Large Scale Central

Aristo Couplers that won't couple

Problem Solving
#1

Sometimes you find an Aristo-Craft coupler that’s hard to couple. It works, but you have to really slam it 3 or 4 times. The usual problem is the knuckle has to be pressed in too far before it will latch. The coupler is simplicity in itself. Two screws hold the bottom plate on

Remove the bottom plate. The spring loaded latch will come with it. Now, for the explicit gory insides.

Annoyingly, I have a beautifully sharp photo of my tiny screw driver. There is one moving part and a spring. Notice the shoulder. When the coupler is open, the latch rests on the part above the shoulder. When closed, it drops to the lower part locking it closed. All we need to do is trim off a bit of the shoulder so the latch drops when the coupler is just a little more open.

Just be careful which knuckle you’re trimming!

Reassemble the coupler. The spring goes in front of the screw hole. It’s a bit of a trick, but hook the knuckle pivot in the hole in the bottom place, push the release lever back and down, and lay the plate back onto the coupler. It always takes me two tries. When the couplers are working right, two of them will lock together with just a little play. You should be able to pull them apart just a little. If they lock solidly together, one, or both of them needs to be tweaked. If you have one that pops open, look closely at the shoulder. It should be nice and square. I had a coupler with a little bit of plastic on the lower part that didn’t let the latch go down. It seemed to latch fine, but if you pulled on the knuckle, it came open very easily. The little scrap of plastic was levering the latch up over the shoulder. A sharp knife solved that little problem. I’ll have you know, I dissasembled this coupler, modified it, juggled a camera and put it back together without need for a bandaid!

#2

No doubt anyone who uses Aristo knuckle couplers will have had similar annoyances with them. I have experienced all these defects in the couplers myself. I dealt with them exactly as Tom describes here. He has done a great job of documenting his procedure, showing others just how easy it is to get them working properly.

Though nowadays I use different couplers, I do like Aristos - they were the first large scale couplers I ever saw; I used them on the first two trains I acquired and I was very impressed.

On a personal note, I have since converted all my gear to hook and loops, primarily because I have many young and inexperienced operators, and the visible simplicity of hook and loop couplers requires no explanation! With any type of knuckle I would spend an inordinate amount of time demonstrating their operation to frustrated novice trainmen and women. No more!

Surprisingly, I quickly got used to the appearance of the hooks and loops, and I have come to accept them as normal, while to my eye nowadays, most knuckles appear oversized and a bit saggy.

As an avid operator, I do find the hooks and loops to be very reliable indeed.

#3

Correct, Tom’s explanation of both the cause and remedy works.
Thanks.
Yet, I have also joined John in using the hook ‘n loop couplers. Likely for a similar reason. That’s after converting fifteen rolling stock to the appropriate scale Kadee couplers. More problems occured – especially with a consist of Aristo box cars on any curve that was under 6 foot radius (12’ dia.) Bingo! They would fall off the curve track like dominos. Reason, if I am remembering accurately, was the body mounted coupler set up. With fidgeity kid operators and the operating frustration, I yielded to what was easier and installed the hook 'n loops. Maybe the Aristo’s would still work.
Wendell