I’ve gotten a few Accurail boxcar kits recently, very nice kits but I have to wonder…what is with the plastic knuckle couplers they include in the kit? Does anyone actually use these?
Accurail calls their couplers Accumates, and some other manufacturers put them on their rolling stock. I have’t had very good luck with Accumates and usually install a Kadee as I put the kit together.
The Accurail Accumates are not bad couplers. I use them on some cars. If your layout has grades don’t run them at the front of the train.
I just purchased some Red Caboose kits, and noticed that they came with these couplers (as noted above). They don’t seem like bad couplers, but I keep a nice stock of Kadees around, so I go ahead and use those. My only complaint is those terrible wheels, but with those I install Intermountain wheels, and they roll like a champ. I am guessing that with any plastic coupler, they do have their weekneses.
I just built a few auto racks from them. I laughed when I saw those little bags of coupler parts. I put them on for the heck of it and was surprised when they didn’t work half bad. I wouldn’t buy them on purpose but they do seem to work.(I agree that those wheels have to go though)
All the Atlas products come with them supplied. They pull ok up to about 25-30 cars, (NMRA weighted), afterwhich they get less reliable. When pushing the cars, (more than 15 - with various couplers), the accumates tend to jam up in curves now and then and cause derailments. That’s my experience anyway. They get changed out to KDs as I can afford it, the EZ-Mate, McHenry and P1&2K types have priority!
I tend to like the EZ Mates better than KD’s, so I have began to debate whether or not I should open this new $20 pack of KD’s to replace all my other couplers, or get my money back out of them… And as far as the Accumate couplers, I was looking at Accurail products on the web and noticed the couplers, but I haven’t had to deal with them yet.
-beegle55
I’ve tried them all but I replace the accumates immediately as they don’t work as well with Kadee’s as I’d like. I use a few Mc Henry’s if I don’t have suitable Kadee replacements but it is usually an interim thing until I get the Kadee’s. I find the plastic couplers tend to bind more, both in coupling operations and in straightout running.
Tilden
they are nice if your in a pinch I keep them in a box but I install Kadee’s when I build them or when I get kadees I replace the accumates.
I have one fairly long section of 2-1/4 % downgrade on the Yuba River Sub, and I’ve found out that the Accurail couplers tend to ‘spread and split’ if I’m running a heavy train. I’ve converted most of mine to Kadees. Other than on downgrades, they seem to work pretty well, though.
Tom
Personally I always put McHenry or Ezmate couplers on Accurail cars, and put Proto 2000 metal wheelsets on instead of the plastic wheels.
We operate our public exhibits eight hours a day, seven days a week. For example, that means that each mainline train on the Station at Citigroup Center travels more than five real miles each day, starting and stopping just about every minute of travel, and let me tell you Accu-Mate, McHenry, EZ-Mate and all the other plastic couplers flunk the test big time, every time. Kadee’s are the only answer other than actually CA-ing the couplers shut. In fact, some of the plastic couplers have even flunked the “CA test”.
Happy railroading!
Hi Clarke! Jay M. down here in Queensbury. Hope all is well with you and Barb and the crew up there in Pottersville!
If it doesn’t have a Kadee, it certainly will. About 80% of them make it into the trash can, the other 20% need to be picked up off the floor eventually.
Some of the knock-off couplers will work OK and others have no trouble with them. I personally don’t take a chance and replace it with a reliable #5 or #58.