Am I the only one frustrated by the status of knuckle couplers in the hobby today?  In HO scale, there has been a defacto standard coupler for half a century.  Same goes for N and even Z, though they haven't been around quite as long.

 

In G, though, there are two different (but thankfully compatible) Kadees, Aristocraft, USA Trains, Bachmann, Accucraft, and I'm sure there are others that I am not aware of.  As far as I can tell, they're not compatible with each other.  I don't even know for sure if there's a standard height for the various couplers.

 

Now, I don't intend to worry too much about the situation, because I plan on using link and pin couplers, standardized at 26" (32.5mm) above the rail head.  However, I would like to make some adapters which would allow my locomotives to pull other folks' cars and vice-versa.  The concept is simple enough - make a knuckle couple which has a shank that fits the coupler pockets on my rolling stock and holds the coupler at the correct height.  The devil is in the details, as usual.  Which coupler should I use?  What should the height be?  Am I going to need an entire set of adapters?  I'd thought it would be nice if I could have a single adapter, which I would keep in the toolbox on the tender.

Kevin has hit the nail on the head.  Various couplers can be made to stay together but they are not compatible for operations.

 

The OVGRS solved that problem for all its members.  To operate during our saturday operations, a model must have Kadees mounted to the height of the Kadee gauge.  While most of the 200 narrow gauge cars are owned by Fred Mills and he converted them years ago, the vast majority of a similar number of sg cars are owned by members.  All have been converted ... it is taken as a gven by all members that installing Kadees is the first step when any new model is acquired.

 

Personally, on the Northland, I use mostly Accucraft but I also use some of the G scale Kadees which mate with them.  The G scale Kadees are necessary so that I can use locos during OVGRS ops sessions as well as on the Northland.  I have not found the slight incompatibility to be problematic even doing switching.  The #1 Kadees are however incompatible with Accucraft couplers.

 

Regards ... Doug 

Ken,

 

You probably missed the details on my Porter conversion while you were here, but an answer to your question was right in front of your eyes.

 

Here is a closeup of the rear coupler mods to my Porter.

 

 

The parts consist of an Ozark Miniatures 2 slot link & pin coupler pocket and the knuckle from either a Kadee 835 or 789 set.  You have to do a little work, which includes cutting off the spring tabs and, I think, thinning down the piece that goes into the pocket to get the knuckle to fit into the pocket.  I also inserted an appropriately sized piece of styrene tubing into the knuckle hole to get the diameter small enough to get a snug fit to the Ozark pin.

 

There's no room for springs to center the coupler but I haven't found any problem running it.  You only have to be very careful when hook up to a car.  A little manual allignment is required.

 

Here's a photo of the completed mod.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

BTW, I convert everything to Kadee couplers and set them at the standard Kadee height using their gyage.

 

Doc

When couplers are spoken of, each of us applies a set of criteria to them and then assumes everyone else has the same criteria in mind.  Let me be very clear on what (I think) a coupler should do (and by implication, different brands should do together to be compatible)

 

1.  couple automatically by pushing the cars gently together

2.  stay coupled no matter the loading applied to them (the coupler should break or pull out before uncoupling under load) from a normal locomotive pull

3.  uncouple readily in the event of a derailment to prevent the catastrophe of an entire train being dumped because a single car was problematic

4.  uncouple reliably in a manual mode (screwdriver inserted, lift bar etc)

5.  be easily installed in a wide range of equipment plus be readily available

 

 

I believe track should be laid smoothly so staying coupled over excessively rough trackage is not a concern.  In fact, being able to do this will probably violate my 3rd requirement. 

 

While several brands of large scale couplers will couple and stay coupled, the generality of the situation is that different brands do not perform well in switching operations.  They violate one or more of the above set of criteria.

 

The OVGRS meets every saturday to operate and we do extensive switching.  In almost 20 years of operating, the group has found that Kadees meet the criteria above (and nothing else does).  Accordingly, members are welcome to add their equipment to the operating roster but only if they are Kadee equipped.

 

While I can accept that Fn3 models may have a different coupler height than their 1:29 or 1:32 or 1:13.7 etc counterparts, I find the manufacturers' insistence on proprietary solutions unfathomable.  It took time to beat sense into the HO manufacturers 50 years ago when Kadees replaced the so called NMRA X2F couplers and other proprietary makes ... large scalers like to operate in the dark ages when it comes to standards.

 

Regards ... Doug