Now that's just awesome! It's been a very long time since I was involved with miniature rail (7 1/4" gauge but most stuff was 1:6 or 1:4.8" scale) and I don't know a lot about the inner workings of th

No, they paint the wheels, or at least they used to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60901191@N08/7201974420/sizes/o/ The railways themselves don't paint them anymore as far as I can tell but I think th

I didn't think my question would elicit so many responses. Thank you all, especially David for the photo links. So it seems not painting couplers is very much a North American thing, though I'm a litt

Why do people paint their couplers rusty? While I don't know of any US freight wagon photo galleries to study a cursory image search seem to suggest that while a few do appear rusty most seem to just

Can't really help with assembling them for you, not going to be worth the effort to send them on a 15,000 odd mile round trip for that but did you buy the AFC assembly fixture as well? if you didn't t

Steve, Thanks for that post link back. I stand corrected. I must have missed that post somehow and when Frank had mentioned zinc in another post I took that to mean pure zinc. Chris, No sarcasm detect

Franks original couplers were cast in pewter. No bad reflection on Frank as it's how he started and you have to start somewhere but the couplers were just ...a pain to work with and the strength of th

That looks good Andrew. On the dimensions being slightly out, do remember that Frank said that the parts are done for the 3d printer he had (something about a hole being slightly oblong so the casting

Frank did his own investment casting in-house. - Tim

A steel tool at about $20,000 worth (and that's probably a low end figure). Of course if Frank had his tool made to take inserts then it would cost less as one would only have to tool a long shank ins

Those are some nice looking prints there Tom. From the pictures it looks like there is material missing from inside the ball socket of the top casting, ie, it doesn't look like a plain hole but the ho

John, I wasn't advocating that we should crowd fund Frank a 3D printer, I was trying to lightheartedly point out that *if* crowdfunding for Frank was something that happened then a 3D printer that "wo

Probably around $20,000. I think it'd take more than a few dollars from each of us to fund what Frank has already determined isn't viable cost wise to have a mold made for (The sales numbers probably

The S Scale and Taylor made coupler pages aren't completely gone from the website, just hidden from the menu. There are two ways to take this; Frank has hidden them as he intends to no longer make and

I use the method given in the first Installation Tip (InterMountain/Tichy Single Sheathed Box Car) on the Sergents website. Amazing how well this method works. It's a bit more difficult when a molded

Yes, just ask me about the three damaged cars I now have when I accidentally knocked one of them over and the couplers took the other two cars with it to the floor! Serious now (that knock over did ha

If you meant slack as in slack action then the friction springs have little to do with that. Slack as in free sideways movement well it depends on the model. I have some that the coupler box provides

Now that is huge news, and kudos to Frank for his approach to the longevity of his design. I do hope that the dies for the diecast couplers can be saved. I'd love to have them but shipping them halfwa

I tried sending emails from different addresses a while ago too and never got responses so I just gave up and never bought any more however I see the extended shank type F's (and some RailFlyer types

I doubt you failed anything, the ball pocket cleaning isn't in the printed instructions for the EC87 or EN87, the online instructions do have a bit about it. The instructions for the RC87K, RN87K, RNB