Yep those darn fragile things I’ve stepped on and crushed a bunch of them after fumbling them onto my black tile floor while trying to put those little springs back in them. My bulldog has also ingested a few of those before my big feet got to them… they didn’t survive his gastric tract either (maybe they did but I never looked).
So wait a minute. What you’re trying to tell us (and me in particular) that these couplers are just time bombs waiting to go off in say 20 or so years for me from now? That’s all we’re going to get from them? Sure, I may get 10 or 15 more years if I run shorter trains, maybe 20 cars, but that’s still only 35 years, give or take.
How do I tell my grade school age grandchildren that one day, when they come over, we’re not going to run trains because it will be a work session to replace these couplers?
Geese in 25 years when the batch of #5’s I just finished putting on last night wear out I’ll be so senile that I’ll be sitting here saying who put this danged train set in my basement?
Dave, didn’t you know that the Kadee #5 IS the Kadee #10?[?]
At least that what it says on the little packet I’ve got stashed with my unassembled BB undec 2-bay hopper kit…[Y]
(I think that both kit and couplers are contemporaries of the failed coupler. Maybe I’d better magnaflux 'em before I install them - assuming that the kit ever gets built.[:-^])
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with kitbutchered AAR-prototype hoppers)
Ok, lets see, where’s the pm sheets showing the coupler being inspected last when it was in the shop? I’m sensing that perhaps someone is skipping scheduled pm on his equipment. If not careful FRA will be sending inspectors to your layout and going through your records. But meanwhile you need to find a good ambulance chasing attorney and file a fraudualant product claim against Kadee. Make sure you go for some really absurd amount of money for pain and suffer and emotion distress because you now live in fear that other couplers may fail and this would compromise the safety of your equipment and with the inflated cost of replacement minus depreciated value for use over the years you should get about .02 cents before your attorney’s 1/3 he gets for going to court plus his fees and costs to represent you in the above matter.
Gee now I am thinking about a class action lawsuit against Kadee… I need to get the attorney that got the lady 2 million dollars from McD’ s from the hot coffee she ordered and got spilled on her, since it was McD’s fault that they didn’t warn her the coffee was hot.
All joking aside, I think we all agree that KDs are one of the few MR items we deal with that truly last and well worth the money. I’ve had them since the '70s, and honestly cannot remember any being defective. Of course a lot of us older folks think that should be a normal situation, but we all know its a rarity these days.
I agree,One of the best products and value in our hobby today. Train handling from the engineer is subject to a tape-pull and a personal vist from the road foreman! And it is surely his fault cuz KADEES never fail!