" dowel with the ends flattened like a screw driver to operate those tiny tabs.  That ought to do it.  Another project for when I get back up north . . . .

.....

Dennis

"Look better"? - not really. The tab was unobtrusive.

The thumbtack was another issue - but could have been redesigned to tuck farther back

under the truck.

 

To make these things (the "improved" ones) even more annoying, there is a plastic

"brake hose" stuck in the way. On a Ginormous 3RO coupler. Yeah, that looks so real.

When placing a new design car on the layout, part of my procedure is to cut or pull off

the brake hoses. I have a nice little box of them now.

 

There were uncoupling tool designs that worked on the accessible tab. Now, not so much. 

 

The new design is a great functionality step backwards, regardless of intentions, and often results in a coupler shank that is too long, so the cars are too far apart...just when we were getting a handle on the Olympic Broad Jump steam loco/tender separation.

 

The new design couplers cannot be adjusted nor reasonably repaired, so far as I can tell. So, if you have one (and I did) that will not stay closed, you're out of luck. No handy armature to bend a bit to solve that problem - and that did it, in most cases. Now, buy

a new truck. Or an older car.

 

 

 

 

I only re-entered the hobby 3-4 years ago, so I am not up on the PS1 items and probably way behind most everyone else on the rest. However, I have not noticed the un-coupling sounds missing from PS3 engines? I have all PS3 and only one PS2 (which is packed away right now). I have no PS1 so I don't know what those were like? Of what I do have, some are Premier, some RK scale. One is RK Imperial from a set. I'll have to watch more closely for that.

 

Other than the cars I mentioned above (coal hoppers), haven't noticed any missing tabs either? Some are different, but still there. I do have several pieces of RK rolling stock. I will have to check closer on those as well.

 

The main thing I have noticed about PS3 is the sound, some engines sound great and some not so good. Other than that I will have to pay closer attention to everything else and try to note differences. I think MTH has released some newer files for some of the engines I have. Maybe a check of them for new files and then some upgrading might be in order?

Thank-you D500

Now there's a full half a dozen of us that have actually noticed this?

Apparently you ,and not to leave out anybody else,actually run your stuff and change it around

And on that note ,regardless of the coupler's

Here's a new MTH car my Wife got me for Christmas

A GN PS2 hopper right next to my Postwar TV car

I don't want you guy's to take this wrong

This is just an observation on the coupler's

I do love my Railking stuff, Engines and cars, Mike truly transformed the direction of the hobby for us baby boomer's

And here's my world

I haven't had any problems with the new-style MTH couplers coming uncoupled. I have had that problem with late K-Line couplers, which have a similar design. I found that I could wire those shut with a few inches of small diameter steel wire, wrapped in just the right way to immobilize the sliding tab. It is actually possible to take the coupler apart and fix the problem, but it's held together with a tiny rivet and I have no idea where I'd get a replacement rivet. Not MTH, I'm pretty sure. 

 

I'm in agreement that the cosmetic benefits of the new coupler design don't outweigh the functional drawbacks, but obviously the manufacturers disagree. For me it's no big deal, since my home layout is too small to do a lot of switching and the museum where I run my big trains is strictly display running - we don't do any significant amount of switching. 

 

Thank you S H, and everyone else for your input

My Wife and I thought we were crazy

She is a main contributor to my layout, and casual observer

which is a story for another thread

I'm a automatic transmission rebuilder by trade, not a typist

but I would like to put down my thoughts on my journey thru this hobby.

How it restarted out to be,and how it has become

Which is far greater than I ever imagined

Santa brought each of my boys an MTH Allegheny.  Of, course the older one figured out in short order that the coupler slack sound was gone.  I was still trying to figure out how to use the DCS remote . .  . .  Point is once he told me, I had the same reaction as you did.  

 

I do think the elimination of the battery on PS3 is a genuine improvement.

Are you talking about coupler sounds from the engine when using the remote un-couple feature? I just tried five PS3 engines and they all had coupler sounds when using the DCS remote to operate the engines couplers. All were diesels. This is all I have out right now, layout is full. I have a few more but they are all boxed up. I don't have any steamers, diesels only.

1 - SD45

1 - RS-3

1 - SW1500

2 - ES44AC

 

My only PS2 is also boxed up, but I will check the crew talk later and see how that goes. It has been a while since I have used the freight sounds or extended start up and shut down features. If this is what you are talking about? I have not checked any of these for updated files, except the RS-3, which I loaded an updated file into about a week or so ago.