Six days ago, I found a package in the mail from Sergent Engineering in Tennessee. I’d wanted to try Sergents for years, and finally got around to picking up a few sets, putting them together, and trying them out on a variety of rolling stock. I ordered both the compatible shank couplers and the narrow shank couplers. The former are great for when it’s to much work to replace the coupler pockets, and the latter look great in place of the oversized coupler pockets on most models out there. The narrow shank couplers are more work, as there’s the coupler box to assemble and put into place. Sergent sells an “Installation Kit” that includes a #55 bit, and metal pieces to bend into place that allow the modeler to drill holes in the right spots. I used the bit, but not the folded metal pieces, and just cut away either parts of the models underframe, or the coupler boxes themselves to add couplers to models I thought would work well with them.
The only models I had trouble adding couplers too were a pair of Walthers B60b baggage cars. I’ll try the couplers with longer shanks and see how they perform, because as is, they compress the diaphragm to much and I can see will not operate well.
Assembly: Not to hard, and I highly recommend the assembly fixtures they sell, they help keep parts in order. The only tools I needed were a hobby knife, sharp pencil, and thick CA glue. I got to a point where I could put together one pair of couplers in a few minutes. I highly recommend the spare ball and spring pack as both parts can get lost easily.
Operation: I enjoy how the couplers operate. They can be a little more challenging over using Kadees as they do need to be perfectly aligned to couple, but once coupled, they will stay coupled. There’s so little coupler slack in comparison too. The uncoupling wands worked great, although on models with buffers over the couplers, it can be challenging to get between the buffers and uncouple the cars. The magnet
I really like the look and operating characteristics of the Sergent couplers. The problem is that if I were to switch I would have to do everything. That’s just the way I think. Conversion would cost quite a bit and be time consuming, and there are so many other things that I would like to spend the time and money on that it will likely never happen. Kadees it is!
While I like the concept of the Sergent couplers I think I will pass since I would not like to assemble them-unless I overlooked the assembled couplers. I would probably use these on my older BB and Roundhouse cars instead of my higher detailed cars.
If I had a small fleet, I would give it consideration but with hundreds of cars, heh heh, that is just not going to happen. As it is I have quite a few cars with plastic clones that will need Kadee’s installed. I’ve always been very pleased with them.
Definately not something I would buy.Even though my HO fleet is only 100 cars strong they sare definately nothing I could even concider spending that much money for.I will stick with my KaDee’s.
I couldn’t afford to equip all my cars with Sergents either but,I would just equip around 60 cars since that’s my normal car rotation on my ISLs.
My cars are “interchanged” daily and some days N&W will leave one car other days 6 or 7 and 60 cars is enough time between departure and return.That kills that age old “Gee whiz,there’s that dented B&O gon again” syndrome since it may be several days before that gon returns…
I have discussed my experience with sergents on this forum on several occassions. Search “coupler” to find a long-winded piece about what I have found in the 5-6 years I have been using sergents.
In a nutshell–I love them. I have a walk around operation designed MR based on the C&O New River Subdivision circa 1949 and there are block coal trains, manifest freight, and heavyweight passenger service. All equipment and steam locomotives have sergents.
FYI, I have been successful at mixing a few kadee equipped stock (#5, #158, and “oldtimer” Kadees) with sergents without problems. I can expand on this if you like, but will not go into it now. I will say though that my railway has 36 inch min curves and #6 or larger turnouts, so I cannot vouch for instances with tighter curves and turnouts.
Anyway, the biggest problem I had was getting reliable uncoupling and dealing with uncoupling HW equipment with close-coupling diaphragms. Frank Sergent kindly sent me (no charge) a prototype uncoupler he was developing at the time. It is now available for purchase and works nicely for me.
I have also designed uncouplers with stronger magnets than the sergent uncoupling wand. I have copy and pasted a picture from one of my posts on the type of magnetic uncouplers I have made and use.
If you have issues with your setup, feel free to PM me. I have worked out all the bugs to get better than 95% reliability. That last 5%–that’s part of the fun–makes me feel like I’m really interacting with my equipment as I switch stock.
Here is the picture of my homemade wands and the wand (left) that Frank sent me to test.
Sergents need careful lining up because of the narrow gathering window to hit the coupling “sweet spot”. You have to line up the mating couplers by eye (there is no centering spring), so far reach or too high a viewing angle will not allow you to do that.
In my case, I have a narrow walk around design and my layout is 51-54 inches high. For my 6 foot height this still gives me a comfortable over-the-coupler view when working the Sergents.
The bottom line is Sergents must be worked just like the prototype. That in a nutshell is the appeal for me, but understandably they are not for everyone.
If you are curious, I recommend giving them a look-see, take them out for a test drive, and then decide if they suit you and your operating situation.
