Kadee’s have to be the de facto standard.The 10 and 20 pair big packs are your best friend,that and the spring tool.[swg] I have personally used them since I started model railroading ( 20 years ago )Funny story,a few years back we had a club member that you could not convince that kadee’s were the way to go. Now the club didn’t have helix’s but there were some good grades with curves that got you on to the main to upper level.He loved using"live" loads and to the annoyance of all he never had any problems until one day he was pulling a 60 car coal train up out of the main yard.These were all Stewart 70 ton triple hoppers.Now I had warned him that the Stewart hoppers ( from the late 80’s early 60’s ) had the screw on coupler pocket covers which if you didn’t use a bit of adhesive as well they tended to rotate ( screwed cover plate )he did his typical I know best and continued,well one of the cars pallets rotated and snapped the McHenry it was holding in place and well we were vacuuming ( well he was ) loose coal load from a double crossover for several hours. Oddly enough he came to the realization that Kadee’s and following a friendly suggestion or two were the way to go.
Kadee is still proudly made in the USA? All the more reason to switch!
I have been using whatever knuckle coupler came with the locomotive or car, but I guess a switch is in order. I’m all for supporting any thing that has “Made in the USA with Pride” or any spinoff of that stamped on the package.
Mabe that’s why I don’t buy up Athern stuff as much ever since they went off to who knows where.
I tend to run the phony Kadees till they break and then replace them, if it ain’t broke why fix it! That being said I always replace broken ones with Kadees!
If it works for you then stick with it. After changing over a portion of my stock the plastic and non kadee’s stood out like a sore thumb. That alone was enough to continue replacing them. Another thing that convinced me to change everything was a couple of instance where a few cars uncoupled and I didn’t notice until the train came back around and collided with the separated section.
Quick question. For the old Athearn BB kits do you use the kadee box and tap it for a 256 screw? I’ve had problems with the Athearn snapon lid failing.
When I install Kadee #5s in kitbashes that started life as Athearn BB stock, I tack the Kadee box lid to the Athearn built-in box with a microdrop of solvent cement at each corner. I’ve yet to have one fail, and I butchered my first single-bay hopper in 1980. TTT SeKi100 has been in service ever since, and has been joined by a number of sisters and cousins.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with some rolling stock the AAR and JNR would disown on sight)
I’ve had a few cars that I’ve had to do this on, but for the most part, no. There is a trick to it though.
Quite often, the metal covers aren’t bent perfectly, so the sides spread out a bit too much. Bend them to a perfect 90 degrees, and on most cars, they’ll lock into place perfectly on the first try and stay there pretty much forever.
The first thing I do with any new car or loco is to strip out whatever coupler it came with and install a Kadee. Everything else to me is just a poor substitute,
If you look closely, you’ll find that the part of the Kadee centering spring at the very rear of the spring sticks up and interferes with the coupler cover. I used to carefully trim this down, but now with the 148 “whisker” coupler that point is moot.
Really the cheapo RTR couplers on lokies and cars today is the industry breaking away from the horn hooks. It does allow your new equipment to couple up and run and test with the kadees, but like you all know, switch to the kadees, as usual. I usually use the Athearn Snap covers, you have to make sure the spring hold is bent in to hold the cover on securely and the plastic holder isnt worn that it would allow slipping off. I have seen good success with the Athearn box, but you are still better to switch to the Kadee box, but it is serious conversion work, simply depends how much time you want to put into it. But it does help guarantee solid operationality. Oh yeh, reliable operating couplers means a happy run session. We all know about like the Sargeants, and I want to push those guys on to keep their couplers going on their designs and keep the improvements going. For me, it’s still Kadees, their “scale” knuckle really does look closer to the prototype.
Im relatively new to posting but been kind of lurking for over a year now. I have been a big Kadee fan all these years in the hobby as well. I did recently try using the Walthers Proto series couplers and so far have been satisfied with them as well. I wont waiste my time on a plastic coupler with or without the spring.
i bought a drill bit and tap from the LHS. i drill and tap every car and loco through the metal clip. i bought some 2-56 screws that are only 1/4 inch long. works great, never pulled a coupler out.
My default coupler is the Kadee #5 on freight cars and the Kadee #58 on locomotives. I am a loco detail nut so the scale size 58 just looks right. I haven’t tried the whisker coupler due to lack of availability in my area, and I have a pile of #58s already.
I only use McHenry couplers for two reasons. One is Rivarossi passenger cars, and we all know why. Secondly, if I sell a car or locomotive, I remove the Kadees and install the crap clones (and I mention in the ad that the car/loco has “knuckle couplers”, not Kadees).