I know it is a stupid newbie question but, hey, I’m a newbie to the kadee line. The reason I ask is because I am considering the purchase of some Tangent scale models tankers and they come with the 158’s. I am a newer modeler and I typically purchace new cars and slap some 148’s one em and run them. So I just want to know if the extra price for the Tangent cars is really worth it, or am I going to have to swap out the couplers? Thanks for your help!
Generally, any Kadee coupler offered in the same scale will couple with another. You’ll find that the scale versions need to be set closer to spec and may not have the gathering range on sharper curves to allow easy coupling, so that you may need the end of a pick to push it sideways for it to couple.
The extra price of the Tangent cars are worth it for the model alone, the 158 scale head couplers are a bonus. Kadee #148 will mate with #158. Many of us have a mix of both for similar reasons. In recent years, I find I like the looks of the 158 more than the 148, so am slowly standardizing to scale head Kadees.
Yes, #5/148 couplers will couple OK with #58/158 couplers. We have a mix of both running on a large club layout pulling 40 car trains up 2% helix grades.
Absolutely they will mate with one another.
I do not use the Scale Head Kadee couplers, and swap them to the Big Heads on all my freight cars.
Sam at Kadee has been very helpful with this. He was able to get me parts that are not in the normal catalogue.
-Kevin
Thank you all so much! I really appreciate the help.