A while back, both on the Gauge and other forums, a question about which brand couplers people prefered came up, and was answered, as usual, by about 90% of people prefering Kadee. At the time, I stated that the others (take your pick) which come with LL2000 locos and assembled cars, etc. were ok but I would replace them as they gave problems. I had had occasional problems with the knuckles staying open. Well, last night, for the first time in about 6 weeks, I decided to clean up the layout and get some trains running. I have a long double track main with staging loops at each end. I ran my track cleaning train around using an open track at each end, then started moving the trains in the occupied tracks so the track cleaning train could run thru them. One of the sets of staging tracks is on a 2% downgrade. When I pulled this train out, it uncoupled into several sections. Here's what I found shortly thereafter: There were 18 cars in the train. 9 had Kadee's, 6 were assembled LifeLike tank cars with whatever brand coupler they use, and 3 were Ertl boxcars with whatever coupler they come with. Due I suppose to sitting for close to 2 months on the downgrade, their "springs" (for lack of a better word, can you call a small strip of plastic a spring?) had developed "memory" and would not keep the knuckle closed. It was almost comical to watch as I would push the string of 9 cars by hand, stop, then watch as most would uncouple. Having this happen once is all it is going to take for me to decide all other couplers will be changed to Kadee before being placed in service.
Gary
Gary