hi guys ,was useing a farly new set(8) of G.N. walther streamliners for testing construction of my 3 turn helex and the drag ect. but I couldnt keepem coupled ,its like the gapping jaw of the stock kaydee lookalike was very weak and just pull apart with a small amount of x-stra load…(plus they never were very easy to couple anyway) SO I remembered I had some long shank wisker type (#146 ) for thease cars that some one had recomended in a thread about car to car clearance and smaller ,under 30" rad curves ect. Any how I put a wisker on 1 end ( an easy change out) of each car and WHA-LA problem solved, a night an day differance …and never useing these wisker type before ,I fell in love with them instantly .no little copper plate to fumble with an easy change out and a solid coupler . Oh and thats just changing out 1 end of each car, imagine what it well be when I change out the other end …Im sold ,worth the extra money Jerry
I’m glad you like those whisker couplers. I am a fan of them too, but I have only used them on my tank cars. I model the modern era and the tank car couplers require those shelf couplers in order to look prototypical.
My holiday project will be to up grade all my rolling stock with Kadee’s. I have them on my locos since I like running long trains and the extra strenght is needed. What I dont understand is why dont locos and rolling stock come with them standard. Nothing bugs more than see half my train go rolling down hill while the loco and half the cars are going up hill because the stock coupler was not up to snuff.
I changed all of my older Walther’s passenger cars to Kadees, and the improvement was something this short of miraculous. And the switch-over is very simple. I have fairly large radius curves (34"-36"), so thestandard Kadee #5’s are a very successful drop-in replacement.
However, I will say that the new UP “City” streamline cars from Walthers come with very good metal couplers (I don’t know if they’re Kadees or not, but they work very well), and so far my “City Of San Francisco” stays coupled very well around my curves and up and down my grades. So hopefully, Walthers got the message about their crappy plastic couplers and will be using metal couplers from here on ou with their passenger equipmentt. The difference is amazing.
Tom
I think whisker couplers really make sense and seem to work well. I use #146, 148 and 156 and have done so for about a year.
I never had any problem with either Kaydee type but the whiskers are easier to install
I think the MR industry slowly moved away from the NMRA horn hook, perhaps they contracted to the McHenry or whomever or made their own knuckle but a cheapie. We were changing to kadees anyways, putting a knuckle on just made the equipment immediatly compatible with kadees and couple to without changing over. They’re good to me for test running, for serious pulling, get your kadees out. I think some of my models like the Atlas caboose came with knuckles, but look in the corner in a hole of the packaging, a pair of horn hooks!