I have been doing battle with my knuckle couplers for some time now! They are winning at the present. Having only upgraded in the past 2 years I have a mixture of Kadee #5’s and some Mchenry! I have the height gage and am still having trouble with cars coming unhooked in different places on the track when engine is in motion. I have never removed any of the frame mounted knuckle boxes on any of my cars, seen you all pretty much agree on the Kadee #5 as a norm. Should I cut the boxes off the frames and install the ones you can get with the Kadees??? I have about had it, just about ready to throw all the old horn hook back on and say phooy on the knuckle couplers. I know I got a few track imperfections here and there, but this is driving me crazy!! 95% of my freight is BB Athearn and some MDC, I have some older Bachmann and AHM that just sits around for decoration the scenes and am not concerned with them at this point. Should knucles be this big of a pain, or am I not doing it right here.
How is your trackwork? Is it smooth and level, or do you have any grades or dips?
There has to be a reason why they are coming uncoupled, the trick is to figure it out.
You sound frustrated, but don’t start carving up the cars yet.
The only problem I have ever had with couplers uncoupling at the wrong time is when I used to use the permanent magnet type uncouplers. If the height is correct and your "hoses are not catching on something, tghey should not come apart unless you have some major track problems. Wish I could offer more help.
Go after EVERY imperfection in your track. If you are willing to live with the track imperfections, then you will have to get used to living with unintentional uncoupling!
After the track is repaired, if you still have a problem with uncoupling, that is the time to re-think your coupler boxes. You can’t try to resolve a problem until you know what is causing it. In your case, it is more likely the track than the coupler boxes.
One question: does the uncoupling always occur between a Kadee coupler and a McHenry coupler? If so, there could be a compatability problem with the different brands. Converting to one brand will resolve incompatability problems.
Hope this helps. I know you didn’t want to hear about fixing the track, but that is most likely the source of your problems. Your railroad can perform only as well as the track allows it.
Darrell, quiet…for now
Have one grade up and one down on the main line, there are a few ups and downs but they don’t seem to effect it all the time. Frustrated is an understatement! There are pile of hair on the floor. My big concern is its making it impossible to turn your back for just a few seconds! Would removing the old boxes and installing the kadde help this problem go away or do I need to fine tune some more? AHHHHHHH! gonna take a break the rest of the nite and walk away! Should I pitch the Mchenry couplers also and install all Kadee’s? I look for answers in the morning, thanks guys!
ICRR1964 said
"Should I pitch the Mchenry couplers also and install all Kadee’s? "
Absolutly !! I ahve spent the last two and a half doing just that!! Stick to the KD’s One thing to make sure of when instaling new couplers, is close doesen’t count… You have to have them right on the money or you will continue to have problems, I have had to learn alot of this myself for the past couple months. You can never say it’s close enough, it has to be a perfect match from one to the other(coupler).
ICRR1954
Can you move the couplers up and down in the boxes. I put about a .010" shim about 1/16" wide in the bottom of the box at the front. With the clones there is no spring and they can move verticaly. I have dips and rises in my track too. This worked for me
Good luck
Ralph
You didn’t say what type of cars are uncoupling. Something not mentioned here is that long cars with a lot of over-hang from the truck to the end of the car means more coupler movement over imperfect track. I agree with the idea that if nothing else is as perfect as you can make it, make sure the track is. Ken
Make sure you are using the newer McHenry couplers with a knuckle spring. The older McHenry couplers with a plastic spring were notorious for coming uncoupled. Change everything to couplers with knuckle springs. Cutting off the old coupler boxes and putting the Kadee boxes onto everything won’t solve the problem you are having.
As others have indicated, make sure you have no sudden changes in elevation, dips, or rises in your trackwork.
Yep that is the problem I found this morning! The Mchenry are the older ones that have the tiny plastic spring, and they have more up and down play than the Kadee’s do. Most of my cars are Athearn and MDC, think its going to have to be all Kadee’s and thats thats, no more cutting corners! I took all the cars that have Kadee’s installed and lashed them together, not one problem came up. Took 2 cars and put them in the middle of the line up, and it happened then. Engines were goign pretty slow about 10 to 15 mph, then it happened! So the cheap ones seem to be most of the problem! Thanks for the input guys, been lots of help to me!
Update here guys, have been spending an hour or so each day removing the Mchenry’s and installing all Kadee on everything, got to order some more #5’s but am almost done, problems have disappeared! Got another problem though! MY EYE’S ARE CROSSED! Thanks for the help guys and all the suggestions, you all were a big help!
Similar to a problem I’ve found even with the Kadee’s in their own boxes. I run a lot of long trains on the helix on the club layout which brings in a whole different set of dynamics to the couplers. I’ve started modifying the Kadee boxes to eliminate the vertical play by trimming the center boss of the lid (coupler pivot point), the side screw holes on the box, and trimming the tabs off the centering spring. If you trim them a bit too much, just loosen the screw a bit to allow the coupler to move in the box.
And about the crossed eyes, when you get done with the replacement project, just give them a rest. They should come back to normal soon.
You are right ICRR1964, the cheap couplers are a BIG problem. Kadees are all metal and the cheap ones are plastic. It doesnt really matter if the plastic ones have a metal spring or not because I had the same problem and the cheap coplers had springs in them.
ICMR
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]