Do It Yourself – How To: Homemade Link & Pin Couplers

Do It Yourself – How To:
Homemade Link & Pin Couplers
By
Victor Smith
Kit-bashing, welcome to the Dark Side.
Part 1
Here’s a simple and dirt-cheap way to make link and pin couplers for cars like HLW’s
(Hartland Locomotive Works) mini series
The Basic components:
The HLW (Hartland Locomotive Works) car, some sheet styrene, brass rod, and a 1/4" x 3/8”
ABS rectangular tube (e.g. Plastruct Item# RT-12L).
Measure out 1-inch segments and cut.
Trace the faceplate on the styrene; it should be about 1/16 to 3/32 wider than the tube.
Glue the faceplate to one end of the rectangular tube.
Clip the corners and file to a nice smooth rounded shape, (e.g. Left shaped, Right clipped).
Next, using a 1/8 drill bit, drill two holes in the faceplate and use an Xacto knife blade to shape
to a nice oval that opens to the full interior width.
Drill two holes, one 1/16 for the link and one larger for the mounting screw.
Drill a hole into the HLW car and mount with screw.
Top view of mounted Link & Pin coupler.
Next using a pair of needle nose pliers, bend the brass wire, (e.g. 1/16” diameter here), into an
eyebolt shape,
I add a small donut of small diameter tube styrene to the base of the eyebolt.
Finally the pin is attached to the car body so it doesn’t get lost, shown here with homemade
link using same brass rod.
And here as coupled to another car, all that’s needed now is paint.
Part 2
This coupler is designed around an HLW mini-car with Bachmann small diameter ore car
wheels instead of the large wheels that come with the kit.
Basic parts, 3/16 x 1/4 ABS tube, 5/16 C channel, 1/8 angle, and .40 sheet styrene
C-channel cut to 7/8 wide, rectangular tube cut to 3/8 long, glued together w/ angle and the
styrene faceplate cut about 1/16 to 1/8 wider than the tube and corners trimmed
Pinhole drilled w/ 5/64” bit, link slot w/ 1/8” bit double drilled and filled to shape, as has the
faceplate.
Glued onto end beam
Adding small brad nails at angle to add strength to mounting.
Completed, all it needs is paint and the coupler pin attached to the car body.
These couplers are also at the same height as the original couplers above, enjoy