I notice that new locos often come with knuckle couplers other than Kadees. Given that Kadees are the “industry standard”, I was wondering what readers experiences are with the other “in house” brands. eg. Life-like, Bachmann, Accumate, McHenry, etc…
Quite frankly, I haven’t found ANY of them to work nearly as well as Kadees. And no, I do NOT work for Kadee. Accumates and Proto2000 are particularly poor performers - I’ve changed out all my Proto2000 locos, and all my Accurail hopper cars that came with Accumates. McHeny has 2 types - one has a plastic whisker for a spring and one has a coil spring just like Kadee. The coil spring ones aren;t too bad - McHenry would probably be my oly other choice besides genuine Kadee. Bachmann also has both types, but I have uncoupling issues - I have 3 ways to uncouple, the track magnets, the Rix U-shaped magnet tool, and bamboo skewers. The Rix tool is kind of out since I have so many hopper cars, and with the weights under the slope sheet, they get sucked right into the magnet. I prefer the skewers, for the price of one magnet I can buy a bag full of bamboo skewers. Occasionally I was having trouble getting cars apart with them. Checking the problem couplings, at least one of the cars always had a non-Kadee coupler on it. Kadee to Kadee, I can always get them to uncouple with the skewers. Not a scientific test, but it renews my decision to go all Kadee.
–Randy
[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto] I have mostly Kadee & a few McHenrys. I will be changing the McHenrys out.
Tom
When the KDpatents expired and the deluge of clones appeared I tried a few of everything, even InterMountain (which, unsuprisingly were the firsy to disappear) and all came up short. One of the more consistent problems was slipping- by w/ long trains. Another was that none of them worked in the delay mode which is a major part of my operating scheme. Back when the ill-fated NMRA cplr first appeared KD ran a cute little slogan in their adds…“the standard by choice”. It pretty well says it all.
I have several brands of couplers in my roster along with Kadee. I’ve not had any problems with mating that could be blamed on the coupler brand. If I were asked what brand to recommend, I would recommend Kadee, hands down. Not so much for reliability in operation, but more for the sevice and help I recieved from Kadee themselves, and thats another story. I always check my couplers with a Kadee coupler gauge, no matter what brand, and as long as they are all in adjustment and working freely, I feel they will give good service. When a coupler fails I replace it with Kadee, but I don’t go through the trouble of replacing couplers just to have Kadee on my rolling stock. I have Athearn and Bachmann locos and cars that are operating with the original couplers that came with them. They will get Kadee replacements when and if they ever fail. Ken
nfrailway, i feel Kadees are THE best. their on ALL my equipment. i think they look and work the best. nuff said.
When I first switched to knuckle couplers, I went with KD. I think they look and work very well but I always thought that the centering spring could be less complicated and easier for a newbee to install, Now that I’m not a newbee anymore, I have given Mc Henry a try. Much easier to install, but I hear some guys say that the centering springs don’t hold up. (plastic vs. brass). and also they can’t pull as much weight.(plastic vs. steel). I have had the same quirks plauge both styles.Nothing serious,but annoying.(sticking, off center.missalinement.). Unless your going to pull really heavy loads on club layout conditions, you can go with Mc Henry. (cheaper) Both have their down side.
I’ve tried the E-Z Mates, mainly as most of the RTR stock I’ve bought comes with them (a mix of Bachmann, Walthers and some Athearn). Can’t really say I’m that impressed with them for two reasons. One: the centring spring doesn’t work too well for delayed uncoupling (I only have three locos fitted with E-Z Mates which will do this properly, they’re all Bachmann GP40/GP50 cheapies). Two: they don’t look as good - they look like brown plastic in contrast to the blackened, greased metal appearance of the Kadees, which also have a much nicer coupler casting (the E-Z looks like it was designed as a cheap way to keep your model train together, the Kadee looks like a real coupler). I’ve not tried using them on long trains but I hear they’re prone to breaking or opening up under heavy loads?
I have used both Kadees ,McHenrys and still have quite a few Xf2’s (laziness and cheapness I suppose) the Kadees and Xf2’s seem the most consistantly trouble free when I run a “big” train (25 or more cars). The Mchenrys seem to work really well or they uncouple so often they are next to useless (the monofilament return spring style knuckle coupler), it has been one extreme (great) or the other (unreliable) and not much middle ground.
The absolute best coupler is KD… I am currently using the Mchenry scale coupler on some of the cars I use on my home layout…These couplers seem to be working quite well of course the scale coupler has the knuckle spring like KD uses.
The first thing I change on my nonKayDee cars is the KD wanna bes-the only exception to this rule is the non blue box Athearn RTR line of locomotives that comes with the Mchenry scale coupler.
The only freight cars or locomotives that I have that break loose while pulling heavy loads are those with the brown plastic couplers. I run some rolling stock purchased from the mid 80’s, they still have the origional KD, and they never break loose when pulling long trains. Eventually, I will switch all to KD.
Also, the brown plastic couplers I have tend to bend if I accidently collide them too hard. Then I definately have to replace them.
KD[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]And my daughter-in-law works for KD.
JIM
I think the industry moved to the knuckle, really, its more realistic out of the box opposed to the horn hook, and allows the loco to at least be test run and perform out of the box AOK.
Since we modelers would eventullay be switching them over, well may as well design the model so you might be able to slip KD’s in conveneiently.
Plenty of horror stories pulling hornhooks and putting kadees in…
There have already been horn hook adaptive couplers to couple with kadees, not too popular tho.
Really, I am glad the hornhook is dissappearing as a standard.
Kadee rules.
My experience’s:
McHenry’s droop
Kato’s let go’
Athearn’s are wrong size and height
Proto 2000 don’t close
X2F horn hook’s snag
The above are worth exactly what we pay for them - $0.00
KaDee’s use berillium copper spring’s (best for memory)
toughest coupler material - metal and plastic
5 different coupler boxes - 6,8,20, 30, 40
3 different coupler length’s - short, med., long
3 different height’s std.,underset, overset
2 different head sizes 5, 58
The above for less than $ 2 per car.
The Kadee design is biased for the magnetic uncoupling. The centering spring will be tougher to push left than right but still center effectivelyt as well as the uncoupling pin being off center angled toward the right rail to encourage the magnet to pull the knuckle open, and the coupler pocket itself has a slight angle when it gets pushed down to drag towards the uncouple angle.
These little things are what make the kadees work.
I have been buying a bunch of accurail hoppers sure they will have their default couplers but eventually I’ll switch.