Link And Pin Couplers

Link & Pin Couplers

Period link-and-pin coupler visuals for locomotives, tenders, and cars, with configurable spacing and slack.

Toolshed's link-and-pin support is definition-driven. It changes an end of a vehicle only when that vehicle has a DetailModel component using the LinkAndPinCoupler/link-pin-coupler asset. It does not replace every coupler in the game.

What It Does

On a marked end, Toolshed:

• Hides the vanilla knuckle coupler on that end only
• Shows the link-and-pin asset as a loose link
• Hides the imported coupler pocket and pin from the asset, so the model can use its own pocket or drawbar
• Leaves only one loose link visible when two link-and-pin ends couple together
• Adds a small slack adjustment to marked ends
• Adds customization checkboxes for every marked end

Player Customization

The equipment customization window exposes the parts per end. With one marked end:

• Loose Link
• Pin
• Pocket

With both ends marked, each is prefixed A-End or B-End.

The loose link defaults on, so existing setups keep working. The imported pin and pocket default off, because many locomotive and tender models already include their own pin or pocket detail — turning them on usually double-renders the part. These choices save per car.

Spacing And Slack

Four values in the Unity Mod Manager settings panel control how close link-and-pin equipment couples:

Setting	Default	Applies to
Equipment separation	0.84	General equipment
Caboose separation	0.84	Cabooses
Locomotive/tender separation	0.93	Locomotive and tender pairs
Slack	0.02	Free play in the coupling

Locomotive/tender spacing is wider by default because that pairing usually has a drawbar rather than a link.

These are visual and slack-behavior values. Raise separation if your models intersect when coupled; lower it if the gap looks too wide.

Authoring

Full setup is in ../Examples/link-pin-coupler-readme.md. The short version:

End Naming

The component name tells Toolshed which end it belongs to:

• Link And Pin Coupler F — front / A end
• Link And Pin Coupler R — rear / B end

Names ending in Front or Rear also work.

Definition Component

Paste an object from ../Examples/link-pin-coupler-detail-model.json into the vehicle's components array, then tune parent.path, transform.position, transform.rotation, and transform.scale.

For a locomotive with a fixed front drawbar, put the visual link only on the tender or rear pocket end. For freight cars, add one component per end that should have link-and-pin visuals.

Asset Ids Must Match

"model": {
  "assetPackIdentifier": "LinkAndPinCoupler",
  "assetIdentifier": "link-pin-coupler"
}

If those ids change, Toolshed treats the component as an ordinary detail model and will not hide the vanilla coupler for that end. This is the most common reason a link-and-pin setup renders both couplers at once.

Related

• Getting Started — where the settings panel lives

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Mirrored from docs/LINK_AND_PIN.md - edit the repository copy.