I am not intending to trash any product or start a rant, but I seem to have a problem with “scale size” couplers. For decades I have used the old dependable Kadee #5’s. Now I see many of the newer HO scale cars come equipped with the smaller couplers. I must admit they do look nice. However, on my layout they don’t seem to play well with the older oversized number 5’s I have on most of my equipment.
They are less likely to uncouple dependably over magnets and I get a lot more false uncouplings than I ever did in the past. That almost always occurs with slack run in and when the smaller coupler is coupled to a larger, old style.
Perhaps the people who assemble these things are not as particular as I am and I doubt if they get tested before the cars are packaged. Has anyone out there noticed this problem besides me? If so, what if anything did you do to help cure it?
I also am not 100% satisfied with the Kadee “scale size” couplers.
I am more than willing to sacrifice appearance on three things for better operations: Wheels, Couplers, and Trackage. I insist on 100% performance from these, and the Kadee “scale Size” coupler is not an improvement over 5, 20 series, or 30 series couplers.
Well guys I’m super happy with my Kadee Scale Couplers. I love them!! I haven’t had any problem coupling or uncoupling with either the scale couplers or the non scale couplers. I’ve completed two complete passenger trains and working on my third.
I had problem with the #5s on my passenger cars occasionally uncoupling on my helix and went to regular scale shelf couplers then accidently ordered a 25 pr package of scale shelf coupler and they work great.
I use the regular scale couplers on my freight cars and all of my regular run locomotive now have scale couplers.
I use the scale #58 couplers when I replace any plastic couplers or when I am building a kit. Over a few years, I have a pretty good mixture of #5s and #58s. I am very fussy about getting the height set correctly and having the trip pins just right, and I’m almost fanatic about having my trackwork as perfect as possible. Basically, I don’t have derailments and I don’t have uncoupling problems, either.
I generally use the old style springs, not the slightly newer whisker couplers. Does anyone notice a performance difference between those? To me, it feels like the whiskers are looser in the coupler box, and exhibit easier lateral motion, besides not centering as well.
I had the same problem on my layout, that the scale sized couplers did not work well with the number 5s. Took me a while but I got rid of the scale heads. I like the #148 couplers thee built in springs. None of the kadee clones worked for me well enough to keep them around either.
I’ve never, ever had a problem with a Kadee semi-scale coupler that wasn’t caused by improper installation. If you have them at the right height (both the coupler and the hose), then they work great.
My experience is at a large model railroad club where we have over 2000 cars on the roster and over 500 of which are currently on the layout. Each car is inspected during registration, and they all have to fit in a “Go-No Go” gauge (which is two metal bars set up over the track). If it fits through the gauge, it’s the right height.
Whisker couplers have also proved to be extremely reliable, certainly more so than the old #5 box spring. In my 30 years at my club, the number of times I’ve had to replace a box spring is simply countless. Hundreds of times, easily. The only issue with a whisker is making sure the whisker wire isn’t trapped in the box lid or hung up on a burr on the lip of a coupler box. Once installed and working, I’ve never had to replace a whisker. It just doesn’t happen.
I have not noticed that semi-scale Kadees take more force to couple but then the cars on our club layout are not all the best rolling cars. Metal wheels are required, but the trucks and their friction are all over the map. The rule in our club is that freight cars must roll down a 4% grade unassisted, and yes, some cars fail that. So when stiff rolling cars are somewhat common, the extra force to me is unnoticable.
Great point. I did not get into detail with my response about what I did not like about Kadee semi-scale couplers.
With a big-head coupler, it takes almost no force to couple two cars together. A switcher can creep up on a single freight car and gently couple to it.
Also, the big-head couplers seem to have more flexibility knuckle-to-knuckle than the semi scale couplers do.
I do run shorter trains on smaller radius curves than most.
And there you have the answer. With my very free rolling but NMRA weighted cars you can tell the difference, just like Kevin describes above.
In my testing of the scale couplers I had no issues with unwanted uncoupling.
I did conclude they seem to have more slack than the regular head coupler, a concession to being designed to couple with the regular head coupler. A condition obvious with long trains.
I too like the whisker couplers and have had no issues with them.
Most of my freight equipment has Kadee sprung metal trucks refitted with Intermountain wheelsets. Very solid, yet very free rolling, very good tracking.
I have about a 50/50 mix of the “bent box” coupler springs and the whisker couplers. I have a lot of 20 series couplers, and these all use the bent box spring.
As far as operation goes, I do not notice any difference from one to another. The bent box springs are definitely stronger. If you lay a car on its side with whisker couplers, the coupler will drift to the side, a bent box coupler spring will not. When the car is on its wheels, both styles center just fine for me.
NOTE: At least 95% of my Kadee couplers are installed in genuine Kadee coupler boxes. I do this if at all possible. I can assure you that Kadee couplers perform best in Kadee coupler boxes. This might be why my bent box coupler springs perform better for me than they do for others.
The more scale sized couplers on Athearn equipment are definitely inferior to other brands.
The whisker style Kadees are definitely a better design than earlier Kadee springs.
If the whisker coupler isn’t working properly chances are either you trapped a whisker in the side of a coupler box or you fit the coupler into the wrong box.
No kidding, ALL the generic knockoffs are inferior to real Kadee couplers.
I change every coupler on every piece of equipment to genuine Kadee.
By virture of the compromises necessary to make it smaller but still compatible with the orignal regular head Kadee coupler, the semi scale Kadee coupler:
Requires more coupling force, especially coupling to the regular head coupler.
Whiler smaller overall, it has ugly, incorrect overall proportions.
It has more slack by a very small measure, which adds up in the 50 car trains I pull.
And, by virtue of being smaller, it has a smaller gathering range which can also be a problem at times.
No generic couplers of any brand here on the ATLANTIC CENTRAL, and no semi scale couplers.
The Kadee factory assembled undecorated hopper cars and covered hopper cars are only available with semi scale couplers. These are in a unique coupler box, and there is not a practical way to change them to a different Kadee coupler box. The shanks on these couplers are different that any coupler sold over the counter.
I wrote to Kadee and explained to them I wanted Big-Head couplers on these cars.
Sam replied to me and said they could supply the preferred couplers to me directly.
They satisfied their customer’s needs without trying to steer me to something I did not want or try to change my mind.
That is how to win a customer for life.
A+ to Kadee and Sam! [Y]
I have tried to point this out in the past.
It is interesting… following an artist’s concept for perceived size works when viewing to overall layout. However, in detailed photography, which I also enjoy, anything out of scale looks wrong.
We could go on and on about how the eye perceives things, but the camera is an unforgiving devil.
I really like the semi-scale couplers. I have installed Kadee #58s/#158s on nearly all (95% and >) of my locomotives and rolling stock and I have not experienced coupling or uncoupling issues with any of them. And the few stragglers (e.g. #5s, NEM-shank) work just fine with them.
The only time I have ever had a coupling issue was due to a missing coupler spring, which happens from time-to-time.
