I’m looking for a little advice on magnetic knuckle couplers for HO scale. I’ve purchased a job-lot og Athearn wagon kits on ebay and I’m going to need to add couplers to over a dozen wagons.
I used to always use Kadee No 5 couplers for all my wagons, the Kadee brand was the only choice for scale look couplers at the time. However, on returning to the hobby after a couple of decades it seems as if there are suddenly lots of different brands and types of knuckle couplers on the market?
I’ve been looking on ebay and Kadee brand now seem to be awfully expensive, and for the price of half a dozen pairs of Kadee I can get twice as many Bachmann 78023 E-Z Mate II couplers.
So my question is… are these E-Z mate types any good? If not, can anyone recommend a good quality, but relatively inexpensive, brand to use on 50ft wagons? Is there a particular size of E-Z mate to use? (Incidentally I am assuming that the various brands will work together correctly, otherwise I don’t see how they could have taken over from Kadee!)
I’m not fond of the bachmann couplers. They work fine and are reasonably attractive in appearance but they are plastic and not very sturdy. They will break with relatively minor mishaps.
My personal favorites are Kadee’s “scale” couplers (#58 and #158). They work beautifully, look better than #5’s, and are very durable. I prefer to buy the #158’s in the #151 bulk packs. You can get them for around $1.25 US/pair when purchased in the bulk packs and are worth every penny.
First of all, welcome back. I found that Kadee couplers are really the only way to go. I have very tight curves, and Kadee is the only brand that will couple every time. Other brands aren’t the best at coupling everytime. Kadee is worth every penny. If you buy them in bulk, they are a good deal.
I’m using Sergent couplers, which are a WHOLE different animal, (not magnetic trip pin capable, though you can couple them to a Kadee the same way you do a hornhook) but I do also have a few Kadees to use up as well until I can start really switching my fleet over.
My Kadee couplers are 5s and 148s. The 148 coupler has two brass wires sticking out the side that serve as a centering spring, so you don’t have to screw with that stupid copper plate anymore. They’re referred to as Whisker couplers. The scales are nice, but can be more prone to uncoupling on rough trackwork, I;ve seen it and had to chase down a half a train because someone put scale couplers on the club car…
As long as the car comes with a knuckle-style coupler, I’ll generally leave whatever comes with it on the car until it breaks. This gives me a mix of Bachmann EZ Mate, McHenry, Kadee, and Walthers ProtoMAX, and they all play together very nicely. I have the occasional missed coupling on curves, but the Kadee’s aren’t noticeably more reliable at this than the others.
As others have pointed out, Kadee is expensive, but not excessively so, and they really are about the best thing going. Bachmann EZ Mate and McHenry couplers are like the Kadee #5 in form and function, but they’re plastic, and don’t last as long.
I’ve had very good luck with the Walthers ProtoMAX couplers. They are also all-metal, and should be comparable in durability to the Kadees. They cost less than half as much (about $1.10 a pair, as opposed to $2.90 for the Kadees, although I’ve been fortunate to attend a couple of train shows where Walthers was handing out free samples, so I got about 50 pair for free.
The cars I bought are unbuilt old ‘blue box’ Athearn types, so they have the plastic horn-hook couplers. I’ve never been a fan of those!
Thanks for the advice everyone, I’ve managed to find a ebay seller with reasonable shipping costs to the UK so I’ve picked up a packet of 25 Kadee couplers for just £1.00 a pair. That’ll keep me going for now
Cant go wrong with the Kadee’s. I’ve tried a few different look alikes and eventually had a problem with them. Just about all of my loco’s and rolling stock are number 5’s and 148’s now.
