HO scale coupler compatibility

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am just getting back into model railroading. When I left the scene over a decade ago, Kadee couplers were the top of the line in realistic couplers in terms of look, feel, and operation.

I went to the hobby shop today and see there are many different kinds of realistic looking couplers including the Kadee couplers (which now it looks like they make 30 different kinds! to me, the only difference seems to be in the shank variations). Atlas engines and some rolling stock comes with it’s own version of the realistic looking coupler called “AccuMate”.

I assume one needs to settle on a coupler standard for his or her empire so all engines and rolling stock are compatible with each other.

What is the standard these days? What is most popular? Why is one better than the other? Kadee looks expensive but in terms of realism, it looks the best to me.

I’m just wondering if someone can tell me what most people settle on for their layous?

I’m also wondering if you can mix and match couplers from different vendors? ie. Are Kadee couplers 100% compatible with Atlas AccuMate couplers?

Thank you in advance,
Jason in Bloomington, MN

ps. I just got back from visiting the San Diego model railroad museum yesterday in Balboa Park and it was spectacular! It is soley responsible for getting my interest back in model railroading. Hopefully I can make a better effort at it this time. At last stab, I was just a kid, now I’m an adult and a lot has changed. I’m real interested in what I’m reading so far on this DCC stuff and running multiple engines on one line. I’ve got some money to spend now but I must set my limits because I can see it will be very easy to go overboard. I went to the hobby shop today, spent 3 hours there. Bought 2 engines, a few cars, track, connectors, a middle of the road power supply, and a few remote switches. I won’t say how much that added up to :confused:

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Hi Jason: welcome back to model railroading.
Supposedly, the Kadee, accumate, McHenry… are all compatible. Cetainly they all couple together. Some time ago, model railroader published an article on just how compatible they are … usually problems coupling on curves and uncoupling.
The variety of Kadee’s basically has to do with the variety of mountings that are required; Kadee decided to go with adapting themselves to everyone else. They have also provided a couple of different coupler sizes – an old timer and a “scale” coupling. So far, I think, each only comes with one shank.
The compatibles usually make only a #5 shank, although one makes some interesting variations that Kadee doesn’t cover.
If you have cars with Accumate, mix them with the Kadees. (I think you will have to buy some Kadees to fit locomotives or passenger cars at some point.) When you try them, you’ll get an idea of how they work.
–David

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KD has a recommendation for just about every type of HO equipment out there and IMO they are # 1.
On level track they are flawless and this is what a majority of modelers use.

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I’ve tried several of the others and will stick with Kadee. In fact, I have pulled the few others that I tried and put them on display cars in my showcase relieving some Kadees to operational duty. I had cars uncoupling where they should not have and I never had that problem with Kadee.

My suggestion to you would be to put Kadee on cars that don’t have the ‘knuckle’ coupler already and on your engines. Then you can see for yourself how the other couplers hold up in use.

Oh, BTW, I am delighted with the new Kadee 58 and will be putting them on cars that don’t already have Kadee. I will not be replacing all of my number 5s with 58s (at least not yet).

Roger