Coupler Woes

Replacing a coupler...

If you've been following this blog lately, you know that I built a small HO scale model railroad for our grandson for Christmas. When he opened up his wrapped trains, I quickly realized that the flatcar did not come with the couplers installed. The couplers were included in the box but they were not installed.

Before Lukey came to the house again to play with his trains, I installed these couplers. It was a quick and easy project. Easy peasy.

Unfortunately, at some point during his next train session, a tiny spring popped out of one of the couplers on this flatcar and it no longer held a mating coupler and his train kept coming apart.

I ordered some cheap generic replacement couplers... they arrived the other day... and, today, I decided it was a good day to install these new couplers. (I'm having a rather lousy health day so it is a good day for tiny, quick tasks rather than any projects.)  After removing the broken coupler, I quickly realized that I bought the wrong cheap generic couplers!

These new couplers had a tiny screw hole for mounting and I need couplers with a larger hole to mate with a collar inside the coupler mounting box. Uggg... a quick and easy task has turned into frustration. (Plus, I'm accumulating parts I don't really need right now.) I needed to get back online to find a more appropriate coupler.

I just finished finding a place online who will ship just this tiny package rather than a larger minimum order by price. Thank you, eBay.  

Now this quick and easy task is on hold again... I think I need a nap...