Does anyone have a conversion chart to show what McHenry coupler is equivalent to the Kadee coupler? For example, what McHenry coupler is equivalent to a Kadee # 5? I like using the McHenry couplers but the only charts I have found have been for Kadee couplers. Thanks for your help.
I don’t know that anyone has ever done a chart of what McHenry coupler is the same as what Kadee coupler…or more accurately, which Kadee coupler each McHenry coupler is copied from. For info on which coupler to use in different situations, check out the McHenry website:
The short answer is a McHenery coupler will never be the equivalent of a Kadee coupler. [:-^]
all of the modelers i know including my fellow club members are getting rid of their mchenry’s, accumates and easymates in favor of kadee’s. they work so much better.
I second that. I can’t get the mehenry’s to couple up.
Peter
Try McHenry #51’s.
Jimmy
I think its been the general consensus Kadees work and work right.
The serious model train operator will swear by them If you’re more a casual modeler and never pull heavy trains, all the clones will suit you, the major manufacturers have pretty much adopted the knuckle coupler, but for cost or whatever reason they don’t put kadees on…HOWEVER, I bought a PCM Y6B, guess what, it has Kadees factory on. Smart, its a heavy metal engine designed to pull, all others would fail miserably in no time quick.
Sorry, but I really wouldn’t want to know that…KADEE couplers are the only way to go!..chuck
Contrarian that I am. [:D]
I’ve not had any issues with “Clone” couplers on my HO equipment.
I don’t see any valid reason for me to tear apart a RTR car in order to replace it’s couplers. Some of the cars I have would not survive such surgery.
I use whatever couplers I have on hand when I build kits, they are carefully installed and measured against a Kadee coupler height guage for proper alignment - which I think is more important overall than plastic vs metal couplers.
I don’t claim to stress my equipment these days as much other modelers may do, but it does get used. As a teenage modeler in the past I did stress Kadees hard enough that broken knuckles and heads happened.
Mark Gosdin
The Kadee website has full dimensioned diagrams of their couplers on the website, everything you’d need to know for installing the right one. For example, the 20 series couplers:
http://www.kadee.com/html/20serh.pdf
You may be able to make up your own chart, but I don’t know if McHenry (or any other brand) has anything equivalent.
I’ve run into the same problems with the off brands that other posters have stated above. The few times I’ve used the other brands, the poor performance made me remove them and quickly replace them with Kadee’s. You have to go with what works and keeps working reliably.
This isn’t a conversion chart because I don’t think anyone has ever gone to the trouble of making one up, but here is the McHenry web site listing of all their different types. Perhaps you can pick through this and make up your own chart.
i just bought some McHenry’s and I will not buy them again. I have problems with them coupling and they are not a sturdy as Kadee’s in my opinion. It’s Kadee for me from now on.
Call me crazy, but, I have been using Kadee since early 1960’s. Any new car, RTR or kit, gets the non Kadee coupler pulled out and a Kadee installed before it hits the layout. I just won’t use anything but Kadee, it is the one standard on the layout strictly enforced. There are many reasons, including standardization, but performance is the main one.
It is a shame to pitch those non Kadee couplers in the trash, but no point to keeping them. My only complaint with Kadee is that when I open a package of them, about half have the knuckle spring loose in the container. Every so often, I have a spring reinstall party at the workbench to replace the springs, and the air can get blue while I am doing it, but still won’t buy another brand.
Bob
I don’t think replacing couplers should require you to “tear apart” a car. I usually remove the body of a new RTR car to weather it anyway, so I’ll often replace the couplers then. It’s just a matter of putting the car upside down in a foam cradle and removing two screws afterall.
If a car or engine comes with non-Kadee couplers, I’ll sometimes let it go. They often work for a while, then when one fails I replace them with Kadees.
BTW it’s not a matter (in my experience) of the couplers not being the right height or installed incorrectly. It’s that they just quit - the plastic “spring” used gives out and the coupler knuckles won’t hold together anymore…usually in the middle of switching a wayfreight on the mainline!! In comparison, I have an M-St.L boxcar sitting at an industry on my layout today that was the first car kit I built when I switched to HO back in 1988. The car still has the original KD 5’s I put in there then and they’re still working great.
Aw, come on–the standard now for “serious” vs. “dabbler” is how heavy your model trains are?
So anyone who operates a model based on a shortline with shorter trains is “casual,” and if you happen to model, say, UP that makes you “serious”?
I know a lot of experienced model railroaders who are going to find this ludicrous. Starting with me.
Perhaps instead of “serious” the word “experienced” would fit better? I know that a lot of us have tried the plastic couplers and found them unsuitable for our purposes.
While I do prefer Kadees, The newer “knock-offs” with the “coil-type” knuckle springs aren’t that bad. Usually the only thing that causes them to pull apart is MISALIGNMENT.
Don’t bother with comparing Kadee with the inferior imposters. All the EZ mates, Maybe-Mates, Kinda-Mates are all junk. They are made of slippery plastic that even if the couplers are set correctly they slip apart. As for using the imposters on long trains DON’T. There is no substitute for the real Kadee.
Sounds like you’ve had the same experience with the knockoffs as I have. Don’t forget the cheap ones on long trains and grades tend to uncouple because the shank of the coupler will twist under the load.
Add me to that list. In my experience, it’s the ‘casual’ model railroader who is more likely to load up the locomotive with every car in the roster, and then speed it up to a maximum measured in Mach numbers.
I’m in the same camp as Stix. If the kitbash fodder comes with clones, I’ll go with them until the first failure. Then it’s off with the clone and on with the Kadee - both ends of the car.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)