what happened to the kadee #1, #2, #3 and #4 couplers?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
21

What about 7-UP ?

What happened to 1 - thru- 6 up ?

22

Can anybody here tell me what brand of coupler this is? HO scale and it is on a Ulrich metal 2 bay open hopper with really cool discharge hatches. Push up on the ''trip pin" and the knuckle opens, close the knuckle and the pin drops and the knuckle is locked closed. I can not remember to save my life.Thanks.

23

Devore

24

Thanks.

25

I modify the MKD #4’s and their boxes to allow scale coupling distance between F units.

Mark

26

Yes Devore developed that coupler in the late 40’s or early 50’s and sold it for a number of years. Eventually they sold the design and tooling to Model Die Casting/Roundhouse who continued its production into the 60’s if not longer.

Note the package of couplers included in this Roundhouse metal freight car kit.

Sheldon

27

Did not relise MDC took them over. Once had the thought that this coupler could be modified for a real uncoupling lever as it had that conected protiusion on top for uncoupling that was proubly thought of but never done.

28

The Kadee K-5 (no M, D, or &10) was a non-magnetic straight-pin coupler that had no lip on the inside of the knuckle. Just overlapping angles.

NOTE: The angle on the inside of the K-5 knuckle was steeper than on the later couplers that had the internal lip. That’s why filing off the internal lip doesn’t allow reliable coupling.

Here’s a picture of the K-5 packaging: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74312783@N00/25337778517/in/album-72157623115283234/

It was a breeze to uncouple from the side with a skewer and worked with a permanent wire ramp installed between the rails. We operated with them on a friend’s layout for years and the couplers and the friend are very much missed.

Ideal if there was a lot of switching and I don’t recall any accidental uncouplings.

29

I tried eliminating the lip from #5 couplers to make manual uncoupling easier but got too many unwanted uncouplings. Maybe something else in the design was changed.

Mark

30

The kuckle is the difference.

The first picture is a K coupler with the straight uncoupling pin.

Second picture is a MKD coupler with the curved uncoupling pin (removed).

31

The spring centering system shown is the one still used for S and O couplers.

While it works, it causes some yoyo-ing of cars. Since HO couplers work just fine in S, I now buy the whisker versions for my S cars. They also mate just fine with S couplers. Since I don’t use magnetic uncoupling the shorter “air hose” is not a problem.

Paul