The White River and Northern Model Railroad: Clinic

	The N Scale

	Model Railroad

Using Z Scale couplers in N Scale

It's simple: I was after that last little extra bit of realism. Micro-Trains has made great couplers for many years. When they introduced their Z Scale product line, they were forced to scale down their couplers. Well, since their N Scale couplers are just a bit oversized, their Z Scale couplers provide improved appearance without sacrificing functionality. The image below is a side-by-side comparison; I don't think I need to explain which is which.

Standard N versus Nn3/Z couplers

Making the switch, however, was not as straightforward as I'd anticipated; after a while, I began to feel as if I was dropped down a rabbit hole. For all of their quality and innovation, Micro-Trains also embodies some puzzling anomalies and contradictions. Just for starters: Why do they go to the trouble of blackening the trip pins on their Z Scale couplers, but not their N Scale couplers?

The switch from N to Z forced a switch from truck-mount to body-mount. That didn't bother me; I'd wanted to go that route anyway. But after installing new couplers on a few dozen pieces of rolling stock and rolling them around the yard, I began to encounter an odd problem: Sometimes two cars simply refused to couple. It wasn't that the couplers weren't engaging properly—the cars would actually bounce off one another as if the couplers were solid blocks!

I thought I was losing my mind. It would only happen on occasion, but when it did, I found that I could not even force the cars together. It wasn't until I knocked one of the couplers way out of alignment that they behaved again. Hmmm... I tried all sorts of tricks to solve the problem—some more sensible than others—and nothing would get the couplers to perform consistently.

The fatal flaw.

Could it be something wrong with the couplers themselves? No, they were designed and manufactured with great precision, using a known design that has worked flawlessly for decades. All the same, one afternoon I examined a coupler under a strong magnifier. And that's when I found it: a small dimple, barely visible, in the top half of the knuckle face. This dimple would catch the ridge next to the same dimple on a mating coupler, and the two would lock together. By the time I found the problem, I'd already purchased, assembled and installed well over a hundred pairs.

Micro-Trains denies having any manufacturing flaws in their product. Given they are an industry leader with a well-earned reputation, I can understand why, too, but, well, sorry—there it is in the photograph. Anyone with a good strong magnifier can see it for themselves (unless it has subsequently been fixed, which I've not yet seen).

Of course, once Z Scale couplers are coupled, uncoupling them is a whole other ball game. Almost by accident I stumbled upon the solution: simple, cheap ceramic "refrigerator" magnets mounted under the track not only uncouple normal N Scale couplers, but also work on the Zs as well. Even better: Ns and Zs can be mixed and they still work!

The June 2004 issue of Model Railroader has an article about these uncouplers. However, when publishing my piece, the magazine editors inexplicably edited out the sentence indicating that these uncouplers work with both N and Z couplers. I had specifically included that point because I am certain I am not the only one who uses body-mounted Z Scale couplers; for instance, Scott Seekins, a frequent contributor to N Scale magazine, lamented in print that no uncoupler ramp worked, and so he would actually clip the trip pins off his couplers and forego magnetic uncoupling altogether. Well, Scott, I found the solution—except that the message was excised by the publisher. Sorry, I tried.

In spite of all these issues, I will continue to use Micro-Trains Z Scale couplers on my rolling stock. Given that I am not big on operation, the pitfalls do not terminally cramp my style. If you choose to go the same route, at least you'll know what to look for going in.

Image specs: The images were taken with a Canon 20D digital SLR and a 250 watt Halogen lamp. A 50mm prime lens and a 68m extension tube were used to capture the coupler magnification shot.

Return to Chapter 6
Return to Clinics Index
Return Home