Keepin'
ON TRACK
COUPLERS - KEEP YOUR TRAIN RUNNING SMOOTHLY
Several manufacturers produce couplers. Cal Scale makes dummy couplers which work well for a unit train designed to never be seperated.
End cars can be transitional with a dummy coupler on one end and a regular coupler on the other.
E-Z Mate, Magic Mate, Accumate, McHenry, Rapido, Rail Line and Kadee are the names of some of couplers on the market.
Kits and some train sets come with horn-hook couplers which are not realistic.
Our club members prefer Kadee Magne-Matic couplers because they are realistic looking and more reliable, they use metal springs, rather than plastic which tend to break easily.
The couplers come in 2 pair packages that include the coupler, the box and the centering spring, and a couple of extra knuckle springs.
There are also bulk packages contaning 10, 20, or 25 pairs without the boxes.
Most of the time you will find #5's, #58's, or #148's on rolling stock. These are Medium Centerset Shank couplers.
The #58 couplers are scale (smaller than the #5) and
both the #5 and #58 require a bronze centering spring inside the box.
The #148 coupler comes with whisker type springs already attached to the coupler. There are also scale couplers with whiskers;
#153 (Short Centerset Shank), #158 (Medium Centerset Shank), and #156 (Long Centerset Shank).
In addition to the regular Centerset couplers, there are Underset and Overset couplers. These are also in short, medium and long shank. If a coupler doesn't line up with
other couplers because it rides either higher or lower against the opposing coupler, use a Underset Coupler such as #47, #44, or #41 to raise the knuckle or use #45, #42, or #49 to lower the
knuckle. Click on Kadee Magne-Matic to see the various couplers, metal, plastic, bulk packages, etc.
The Walthers Catalog goes into great detail about which couplers to use for specific manufacturers. Ex: Kato Alco RS-2 #33; Rivarossi 4-8-8-2 Cab Forward #33 for Pilot #27 for Tender.
There is too much information to list here, it's better to add the Walthers catalog to your library reference books and/or use their web site.
The Walthers web site
will show by part number and description if an item is available or back-ordered.