I have never had a Kadee fail on me in any way, but I have had plenty of jammed/broken plastic knuckle-type couplers offered on RTR cars. I have Kadees on hand in case what comes with a car eventually gives up…sorry, when what comes with the car eventually gives up. [%-)]
I use plastic clones only on my switching railroad. They uncouple much easier with a bamboo skewer. I run short trains so coupler strength is not an issue. I check for vertical slop and shim if necessary
Stick with Kadee. They are by far the best common type knuckle coupler out there and they’ll work with most any other knuckle coupler without having to force them to play together like one pair of couplers (maker unknown) I have on a flatcar. They’ll work with Kadee’s but it’s a real pain in the neck sometimes to get them to couple.
welcome back into the hobby and into the forum. On my layout there is a 6 loop helix. Tried the plastic clones and a lot of issues, specially when the train is longer then 30 cars. So now all my couplers are Kadee and no more pull aparts, or cars uncoupling at the bottom of the helix. Also discovered that switching works better.
The retail price of the KDs, I believe has only gone up about 60 cents in the past 10 years. It’s just that the PLASTIC substitutes that are priced cheap, with the exception of the Walthers ProtoMax,which I haven’t tried yet, but of which have heard mixed reviews
Stick with Kadee - as a matter of course I change all mine out for Kadee even when they have some other knuckle coupler already included. I’ve found the real Kadee ones to be the most reliable for both coupling and uncoupling - and for staying together and holdign up over time. You siad AThearn cars - one of the new things that will help a LOT is the new Kadee whisker coupler. Instead of that flat bronze spring they have two metal whiskers built in to the coupler itself. For AThearn cars that fit the #5, if you plan to stick to the ‘standard’ size, that would be the #148 whisker coupler. I think the bulk pack of those, 25 pair, is the #14. The whisker makes installation much easier - you only have to hold the coupler and put on the box cover, not hold the spring in place, hold the coupler, and try to put the lid on. Otherwise a #148 is identical to a #5. They also have the whisker coupelrs in overset and underset, and different shank lengths, just like the variations of the #5, so you cna fit anything. I was a bit hesitent to try the whiskers, since #5’s always did me fine over the years, but after I tried the first one, I didn;t even wait to use up my supply of #5’s, I went right out and got the bulk pack of #148’s and haven’t looked back.
Of course KDs are not flawless even when they are correctly mounted and adjusted.
I have switch hundreds of cars at various clubs I been a member of over the years and had them fail to couple on straight track and uncouple over magnets.
Welcome back to the hobby - and to the Forum as well!
I passed by your post the first time around as (to me) the answer was obvious and surely others would reply. But then I noticed you are from the UK, and perhaps that could make a difference as “you all” might have other couplers more readily available in your country.
Anyway, I’ve been in HO since the early 60s, and have tried various couplers as they became available - mainly to see if there is anything better out there than KDs. Well, I tried several types, especially for passenger cars, and ended up getting rid of all of them. Sooner or later, they proved to be inferior or more to the point, more “finicky” than a well installed KD.
KDs have never been cheap, but if you can buy in bulk, they are fairly reasonable. Given that they will last “forever” (I have several cars - wagons - with 1970s KDs), its a good investment to make.
Yes here in the UK it is a little more difficult to get hold of US outline equipment. Having ebay certainly makes it a LOT easier to track down models than it was twenty years ago, but some of the postage prices are very steep (I was being quoted $6.00 for postage on 2 pairs of Kadee couplers!) but I finally found a seller with actual postage prices instead of ‘shipping’ prices so I’m all set with Kadees for my next 25 wagons with shipping of $4.00 instead of $18.00!
Still need to get some engines of course, so I will no doubt be looking for some pointers on that side of things soon, especially the whole DCC thing which is all new to me! (I have the latest European issue of Model Railroader which at least has a two-page introduction to the topic).
Thanks for all the input guys, I’m taking your advice and sticking with Kadee.
Nothing is perfect, but Kadee is the closest in my opinion and on my railroad. I have been using them since early 1960’s, now I automatically remove non Kadee couplers from all cars when I purchase them and run them through the “tuneup” phase.
