I make it a routine practice to trim the trip pins off of Kadees that I install on passenger cars, as I see no real need for them (don’t do much switching with passenger equipment). I got a Challenger Imports Southern Pacific boxcar yesterday, and after installing a Kadee coupler on one end, I really did not like the way the trip pin looked against the the finer details such as the brake hose.
Basically what I am getting at is does anyone trim the trip pins from the couplers they install on freight equipment, and if so have you encountered any problems by doing so. I understand that you will not be able to uncouple them using the magnetic uncouplers. Can you still use an uncoupling wand without the trip pins? For those that use skewers, how does that work out for you.
I never liked the look of the trip pins, but at the same time don’t want to trim them all off and find myself with new problems.
Edit: Another thing that had me thinking about this was when I was browsing around looking at some club web sites a few months ago, one of them had a stipulation that all cars will have Kadees with trip pins on them (or at least some knuckle coupler), along with several other rules that had to be abided by, or you couldn’t operate your equipment on the club layout.
I clip them off on passenger cars and off the front of most of my locomotives. If I run at a club that has the rules that you must have them, I run equipment that is legal under their rules to satisfy the rules they have adopted.
Most of the brass steam models have scale couplers on the front which I always refuse to replace and these cannot be run on some clubs layouts. Some models are just not used on club layouts that require couplers on the front.
hi smitty.the pin’s have never bothered me(look’s of them)as i alway’s adjust the pin’s using the kd coupler height gauge.i know some people who cut them off and some who bend them up drastically which i think look’s bad,however; to each his or her own.i use a skrewer and magnet’s(between the rail’s delayed and non delayed) to uncouple my freight car’s and seldon have problem’s.i especially like the newer whisker coupler’s which i’m converting over to.they seem to work better for me(uncoupling) than the 5’s that used the centering spring.terry…
My problem is the opposite. No front couplers on steam engines in plastic. I would like to operate and am ordering specific Steam engines that DO have front working kaydee or similar while excluding all others. For now, Broadway is pretty much the sole provider because some of their engines have working front couplers. (They all should)
I learned not to clip the trip pins. If they are too low they get bent. If the coupler is too sloppy despite adjustments or other repair, the car is retired pernamently from the railroad and used as project “Make-learns” like weathering.
I like to get at the sides of the trip pins on the passenger stuff to uncouple.
I used to clip them, and I am embarassed to admit it was not for looks but operability. I simply hadn’t got myself an adjuster and broke too many trying to use a needlenose, so if they caught on turnouts or similar, I clipped 'em.
Subsequently I saw the light, bought a proper adjuster and now leave 'em be. The aesthetics/prototypical accuracy/looks part of it doesn’t bother me.
So it sounds as if there are more than a couple of clubs that require the trip pins to remain. I am more of a lone wolf type, but do find myself having an intrest in joining a club lately. I am thinking that removing the trip pins may possibly create hastles in the future.
I’m not in a club myself, so I’m kind of surprised by that rule. Most club layouts I see, admittedly mostly modular layouts at shows, seem to use skewers for uncoupling, not magnets. Do clubs require the pins so that they can uncouple magnetically, or is it just easier to uncouple them with skewers that way? (I’ve never been good with a skewer, and I personally prefer magnets to the Hand of God, particularly in the middle of my layout when the Stomach of God starts knocking down the scenery.)
When Kadee first came out with the Magna-Matics, I clipped off those trip pins, as they were way more noticeable than the knuckle-mounted straight pins that were used with Kadee’s mechanical uncoupling system. Eventually, the older style couplers were discontinued, and I had to switch all of my rolling stock over to the newer style. If you remove the “glad hand”, the magnetic uncoupling wand will not work, as it also requires the steel trip pins. As I upgraded my rolling stock, the old style, minus the straight trip pin, and the couplers from which I’d removed the curved trip pin were downgraded to service on MoW equipment only.
Mister Beasley said,
“I’ve never been good with a skewer, and I personally prefer magnets to the Hand of God, particularly in the middle of my layout when the Stomach of God starts knocking down the scenery.”
You just need to “create” a longer arm for yourself![swg]
I do not use magnetic uncouplers and I always remove the trip pins. I have not had the chance yet to look into rejoining a local club but I would find such a requirement disturbing. If I were to join a club, my preferene would be to provide unit coal or grain trains instead of individual freight cars. To improve operation and keep down coupler issues, several of my unit coal trains use dummy couplers that came with the Accurail covered hoppers. These couplers one clearned up and repainted have proven to be quite reliable. I would not be willing to replace all of the couplers of several 48-car coal trains to meet a rule that seems pointless.
