Now, this doesn’t matter if you are running HO-Scale, large scale, or some other scale in between. Everyone should be test-rolling their cars by hand through the tightest corners, switches, and S-curves to ensure every car used on the layout can freely roll through the curves your particular layout is equipped with. Please don’t assume that just because the car was advertised as able to navigate a particular track radius, it can navigate any and all configurations of your track freely. You want the car to roll freely through the curves, not just navigate the curves. If the wheels even slightly rub on underframe rigging, gearbox, or underframe, this will cause a compounding problem when you have more cars connected. Truck binding or rubbing causes drag on the car, causing the car to tip, roll, and rock. When multiple cars are connected, the connected cars also rock from the effects traveling through the couplers. This creates additional binding on the couplers, creating a chain reaction on coupler performance. By testing your cars, you can troubleshoot any random problems before they arise, eliminating the trucks or wheels rubbing the underframe or binding on the layout.

More recently, more modern and longer cars have been produced, so there is a need for longer shanked body mount couplers. The coupler shank binding on the sidewall of the gearbox is possible as the cars are going around too tight of a radius, which will cause the car to lift the trucks off the track and derail the train. The side walls of the gearbox can be trimmed, allowing for greater swing, or a longer coupler can change the geometry and allow for a tighter radius of curve or switch to be navigated. These changes will only help if the coupler is running out of travel. Now, some other factors, like truck clearance and the trucks’ mounting location closer to the car’s end, will ultimately limit how tight of curves or switches the car can navigate through. So, test-roll your cars before thinking the coupler swing travel is the problem. This is very important for troubleshooting a car’s performance.

We have been getting requests for a long-shank G-Scale coupler. We debuted the New Long Shank G-scale Couplers at the Amherst show at the end of January. We even had some available for sale at the Amherst show. Now, the New Long Shank G-Scale couplers with a gearbox are available for everyone. We also released the #918 long-shanked G-Scale couplers in the #938 “SE” Top and Bottom shelf and #948 “SBE” Bottom shelf coupler only for those who may wish to upgrade your coupler without needing the gearbox.