Last night I went to a friends house to view a Railfan slide show and it turned out great. But before we did. We decided to run some Model Trains. I ran my two BNSF SD40-2’s. As they where running,the Athearn couplers kepped un-coupling. The two Locomotives came unloose. The the second Motor coupleed to the Grain hopper came un-coupled. I said that’s it. I took a further look and found that the spring that holds the coupler knuckle closed broke off. Typical POJ Athearn couplers. Don’t get me wrong. Athearn Models are GREAT runners. It’s just the couplers. So,any thoughts? I was thinking of just adding a dab of glue to keep the knuckles closed. Or should I just buy some Kadee #5 Couples?
I have found the same thing on some Athearn GP 60s. You have the answer. Kadee no doubt about it.
Tim
If it is a sound equipped model, the couplers are as good as their MRC DCC drive and sound quality. Sort of makes sense now.
They build a nice looking model, that has set new bench marks in detail and accuracy and the model is down graded by the couplers, DCC drive system and sound that has to be replaced if you want to actually run them without problems on a layout.
From what I’ve been told the Athearn locos have the el-cheapo McHenry couplers that use the plastic whisker to close the coupler. Those things are POS! I use Kadee #5’s almost exclusively. A couple of my P2K’s have the metal sprung McHenry Kadee clones. When they fail, they’ll be changed out as well.
Athearn doesnt make couplers.
I didn’t see anywhere that somebody said they did. Did I miss something?
Kaydees work, are inexpensive and easy to install. mTheir specialty items also solve lots of problems, ie. shelf couplers make long cars work on my logging railroad.
I thought the ones with the plastic whisker return spring wheren’t made by McHenry. Don’t all MH’s come with the brass knuckle spring? I know some Bach stuff I bought came with those plastic return springs and they were garbage. All broke the first day.
Jeff- Yea, you missed something. The title of the post is “Athearn couplers” are junk. Most Athearns I’ve bought lately still came with hornhooks.[sigh]
“As they where running,the Athearn couplers kepped un-coupling.”
“Athearn couplers are nothing but junk.”
Athearn does NOT make couplers.
David
I think it’s more accurate to say that Athearn DID not make couplers.
However, IIRC, Athearn recently purchased McHenry. If they didn’t, then Horizon, Athearn’s parent did. In any case, new production Athearn equipment will be coming with McHenry couplers. Depending on when the locos were purchased, older runs of Athearn may not have McHenry’s.
In any case, it’s clear that the discussion is about the flaky nature of couplers that Athearn comes equipped with.
Poor couplers has ruin many operations…Best to replace the cheap McHenrys with the thin PASTIC knuckle spring to KDs or the McHenry with the metal spring couplers.
You guys must run your trains hard! I run all my stuff with the couplers that came from the factory (including my Athearns) and I’ve never had a problem!
Plastic Couplers BAD.
Kaydee Couplers OUTSTANDING!
I want my trains to stay together hard or not.
The only redeeming thing about plastic couplers it gives me time to build up my funds for another box of Kaydees.
I have always said a 30 dollar widget is a POS if you keep adding plastic couplers to it. Or nueter a 400 dollar engine with a plastic molded dummy good for nothing on the front.
[soapbox]
When I pass on, there will be a pair of kaydees in my pocket for the Heaven bound train that is a-fixing to take us all away.
I use Accumate couplers. They’re plastic, but they don’t have the pesky springs to work around. Plus, you assemble them yourself, so you have the option of leaving off the trip pins.
Matt
Towards the back of the unit. The rear couplers are smaller than the front couplers. Now that’s weard.
I just bought a P2K SW-8. It came with the couplers in a separate envelope, not attached to the locomotive. There were also some horn-hooks in the package, of all things. So, I put everything together with new Kadees. The couplers in the package, whatever they were, never even got to the programming track.
Originally, I thought the post title was a bit harsh. But then I realized that I don’t even give those Brand X couplers a chance to fail. For me, Kadees are the first upgrade every car and engine gets.
If you are going to spend good money for quality running locomotives, why wouldn’t you spend a few more bucks to get quality couplers. I know of nothing in this hobby that gives you more bang for the buck than KD couplers. When you think of the years of satisfying performance they will give you, they are a steal. KD is the Cadillac of couplers. Everything else is and Edsel.
Well, it appears that most of us have mind enough to understand what the OP meant (it is amazing what folks will pick apart).
Just to back up a few of the above posts, you just about can’t go wrong with Kadees (I minded how I phrased that so I wouldn’t be “corrected” for it). I have not heard of Kadees failing very often except for the occasional spring popping off the coupler, but those can be replaced fairly quickly with some practice.
First thing I did when I got my Genesis F3’s a couple of months ago was to get the Kadee 36 and 38 conversion kits and replace the couplers that came on the units. As I’m a newbie, I have no experience with other brands; info from my club members and multiple threads on this forum convinced me that Kadee’s are the only way to go. It used to be that I think a lot of loco manufacturers realized this: an older P2K E8 that I got off of ebay recently had a horn hook on the back–hard to believe, but irrelevant since I would have ditched whatever other coupler would have been on it anyway. Only improvement that would have been nice in the 30 conversion series I used would have been whiskers, which are now available in a variety of sizes(148, 158, 153, 156).
Jim
No argument there, I admit freely that I run mine hard. Recently I bought some Walthers Superliner models and was running a train of 11 of them on the club layout helix. They kept coming uncoupled (36 inch radius and 2% grade). They come with EZ Mate couplers and the shank of them was actually bending and coming uncoupled. They were quickly changed to Kadee’s and the probelm was gone.