Couplers

davidstrains

Active Member
I would caveat that with a "most of the time". I have an atals flat car the seems to randomly uncouple around the layout. on grades, flat. straight track curves, turnouts. It has hit them all. The coupler does not appear to be defective, and it is the only Atlas car that I have with that coupler. All others have the M-t's and are ok.
 

RailRon

Active Member
I only began construction of my new layout after a 25 year hiatus, so I am a little off...
Are Micro-Trains couplers the same as the former Kadees? Or is it yet another brand of coupler?
 

BDC

Member
Ron - MicroTrains split off from Kadee in the 1970's to focus on Nscale while Kadee went towards HO. The old Kadee Nscale and new MT (microtrains) are the same thing.

I run mixed trains (Atlas and MT) and have yet to have a serious problem with the Atlas coupler. The early Atlas couplers had problems with the pins falling out, but this seems to be fixed. Each coupler type prefers to match up with it's own (MT, Atlas, Kato) and sometimes need a little assistance to join together, although only MT's have given me problems when it comes to uncoupling.

Atlas has recently begun offering truck replacements that are less $$ than the MT sets, but Atlas doesn't have nearly the selection that MT offers. Kato has a new magnetic coupler, but has yet to offer it seperate from their engines.
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
I know you guys are talking N scale. But I've found out that using Bachman E-Z Mates in a long heavy HO scale consist, they tend to seperate from each other. Solution: Convert to Kadees. No problems from seperation.
 

mykroft

New Member
The plastic knuckle HO couplers tend to fail quickly, although the Accumates are much better than the EZ-Mates.

Converting to Kadees improves coupling performance anyways (Only Kadees will reliably couple on curves.)
 
CHANGEING COUPLERS

After just starting back into the hobby (ho), with a more serious attitude, I have purchased a variety of inexpensive ($6-$10) cars to populate my layout to have something to pull and shuffle about. They all come with the "horn hook" coupler. I would like to change them out to one that looks realistic and connects the cars closer together. Some of the Athearn locomotives that I have purchased came with couplers that looked better than the "horn hook" type but they do not work very well and realy are long. I also purchased some IHC heavyweight passagner cars and would like to change those couplers as well. Any suggestions on how to determine what make and model I should purchase to replace these would be appreciated.

Nick
Bywater Railroad
New Orleans
 

Lackawanna Jim

New Member
Hey folks;

Also bear in mind that the "new" breed of knuckle couplers, the ones with the little plastic "tab-type-knuckle-spring" instead of the Kadee phosphor-bronze coil knuckle spring, when parked on a grade (with the locos on the downhill end) or even level with the slack run in, the plastic knuckle spring will 'remember' it's position and not close the knuckle. If left alone for a day they will eventually return to their 'sprung' position and work properly, but I've had one runaway too many and always change to true Kadees. They can't be beat...

Jim
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
A few months ago I coverted a hole bunch of IHC Heavyweights to Kadee coupler. Its their #505. Comes with everything you need. Once I finished the first one, the rest were easy, and actually quite fun.
 
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