[HO] coupler poll

"Mark Mathu" wrote in news:4822a3fa$0$20183$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:

Kadees are my favorite. The all metal construction and replaceable coupler spring make for a very durable coupler. They'll take quite a bit of abuse, such as being banged together in a box as the trains go from the house to the club. (I'm working on a transport container, but until then it's the cardboard box.)

The all plastic knuckles tend to develop problems from either fatigue or deformation (especially if you hold the knuckle open too long), or the shafts bend and cause the head to sag.

X2F couplers should be banned. They hold together too well, making uncoupling extremely difficult. Plus, if you have a car that derails and falls over it'll take the entire train with it. I enjoy model railroading much more when I'm not rerailing a 25 car train.

Puckdropper

Mark Mathu skriver:

Fleischmann profi.

Klaus

> render

>

fatigue or

derails and

Put those stupid hook & loop couplers Botch-man uses on their HO/OO Thomas stuff on the ban list while your at it.

Len

"Len" wrote in news:KsJUj.941$Xv3.230 @bignews4.bellsouth.net:

The reason they use those things is because the prototypical Thomas the Tank Engine models used a different system. It's their cheap way to give kids something different and maintain the corporate* policy of "kids won't notice" (when in fact they're the ones who notice most!) I don't think they need to be banned, yet.

*This isn't Bachmann policy AFAIK, it's just most toy manufacturers get several details wrong because they don't believe kids would notice.

Puckdropper

Those hook and loop couplers are pretty well standard for UK model trains. Some of the more serious modellers use a variety of other couplers, even three-link couplers that mimic the prototype, some evn Kadees! None of the alternatives has become a de facto standard as the knuckle couplers has for N. American models.

I use knuckle couplers from all mfrs, as long as they knuckle springs.

HTH

Oh dear, you can't mark more than one button! Too bad! Why oh why doe pollsters limit choices like this?????

I don't have a _single_ favourite coupler, I use any knuckle coupler with a knuckle spring.

You asked here. I tell you here. X2F! (horn hooks.)

"Wolf Kirchmeir" wrote

Presumably you mean a *coil* spring.

In my experience, the other sorts last maybe two weeks if you're lucky.

-Pete

Kadee #4 and #5.

Only one choice.

Kadee.

Nothing more needs to be said.

-- Cheers

Roger T. Home of the Great Eastern Railway at:-

48° 25' North Longitude: 123° 21' West

They're worse than useless for European modelling.

Greg.P.

"Kadees"

It's the European lack of coupler pocket standards that's useless, not the Kadees. I have several friends who model the UK and use Kadees exclusively but the UK coupler pockets, if the exist, need major work. Besides, most UK modellers still use truck mounted couplers on rolling stock with trucks. DOH!

-- Cheers

Roger T. Home of the Great Eastern Railway at:-

48° 25' North Longitude: 123° 21' West

There's been an NEM coupler pocket standard for the last 20 odd years. They are almost totally consistant across all ranges other than UK ranges.

Of course, they use a different scale (1:76.2) in the UK so there's confusion as to what height to make them.

Well Doh yourself! When one mixes bogie stock with four wheel stock (normal operation) it is not practical to have body mounted couplings on the bogie on layouts with curves. Even a little thought will enable you to work that one out. However, the basic problem is something quite different:

- European rolling stock has buffers mounted towards the outer edges of the buffer-beams. (that's headstocks or endbeams in the US) To get rolling stock with rigid center couplers around curves, they would have to be spaced well apart so that the buffers don't make contact with adjacent vehicles. It looks quite unrealistic.

- Almost all European rolling stock has an extending coupling kinematic to solve the above problem. The kinematic relies on a rigid bar being formed by the couplers and their mounts to extend the spacing between vehicles. Using the Kadee couplers designed to fit the standard NEM coupler one ends up with 5(!!!) pivot points between coupled vehicles which allows the kinematic to extend under traction and shorten under compression, guarenteeing derailment of any scale length trains. I'll accept that Kadees are excellent in operation for something like a "Timesaver" where train lengths are limited to 3 wagons and there are no curves other than turnouts.

Regards, Greg.P.

Those other things aren't springs... ;-)

"Wolf Kirchmeir" wrote

You know it, and *I* know it, but a lot of folks -manufacturers included- have yet to get the word.

A few weeks ago I actually had a Kaydee coupler fail: it snapped right off at the joint between the head and the drawbar. But it was near the front of a long heavy train going up a steep winding grade, and that's the *first* outright Kaydee failure I can recall having in something like 50 years of model railroading.

I don't mind paying for reliability.

-Pete

Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee; Kadee.

There's no excuse.

-- Cheers

Roger T. Home of the Great Eastern Railway at:-

48° 25' North Longitude: 123° 21' West

Greg Procter wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@ihug.co.nz:

*snip*

The Wikipedia article on couplers has some nice pictures of the various couplers used in other countries. The US has standardized on the type E and type F knuckle couplers, but other countries (with much shorter trains) use their own systems:

Puckdropper

B'ichela wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@pinkrose.net.dhis.org:

*trim*

Are X2F's your favorite because you actually like them, or are they the only things you have? At one time, they were good enough for me...

Puckdropper

That's a very odd way to state the situation - are you trying to say that the US _doesn't_ use it's own coupler system??? Some countries run longer trains than those in the US.

Regards, Greg.P.