ARISTO CRITTER COUPLER

[Gavin Sowry]

As many of you will know, and much has been written about, you can't drop out the usual Aristo coupling from the Critter, and just drop in a bog standard loop/hook....... without either cutting part of the body away, or ending up with a rather too long shank.

For various reasons (mainly compatability) for my beer train on Taita Gorge, said cars have all been converted to loop/hook. Cars are a mix of Bachmann, LGB, and USA Trains. So, I wanted my Critter to be still able to haul these cars.

Rather than cut the body, or end up with a very long coupler shank (not the best option on R1 curves), I took the Aristo coupler off, then got a loop portion of an Aristo loop/hook coupler and fiddled around to make it fit. It screwed in to the original, but, ended up too high (thus useless). The problem was the hole through the headstock was too high. Rather than cut this down, I took to the loop, and filed that down, so it eventually sat at the correct height. When satisfied, I drilled an extra screwhole to keep the coupler rigid/centred.

Not having two hooks has its pluses and minuses. Plus, easy to unhook. Minus, susceptible to track irregularities causing unwanted uncoupling. However, it was while running my Feldbahn stock on a Ginglenook puzzle layout recently, that I thought that this puzzle would go well with the beer train.... thus the conversion.



The loop, showing the filing done to get the coupler to sit at correct height



The extra screw



Finished product.

 

[Alec K]

As many of you will know, and much has been written about, you can't drop out the usual Aristo coupling from the Critter, and just drop in a bog standard loop/hook....... without either cutting part of the body away, or ending up with a rather too long shank.

For various reasons (mainly compatability) for my beer train on Taita Gorge, said cars have all been converted to loop/hook. Cars are a mix of Bachmann, LGB, and USA Trains. So, I wanted my Critter to be still able to haul these cars.

Rather than cut the body, or end up with a very long coupler shank (not the best option on R1 curves), I took the Aristo coupler off, then got a loop portion of an Aristo loop/hook coupler and fiddled around to make it fit. It screwed in to the original, but, ended up too high (thus useless). The problem was the hole through the headstock was too high. Rather than cut this down, I took to the loop, and filed that down, so it eventually sat at the correct height. When satisfied, I drilled an extra screwhole to keep the coupler rigid/centred.

Not having two hooks has its pluses and minuses. Plus, easy to unhook. Minus, susceptible to track irregularities causing unwanted uncoupling. However, it was while running my Feldbahn stock on a Ginglenook puzzle layout recently, that I thought that this puzzle would go well with the beer train.... thus the conversion.



The loop, showing the filing done to get the coupler to sit at correct height



The extra screw



Finished product.

A tribute to the GSC Site Search facility and to Gavin's account of his adaptation of a 'Lil Critter. I'm going to have to make exactly this change so that my Critter can haul LGB stock - article printed off and stored in the Critter's box ready for use. Thank you, Gavin!

 

[dunnyrail]

As many of you will know, and much has been written about, you can't drop out the usual Aristo coupling from the Critter, and just drop in a bog standard loop/hook....... without either cutting part of the body away, or ending up with a rather too long shank.

For various reasons (mainly compatability) for my beer train on Taita Gorge, said cars have all been converted to loop/hook. Cars are a mix of Bachmann, LGB, and USA Trains. So, I wanted my Critter to be still able to haul these cars.

Rather than cut the body, or end up with a very long coupler shank (not the best option on R1 curves), I took the Aristo coupler off, then got a loop portion of an Aristo loop/hook coupler and fiddled around to make it fit. It screwed in to the original, but, ended up too high (thus useless). The problem was the hole through the headstock was too high. Rather than cut this down, I took to the loop, and filed that down, so it eventually sat at the correct height. When satisfied, I drilled an extra screwhole to keep the coupler rigid/centred.

Not having two hooks has its pluses and minuses. Plus, easy to unhook. Minus, susceptible to track irregularities causing unwanted uncoupling. However, it was while running my Feldbahn stock on a Ginglenook puzzle layout recently, that I thought that this puzzle would go well with the beer train.... thus the conversion.



The loop, showing the filing done to get the coupler to sit at correct height



The extra screw



Finished product.

I think you may have fitted the loop upside down! This could be a cause of unwanted uncoupling. General good practice when using only a loop on a locomotive is to have it droppd down by roughly 10-20 thou thus keeping the loop depressed a little and assisting greatly to prevent unwanted uncoupling.

 

[Gavin Sowry]

I think you may have fitted the loop upside down!

Optical delusion, dear boy. Try as I might, but there is no way that I know of how you can install them down side up.... too many lugs, grooves, and ID10T prevention bits to allow this to happen.
Your posting caused me to take a walk on the dark side to the train shed to check this out.

Any case, history now. As I have two Beer trains, the Critter hauls the smaller battery powered set, which the head end car with the radio receiver in has an Aristo knuckle coupler, the same has been retro fitted to the Critter..... good job I didn't hack the body up, eh. Critter has a DPDT switch to allow battery/off/track operation..... it's my 'playing away' set.