Kadee uncoupling pins

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m thinking about cutting the uncoupling wires off all my HO models. I do not use magnetic uncouplers and am perfectly happy uncoupling manually with a Kadee wand. I think the look of the models would be improved and I wouldn’t have to adjust the height of the pins on new models. I use only #58 scale head Kadees on all my equipment. Has anybody else done this? Any comments? Thanks - Bill

2

Is the Kadee wand magnetic or a “pick” type uncoupler? My guess would be that if you cut the wires off, that none of the magnetic uncouplers will work …

3

I’ve been cutting mine off for years. I install air hoses on all my cars so the trip pins are redundant. I just use a pick to uncouple. The cars look alot better and the pins don’t interfere with any switches either.

4

Hi Bill, I found it a very big and hard decision to make, once it’s done there’s no going back. After much thought and weighing up the pros & cons I decided to go for the looks and use the bamboo skewer uncoupling way rather than magnetic and do away with the trip pins. I am very happy with my decision as when I look at photos of other peoples layouts etc with trip pins they just look wrong.

p.s. I use the #158’s.

5

If you realy dont like the look of the pins you should look at the sergent couplers. They are scale and are uncoupled with A wand with A small magnet on the end.Go to there web site and look at them. All my HOn3 stuff use them. They work great and are scale size!!

6

I do both magnetic uncoupling and the bamboo skewer method so I wouldn’t think of cutting the pins off. I like the hands free uncoupling magnetic uncoupling allows but I discovered that putting uncoupling magnets under mainline tracks causes unwanted uncoupling if the road engine has even a brief hesitation which creates slack in the couplers. For that reason, the uncoupling magnets are relegated to the yard and spur tracks and mechanical uncoupling is done with bamboo skewers everywhere else. To me, this is the best compromise between the two uncoupling methods.

7

I find them useful only on passenger cars because diaphrams interfere from-the-top access. With the pins, one can uncouple cars using access from the side, pulling the pin from the side while couplers are in compression.

Mark

8

Thanks everybody for the excellent feedback. I am now convinced to go ahead with cutting them all off. As I mentioned, I do not use magnetic uncouplers even though I’ve been using Kadee couplers since 1967. I have tried Sergent full scale couplers and use them on some of my models that do not need to be switched. They look great but are a bit too prototypical for me. The advantage of being able to couple on a curve is offset by not being able to reach the back track of my yard to try to center the couplers. I do agree that they look great however. As for uncoupling passenger cars with diaphrams; I model circa 1905. No diaphrams. :slight_smile: Also it is not impossible to go back after cutting the pins. Just expensive. [xx(]

I have been using a Kadee uncoupling wand but tend to use the “spring-pick” end more often than the “spade”. It seems to work better with scale-head couplers. - Bill

9

I started doing that with the Kadee old time coupler, 711 and 714 back about 1988 since I model 1900 era. The old time coupler is more to scale than the #5 but does not look quite as prototypical. I will probably stick with them.

Rich

10

I, too, removed all the pins from my Kadee #58’s since my layout is a point-to-point urban switching layout. I use an uncoupling tool from Micro-Mark, which is metal and I have several magnets trategically placed around the facia to hold it when not in use. The “gathering area” of the #58’s is less than on #5’s, making coupling on curves a little less “automatic,” just as on real railroads. I weathered my couplesrs but that can cause the coupler faces to not “slide” toward coupling, and they need to be smooth.

John Cornette

Mebane, NC

11

I have cut the kadee trip pin off for years. I plan to use the schewer tools to uncouple freight cars.

12

Guys,Forgive but,by cutting the pins off you lose one major feature…Delayed uncoupling.

I perfer to use the KD and MT coupler as designed as I appreciate the ease of uncoupling especially in hard to reach places.

If I was going to manually uncouple my HO cars I would covert back to the X2F and cut off the trip pins.

13

You are very correct but not an issue for those of us who clip the pins. No way would any of us ever go back to the X2F.

Rich

14

None of the layouts I’ve operated on, which were all designed for serious operations/switching, had uncoupling ramps. Uncoupling/uncoupling was all done within a short arm’s length using little sticks. So, absence of pins and uncoupling ramps was not missed.

Mark

15

Rich,I found it was easier to manually uncouple the X2F with the pins snipped off…I can uncouple KD and MT car manually but,don’t like to…

16

Given my level of eye-hand coordination, I’d be afraid to uncouple N-scale rolling stock by hand from fear of derailing cars and inability to rerail the cars.

Mark

17

Mark,When it comes to switching make room for me…

I have been a guest operator on several ISLs over the last 10 years where it wasn’t to easy to manually uncouple cars because of the scenery including a 24-28" reach which was hard to do cause of the buildings…On my ISLs try to keep things simple.

So these questions comes to mind for those they may be new to this concept…

How do you uncouple cars that is sitting between buildings? Do you uncouple then push it by hand to its spot?

How do you uncouple a car that is 20-24" from the edge? Reach over the buildings and scenery?

Now then…With my past railroad experience I don’t consider either way being prototypical.I suppose that’s the price one pays for that railroad experience…I know it changed my outlook on switching operation.