Of Horn Hooks, Kadees & McHenry COUPLERS

If you have been in the hobby for a few decades, you have seen the desireable transition in coupler preference, shift from Horn Hooks to realistic looking Knuckle Couplers.

Many of us have changed couplers on "The Fleet", some collections are too large to deal with to complete for various reasons. Often, coupler changes are impossible due to sealed coupler boxes, rivited coupler boxes, or non adaptable coupler housings that would likely be destroyed if one attempted a coupler upgrade. Sometimes with some brands, you can even inadvertantly destroy the truck if the truck has an arm with a coupler housing attached.

For myself, I've gone with Kadee #5's almost as far as possible, however, I still have at least 25% of my freight cars, still sporting Horn Hooks for reasons due to difficulty in mounting. To get around this, I made several "Adapter Cars"; that being a freight car with a Horn Hook on one end and a Kadee on the other end.

I'm curious as to how many of us here have done the same, and it would be interesting to hear some of your accounts in difficulties encountered in coupler upgrades dealing with various brands and homegrown solutions you've come up with.

What is your experience?

D/?

I've also made about 4 or 5 adapter cars, as you have. I have a bunch of Athearn blue box kits from the 1980s, most of which I fitted with Kadees from day 1. I also have many Tyco and AHM cars from the 60s and early 70s, most of which have the original horn-hook couplers (in varying degrees of shabbiness).

In recent years, I've focused on buying Athearn ready-to-roll, and Bachmann SS, both of which come with knuckle couplers. I plan on retrofitting all my Athearn cars with knuckles, (as well as some of the Tyco and AHM cars, which will also require upgraded trucks).

Although the HO Scale here is just "the kids' layout" (mostly now worked on with my daughter), I still find the original Kadee couplers to be far superior in usability to the "generics."

The counter-punch advertisement some years ago, "How many couplers will you break before you buy Kadee?" is effective in my mind for a reason.

I'll keep the "generic" couplers on cars that come with them, but once they become unusable they are replaced with Kadees.

Most horn-hook couplered items have been passed along to other owners.

Tyco coupler boxes (HO) from the 60's were smartly all metal and connected to the truck for tighter radius curves.

Despite the practicality of the use of metal, TYCO made it extremely difficult to replace broken Horn Hooks or replacement to anything else, due to having RIVITED the coupler box lid into place.

Have either of you ever tried getting into that mess?

D?

I've run into this issue several times lately. While some of the cars mentioned with metal coupler boxes on the trucks can be a challenging project to change, it's not an impossible to do. It just takes a little thinking outside of the box and some creativeness to fix.
As to the other brands that some manufacturers use, I've found that they do not hold up like KD's. When running trains of properly weighted cars 30-40 cars long, I've found that they pull apart on grades. I've never had that problem with properly installed KD 5's

As cars age and manufacturers come and go, we've come to the point of suffering a related condition to "NRFB Syndrome". If the car is altered, it is no longer a prime example of a manufacturer or a time period in the hobby. What was turning into a piece of old junk suddenly becomes a prized antique that you won't part with. Varney used to be junk alongside Athearn Blue Box kits, now I LOVE finding an old piece from Varney.

Another issue is time; like do you really have the time to put into ONE CAR to make sure the coupler height is correct when you added a coupler box? Hence; the Adaptor Car.

D/

Dieter wrote:Tyco coupler boxes (HO) from the 60's were smartly all metal and connected to the truck for tighter radius curves.

Despite the practicality of the use of metal, TYCO made it extremely difficult to replace broken Horn Hooks or replacement to anything else, due to having RIVITED the coupler box lid into place.

Have either of you ever tried getting into that mess?

D?

You nailed it! Those are the ones (operating hoppers) that have been taking up long-term residence on a spur.

trainwayne1 wrote:...As to the other brands that some manufacturers use, I've found that they do not hold up like KD's. When running trains of properly weighted cars 30-40 cars long, I've found that they pull apart on grades. I've never had that problem with properly installed KD 5's

Good to know. I've only had those for about a year, and haven't exceeded 25 cars at a time yet.