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Offline jerdenberg  
#1 Posted : 16 September 2019 11:14:30(UTC)
jerdenberg

Netherlands   
Joined: 10/01/2005(UTC)
Posts: 1,011
Location: Den Helder, Noord-Holland
In the weekend, I thought I'd try, just for looks, to get either two of my Big Boys or a Big Boy and my Challenger 39911 to run as a consist.

First requirement was to add a front coupler to either machine. For both Big Boy and Challenger this is not trivial, as the standard Märklin close coupler does not fit (it hits the cow catcher) [accordingly, the manual suggests a Kadee no. 19, with a longer shank than standard, as a third-party coupler]. As I did have some Kadees no. 19, I used one of those – which implied that the rear coupler of the front locomotive should be changed from the Märklin close coupler to a knuckle coupler.

With other Märklin/Trix locomotives like the Alco PA's and the Mikado, replacing the rear coupler is very easy: the ends of the shank are accessible, so it's sufficient to press them together and pop out the coupler that is to be replaced. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the Big Boys. Their rear coupler can only be removed after partially disassembling the tender. I gave up rather quickly on that, as the bottom part of the tender assembly clicks into the upper part, and I did not trust myself with "unclicking" it. See the left part of the picture below [the coupler mount of my Märklin Big Boys is identical]:

Tender couplers, Big Boy vs Challenger

Fortunately, as shown on the right in the picture above, the rear coupler assembly for the Challenger has been redesigned so that the ends of the shank are accessible directly, and replacement of the coupler is simple.

In view of the above, only one consist can be made easily construction-wise: A Big Boy with a Kadee no. 19 front coupler led by the Challenger with a knuckle coupler at the tender.

Next step is then to match speeds …

Jeroen
Figomima division, UP; mostly figment of my imagination yet.
thanks 4 users liked this useful post by jerdenberg
Offline H0  
#2 Posted : 17 September 2019 10:46:32(UTC)
H0


Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,254
Location: DE-NW
Hi!

Exchanging the rear coupler has not become any easier for me.

The Märklin close coupler has an indentation next to the coupler pocket where you can insert a screwdriver to remove the coupler easily when you cannot access the swallowtails or don't want to lose time.

I don't know if the Trix loop and hook couplers also have this indentation. So this change could make it easier for Trix customers.

This change also means they removed the guiding mechanism and the Challenger has a coupler pocket with a pivot point. That's not bad IMHO as US models without buffers should not have the guiding mechanism at all.
So maybe this also means there will be fewer problems when running really long trains.

Thanks for pointing out the change - I hadn't noticed that. I just wanted to point out that the change is less important for models that come with a pre-installed Märklin close coupler.
With such big locos it is never easy to access the coupler from below to remove it. So maybe it would be nice if the models came without pre-installed couplers...
Regards
Tom
---
"In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS
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Offline jerdenberg  
#3 Posted : 17 September 2019 17:35:41(UTC)
jerdenberg

Netherlands   
Joined: 10/01/2005(UTC)
Posts: 1,011
Location: Den Helder, Noord-Holland
Hi Tom,

I didn't know about the brute-force method of removing the close couplers (I never considered that possibility, considering the fishhook form of the shank ends); theoretically, this could then also happen with a very heavy load, or a car stuck behind an obstacle, I guess.

As to the Trix coupler, I have experience only with the Big Boy from the Trix Magnum set, which according to its manual is Trix 22598. At the time I purchased the set (new, for a greatly reduced price) I was flabbergasted by the fact that the locomotive and the cars included in the set had incompatible couplers: the cars had knuckle couplers (as usual for Trix), but the locomotive had a Märklin close coupler (which in addition was different from the coupler depicted in the manual as shown above). In my report on converting the Trix Big Boy to 3-rail (very long ago now) I noted how stupid this must have seemed to those who bought this set expecting to set up the set and go without problems …

Jeroen
Figomima division, UP; mostly figment of my imagination yet.
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