For the cars that I switch, I use the uncoupling bar from Accurail.
I have seen where some clubs have rules stating that your cars must meed NMRA RPs if you want to operate on their layouts. I also have seen where your cars must be able to roll freely on a particular % grade. Other things such as correct coupler height and so on are a must. It would seem this would either discourage new members, or actually encourage folks to strive for excellence. In my opinion if you had either a younger member, or someone new to the hobby, that you should try to cater to their inexperience. We all started somewhere, but this is a whole other subject.
If I have one that snags on the track, even with the coupler height set properly, I cut it off. I also remove the from the front of some of my carbody locomotives, such as the PA’s.
I did not mean to infer that the NMRA does have a RP for trip pins (I don’t know if they do or, but I am pretty sure the answer is no). I should have clarified a little better. Sorry about that.
I, personally, DO switch passenger rolling stock, and some of that switching (picking up or dropping a diner) is done in inaccessible staging. Removing the uncoupling arms from MKD couplers on the affected cars is not an acceptable option. Likewise, all of my locos must be able to couple at the front - more than a few of them are double-ended, and the others may be double-headed at any time.
OTOH, there are a few cases where I am certain that coupled cars will never be uncoupled in ordinary operation. Those cars are fitted with couplers that are MKD-compatible and will couple (with MKD’s or each other) if pushed together. What are they? Kadee K’s (the old mechanical type) and non-Kadee magnetics (with clipped pins.) They get used on unit coal train cars, between MU cars that run as sets and between the cars that run in fixed blocks from staging to staging because they cannot be terminated on the modeled part of the railroad.
I trim mine off with rail cutters - over a waste basket or they go flying. The ONLY thing they do is uncouple - when over a permently placed magnet. I only separate engines from head end cars, and maybe RPO’s now that I have a Post Office. Those, I leave the trip pins on.
Any thru freight - such as Container freight - is draw-bar’d anyhow, uncoupling is not needed. I tend to run cars in groups for common destiations anyhow. Uncoupling by hand is my practice. Cars automatically couple when shoved together - without the pins.
Only consists of ‘mixed freight’ really do I use the trip pins.
Add me to the ranks of those who trim off all my trip pins on Kadees, except on passenger cars. Especially on steam engine pilots, they look horrible. I’m VERY slowly upgrading my freight cars to include Kadee plastic air hoses, to fill in the blanks.
Oh, I use Rix hand uncouplers rather than skewers. I got a huge stash of them a while ago for free, and they work MUCH better than skewers. I bring one along when I operate on other people’s layouts (I don’t know a single modeler who DOES use magnetic uncoupling!)
This discussion comes up all the time. If you have all of your cars equiped with Kadee couplers and they are adjusted correctly - They do work very good. That said - The centering spring(older one on the #5’s) does fail after some time and the coupler loses it’s centering action. Also the uncoupling magnets never seem to be where you really need them. Another problem is that the ‘glad hands’ seem to catch on things like snowplow pilots…
I started cutting off the trip pins/glad hands when my club started doing it(1969). They ‘operated’, and with a new ‘walk-around’ layout, we also did a lot of switching, and found the small screwdriver/skewer method of uncoupling just worked better. At first I wanted to keep the ‘0-5-0’ hand out of the picture, but the magnets looked just as bad as the ‘0-5-0’ and practacality won out. I am quite surprised that a club would require the trip pins. Most of the time, offending cars owners are told to cut them off or adjust them too high so they cannot snag…
BTW - There is no NMRA standard or RP for a working coupler - The NMRA has never approved a ‘standard coupler’ - even the X2F ‘horn hook’ design(never approved by membership vote).
On engines I usually whack off the trip pins. Many engines have plows, and the trip pins interfere. I don’t use long shank couplers, due to deflection issues. On some cars, i’ve shortened the pins, so they clear the plows. I have more cars to do. In real life, the plows to take up some room that you would use to get in there and make up the air hoses, especially between 2 engines with plows. I use the 5-DCC uncoupler.[:D]
I cut 'em off everything - locos, cars, MU stock, the lot. If I want to uncouple I use a homemade gadget similar to the Rix tool. I never missed the horrid looking things, once they were gone, and never missed the unrealistic moves required to use a magnetic ramp. Mark.