I figured I’d write an inflammatory headline to get people’s attention. The press uses it all the time. So why not. Couplers are not created equal otherwise the horn couplers would be more popular. Heard a while back the “gold standard” for couplers is the kaydee metal. Sometimes “user” friendly is the better route and sometimes that could be the gold standard or maybe not. I kind of figured the tighter radius on a curve the longer the reach needs to be on the shank to prevent buckling either in the truck/wheel contact to the track or pressure on the coupler. If to short it will prevent applicable slop to the cars to rotate through the curve in a smooth manner. So couplers are not created equal. Backtrack…I’m typically running 85/73 passenger cars on 22 radius.
Seems sort of counterproductive since a lot of readers will take a pass figuring it is a whimsical thread. Beyond that, whoever said all couplers are created equal? What is your point?
Rich
Ya kind of put it that way …just didn’t know how to say which couplers are best. Given the situation of wanting to retro the old horn hooks off some of the old stock I’ve picked up. And then the connection to the loco. I guess the word universal doesn’t work here because there seem to be so many different couplers available. But I did notice with the horn hook on the old stock I had decoupler issue with rolling the 85 passengers. So lots of unknowns. Doesn’t answer my question maybe you. Is there a “easy” here.
Well, I don’t know if I am answering your question, but let me say this. You are correct that it may be necessary to use a longer shank coupler to run 85’ passenger cars on 22" radius curves. On my old layout, I had a double mainline with 22" and 24" curves, and I did not have issues running 85’ passenger cars. To avoid big spaces between cars, what I did was to use a long shank coupler on one end of each car and a medium shank coupler on the other end of each car. I coupled the long shank coupler end of one car to the medium shank coupler of the next car. Let me know if that helps.
Rich
Is the a horn hook to kadee knuckle adapter. ?
The ‘horn hook’ may be detested today, but it was at least once a good idea, and did help with ensuring the inter-compatibility of HO equipment between manufacturers. I collect some vintage HO, and prefer keeping everything with the hooks. They are excellent at wanting to stay coupled, for better or for worse.
The Kadee seems to be as ubiquitous now as the horn hook was. It’s far more critical for the coupler heights to be correct to avoid issues, but afaik correctly height adjusted and installed Kadee couplers are very reliable.
Ultimately, different couplers will suit different needs. Afaik for those modeling North-American prototypes, Kadees are the best option for compatibility between brands these days, but they’re not the only coupler out there. And of course, depending on the installation, you may need a specific kind. Hence why they are offered in many different styles of shank and coupler box.
-El
Is the a horn hook to kadee knuckle adapter. ?
There are no commercially available adapters , at least that I know of, but some modelers put a Kadee on one end of a car and a horn hook on the other to use both in a train.
Or you can carve the “knuckle” of a horn hook down yourself with an Exacto knife to where the horn hook will couple with a Kadee, but you have to couple them by hand, they won’t couple automatically. This can be trial and error. I did that myself way back in the day. Dan
I’m stupid I just installed a kadee couple to the lead car and left the horn hooks alone for all the remaining rolling stock. K.I.S.S… worked perfect.
The way it’s normally done is with an adapter car…
In the world of 1:1 railroading, whomever thought there needed to be more than the standard E knuckle needs to have the head examined and need to go through the exercise of trying to replace a broken knuckle 150 cars deep in a train at O dark thirty with the temperature at Zero F and the wind blowing at 30 MPH only to find out you selected the wrong knuckle that fits about 90% but not exactly correct.
I understand the need for the differences between the E and F couplers - but they should both have the same knuckle.
Yep! That’s the ticket!
I did the same thing to my Rapido Streamline passenger coaches. While I had no issues with the shorter shank couplers the cars came with while the train was running forward, in reverse they would bind and derail. Rapido included longer shank couplers with the car so it was an easy swap.
I have a good supply of Kadee couplers on hand, however, I leave what ever stock coupler comes with a car until it fails and then swap them out. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it is my way of thinking on this particular issue.
Mantua couplers. Wide ones for passenger car swing. Work great. Kadee’s go in the circular file.
MR did one of their “April Fools” stories a while back about a coupler that could work with both…but there really was such an animal. It came out maybe 30 years ago and was called the “Magic Mate”, and was made by IHC. It would couple to either a Kadee or to an X2F “hornhook”. It also had a metal trip pin for magnetic uncoupling. I bought some back then and tried them out; they worked pretty well but I ended up just going with Kadees.
BTW I second what Rich said about different shanks on passenger cars - I use the longer ones on the rear of the car, and shorter ones on the front. Using the long-medium mix keeps them far enough apart that they go around curves OK, but not so far apart they look bad.
Yes’ Kadee’ are great but not very friendly to non US stock cars and wagons which have ‘Buffers’
for this the Euro style couplers are much friendlier. for people in other parts of the world the Kadee may be a non starter
Vik.
May depend on the car / wagon. From what I understand, many UK modelers have switched to Kadees. Kadee makes a No.5 head coupler that will plug directly into the European NEM socket. I used them on my Trix NYC wood caboose, easy install and works great.
