Intermountain coupler choices

Will IM be making their own trucks and couplers or using someone elses?

I was talking to Frank the CEO of InterMountain at the National Train Show they where going to use Boswers trucks and couplers but Boswer change they mind and told Intermountain at the National Train Show they couldn't use there trucks and couplers. Frank said that trucks and wheels where nothing for them to made and the coupler was the hard thing.But they would make a statice coupler that would work with the MTL, AZL, and the Boswer coupler but it wouldn't be a uncoupler.

So last I heard they were going to make there own but it would be fully decided by the end of Aug

Ugh... another round of the truck / coupler wars? Can't we all just get along?

My guess is Uncle Will doesnt want another car so close to his using his coupler and trucks.

I dont think its going to bother the any of us Intermountain was making sure their couplers will work with all other couplers on the market(except the claw one from marklin).
And that the couplers and trucks will be protoypical

I don't think it Uncle Will saying no.
To my understanding this was Boswer decision.

I'm glad to see another truck and coupler option out there.

After all the problems I had with the Z Manufacture when I made my car and why I havnt come out with another car yet

MTL won't sell there to manufactors

AZL work but the bolster pin is different for MTL and Pennzee and Uncle Will which mean you have to go to MTL for bolster pin and they won't sell them.

I talk to Uncle Will he would sell me trucks and couplers and even bolster pins but I'm don't trust Boswer after all the problems I had with them when I was going thought Pennzee to get the car painted and pad printed( I had to fine my own Pad Printer and Painter).

Which leaves me to hope Intermountain comes out with trucks and couler so I can use there trucks and couplers to do another car without problems. I got my cases from them and they where great to work with.

Bowser does not do any Z on their own so all the molds are the property of someone other than Bowser so to use the Z scale trucks and couplers Bowser make they have to get permission of the mold owner.

cheerz Garth


HobbyCraftsNMore wrote:

I don't think it Uncle Will saying no.
To my understanding this was Boswer decision.

I'm glad to see another truck and coupler option out there.

After all the problems I had with the Z Manufacture when I made my car and why I havnt come out with another car yet

MTL won't sell there to manufactors

AZL work but the bolster pin is different for MTL and Pennzee and Uncle Will which mean you have to go to MTL for bolster pin and they won't sell them.

I talk to Uncle Will he would sell me trucks and couplers and even bolster pins but I'm don't trust Boswer after all the problems I had with them when I was going thought Pennzee to get the car painted and pad printed( I had to fine my own Pad Printer and Painter).

Which leaves me to hope Intermountain comes out with trucks and couler so I can use there trucks and couplers to do another car without problems. I got my cases from them and they where great to work with.

Are you sure. I was under the impression that these where Boswer trucks and coupler hense the name Boswer Buckler but I never got a clear answer to who owned them when I talked the Uncle Willin the pass. Someone needs to check with Uncle Will.

So even if they make a 'static' coupler, as long as it couples (by bumping I mean) and stays coupled under load, it's fine and would be equal in use to AZL and Bowsers. They just would not uncouple. Only MTL will do that. But I've had good luck with switchers dropping cars from the MTL loco coupler.

Garth

I asked Uncle Will, he told me Bowser owns the trucks and couplers and he distributes them for Bowser

Whichever the issue with truck and couplers is, I'm very happy to see that NdeM (Nacionales de Mexico) will be one of the released roads....

Dom

Reviving an old thread… Member Fred posted in another area of ZCS, that an announcement from InterMountain states the Z-scale release of the cylindrical hoppers will have AZL trucks/couplers.

Looks like the first thing I’ll be doing on my long awaited pre-orders will be to replace those trucks/couplers.

Intermountain cars will have AZL trucks and couplers for some reason Uncle will or Bowser did not want or could not supply thier bucklers to Intermountain.

cheers Garth

Kadee supplies the HO cars----Micro-trains supplies the N scale cars----
AZL--For Z?? My question is: why does MTL/Kadee supply the other two scales but not Z when thier product is supposed to be superior?- and making a lot of modelers, consider changing out AZL units- adding to original costs.

Fred wrote: Kadee supplies the HO cars----Micro-trains supplies the N scale cars----
AZL--For Z?? My question is: why does MTL/Kadee supply the other two scales but not Z when thier product is supposed to be superior?- and making a lot of modelers, consider changing out AZL units- adding to original costs.

For reasons known only to Micro-Trains, they will not sell their Z Scale trucks and couplers to anyone else on an OEM basis. Furthermore, Micro-Trains forbids other model manufacturers from selling their rolling stock fitted with Micro-Trains trucks and couplers. The only option other manufacturers have is to either use AZL, or make their own. Full Throttle does not have the capacity to offer them on an OEM basis. The only option the modeler has, if they want Micro-Trains trucks on all of their rolling stock, is to do the upgrade themselves, at additional cost.

Don't ask why; this has been Micro-Trains policy since early 2008.

The only option the modeler has, if they want Micro-Trains trucks on all of their rolling stock, is to do the upgrade themselves, at additional cost.

It would be great if someone would simply manufacturer something close to MTL truck/couplers that worked with magnets but using an original design of their own. Simple enough, however then we all have another coupler in the mix. As it stands, Z scale has no standard.

What needs to be done is for the Z scale community to adopt a standard coupler. Since it appears MTL is the coupler most everyone is happy with, I believe, in the spirit of competition, that MTL should license their Z couplers to other manufacturers on a per truck basis. Say, $2.50 per truck. This would raise the price of the competitions cars by X factor, and MTL makes a few dollars in the process.

Joe

David-- my point exactly- on Just for Fun---MTL has hurt Z, Other manufactures, Hobbiest, and themselves
with this policy.
Fred

My most recent Intermountain cars in n-scale have McHenry couplers not Micro Trains. Kadee and Micro trains were spun off to two different parts of the family of the two brothers who started Kadee and so what ones does, does not set a precedent for the other. HO is Kadee HOn30, N and Z are Micro Trains. Kadee supplies to OEMs and Micro Trains does not. No question I will be cutting the coupler off of the AZL truck and body mount 905 instead. As long as the AZL truck has metal wheels and is free rolling I will just change the coupler.

I STILL can't figure out why MTL refuses to make metal wheelz! Cost? add it to the cost of each car-- at least we don't have to buy plastic- then replace with metal at added cost.
Fred

metal wheels they would have to job them out while delrin wheels they have the mould and the machine to inject them into the mould so they can crank them out.

economics not what we want but it works for them as we still buy the cars.

Garth