I have been a Railroad fan all my life, its not until 18 months ago that I decided to have another crack at building a model railroad.
Yesterday I posted a thread entitled “Dummy Couplers”, 76 people viewed it but no replies, can anyone please tell me if the question I asked in the thread is so stupid, as stated in the original I am not a model railroad gurru just an inexperienced modeller trying to learn about this wonderful hobby, who knows maybe I will be able to help someone else sometime in the future, here is the link for your judgement.
I’m in H0 not N, but I don’t believe any of them come with dummy coupler, however some probably work better than others. Your choice of changing to MT couplers is a good one. Getting MT’s height gauge should be your first purchase to insure compatabilty and consistency from car to car. You’ll also be able to check those Bachman and others’ accuracy.
When I don’t receive replies to my queries, I assume those who have read the message are ignorant (don’t have the knowledge to answer helpfully), but only after several days have passed. You would think in your case, however, someone will reply. As for me, I’m totally ignorant of N-scale couplers and thus was only confused after reading your dummy coupler posting. In this case, however, I didn’t open that posting earlier. It is a good idea to use a subject title that is specific of the issue yet creates curiosity/interest. Perhaps you should have used a title like “how compatible are various N-scale couplers?”
I’m one of the many who viewed, but didn’t answer - not because you are stupid (stupid people seldom bother to ask questions) but because I am ignorant of all things N-scale.
A really good idea, when asking a scale-specific question, is to specify the scale in the subject line. That will attract the more knowledgeable (people who model in, or are familiar with, the specified scale) and warn off those who aren’t.
As for Kadee couplers, I have been using them so long that I actually have some HO scale K couplers in service. If the N scale product is anywhere near as good as its HO counterpart, you’ve picked a winner.
Chuck [modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in twice-N (aka HOj, 1:80) scale]
Maybe its our Aussie way of interpreting the English language, Crikey I even get confused myself, anyhow thank you for your input, also for the replies from others, have to agree with those that know nothing about N Scale couplers, I could not think of a better reason for not replying to the thread after all no information is better than wrong information.
As others have mentioned, your question (?) is all one sentence:
“Even though I am not going to use them as I intend to change the trucks I am curious about the knuckle couplers that Bachmann and Roundhouse are either fitted with or have in the cases, just for fun I changed the Roundhouse couplers from Rapidos to the knuckle couplers contained in the case, they dont even connect and if they do they uncouple on movement, I havent bothered with the Bachmann couplers, are these just a Dummy coupler or are they intended to work?”
[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto] Well not really, but my N scale coupler knowledge is over 20 years old. That makes it practically worthless. There was no “Bachmann” coupler back then. I presume they have made the equivalent of the HO McHenry coupler for N-scale now. Back then – 1980 – we had only Kadee (now Microtrains) and the original Rapido.
The short answer to your question is, No. But, as the others have said, the question is hard to read and interpret due to the complicated sentence structure.
Only thing I can say in my defence is that I have been away from school for over 50 years, English like Maths was not one of my favorite subjects, however I did very well at General Knowledge, Geography, Music and Nature Studies.
Those four subjects alone have given me more pleasure in my life than English or Maths could ever do, I will have to remember to take a breath next time I post a thread.
Thankfully I dont have to ask to many questions, I had an electronics repair business for several years also a pro photographer for 25yrs, I just get stuck on things like couplers, darn things.
There’s NO such thing as a stupid question. For the most part, all of us here on the forum pretty much started at square one, at one point in time or another. Really, the only stupid questions are the ones that don’t get asked? [:)]
Dave, I took the liberty of “rewriting”/filling in the blanks of your original inquiry below. Is this basically what you are trying to say?
I’m new to MRRing and need some help on N-scale couplers. I recently changed the Roundhouse couplers on my [Suggestion: manufacturer’s car] from Rapidos to [Suggestion: manufacturer’s name/model #] knuckle couplers. However, for whatever reason, they don’t seem to couple together well. Or, if they do couple, they immediately uncouple on movement.
I havent bothered with trying the Bachmann N-scale couplers. Are these just dummy couplers, or are they really intended to work together? What am I doing wrong? Do you have an recommendations or suggestions to help me out? Thanks!
Signed,
“In a Quandary in Queensland”
Okay, maybe “Quandary in Queensland” is a bit overboard. Anyway, am I close?
Dave, as others have already said, most likely when a post goes unanswered, it usually means that no one knows the answer. I model in HO so I don’t really have an answer for you either.
Yes my friend something like that, also thanks for taking the time to reply, I dont always string a lot of gibberish together like I did in the original thread, I had my dear Wife nagging me about taking the dog for a walk and when she says jump I ask how high.
This is off topic I know but 14 members of our family have just flown over to LA, left from Brisbane this morning, she has been watching the “Airline Disaster” series on TV and has gone a little strange with worry, not easy to live with at times, thank goodness for my backyard shed and the model railroad.
Funny I still havent recieved an answer to my original post, you may be right, no one may know the answer.
I totally disagree; there is such a thing as a stupid question (in politics this is especially true, and even more so when it comes to answers). Where anyone got the idea that there are no stupid questions I have no idea.
Dave, your question was not stupid, just unintelligible, at least to me, due to the poor sentence construction. I was not among those who read the thread and offered no answer because the title of the thread didn’t interest me. If I had read it and understood it I still wouldn’t have answered because I know little about N scale. Hey, this is one of those stupid answers because I’m saying the same thing everybody else has been saying, except for the part about there being no stupid questions.
Dave, I suspect that you haven’t gotten an answer, not because the question is stupid, but because the person who probably knows the answer hasn’t read this thread because the title of this thread has nothing to do with your question. Does that make sense? Or maybe it’s because no one has yet to figure out what the question really is.
I’m “ignorant” of N scale couplers. But I do know MDC used to include “prototypical” looking couplers with their kits. These are not intended to function but are for looks only.
What a strange thread,I can’t believe there’s not an N-scaler out there who hasn’t read the original question and has an answer. Its not an unreasonable question. I don’t know the answer to it though.Maybe the original poster should repost with the heading stated as n-scale coupler related.
