GP9RM is here! Now some questions...

Agatheron

Member
Hey all,

The first of two Life Like Canadian National GP9RM's has arrived... zebra striped workhorse #4012, just waiting for my impending layout! Detail wise it looks great, and will serve me very well as a road switcher on whatever my layout is going to look like.

However...

The locomotive comes with body-mounted Rapido couplers... Not surprising, and I did actually expect that. Since this is a road switcher, I am going to want to change the couplers to Micro-Trains. Does anyone have any suggestions on which of the Micro-Trains body mounted couplers I should look at and will most likely fit?

Also, I am also planning on equipping this with a Z-scale decoder from digitrax, but I'm not going to worry about that just yet... :)
 

MagicMan_841

New Member
Yup... 1015 with a shim on the bottom ... maybe better to use a 1016 if you have sharp curves (10" and lower).

prepare to use your patience at its maximum. I spent 2 hours of various swearing and religion-terms using trying to both remove the rapidos and install the MT's.
 

Bnsftrainnut

New Member
:mad: Yes the 1015 were a pain in the a:D :D to put in

i all most through the Gp9 across the room a few times

But hey its a fun hobby:D

Dennis
 

Agatheron

Member
Given the potential size of my layout MIGHT have 9 3/4" turns, if I can't work it any other way, I may have to do the 1016 route. That having been said, how thick does the shim have to be? I have some plasticard readily available to me...

My CN SD40-2 has MT couplers on it already (yay ebay!), although my Kato Via Rail P42DC has the standard Kato knuckle couplers on it. Not sure if I want to change those just yet.

As for how well it runs. I don't know yet :D I'm so new to this that I don't even have a basic power pack... just some track :D However, that should be my next purchase... get a cheap power pack/throttle to see how they run... and then start saving up for a DCC unit.

Thanks... Any other advice?
 

Agatheron

Member
I priced out the 1015/1016s yesterday. Nice and inexpensive, even from the expensive LHS. I probably won't get around to doing the coupler replacement work until I acquire the second locomotive and have some track to run it on.

That having been said... it's good that it's easily available.

One more question:
In installing the couplers, what is best to use as shims?
 
C

Catt

The couplers will come with shims straight from MT they are the same shape as the coupler box.

If you really want to see your new loco run get a fresh 9 volt battery .Put the loco on the track.If it is just a straight piece of track put something at the (preferably soft) to stop the loco from heading into the concrete canyon.

Take the fresh 9 volt battery and turn it upside down.Now place the battery on the track with each contact touching a rail.To reverse direction of the loco just turn the battery around.WARNING! you will have no speed control :D
 
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