I have mostly Kato locos and rolling stock and some older Con-Cor cars I have converted to new MT couplers. These all work together fine. Recently I bought a couple new Bachmann freight cars. These will not operate reliably with either MT or Kato couplers. They for the most part will not connect, or if they do, they come unconnected in a few inches. Is this normal? I though most current stuff was compatible. I'm not going to have to switch these to MT couplers am I? I'll never buy another one if that is the case. Why is there differences, nowdays are not most companies smart enought to make their stuff compatable across the boards. Do I have to stick to Kato cars or others actually OK? Very frustrating.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh...couplers. The weak link of model railroading !! Always frustrating and the source of new cuss words !!!!
"Compatible" is relative, unfortunately. Having a knuckle doesn't make rolling stock compatible. If it's the Bachmann coupler I'm thinking of, it goes up and down and not side to side like the Kato or Micro-Trains coupler, which makes coupling, let us say, problematic. If it's their "generic" version of the Micro-Trains coupler, it's, let us say, a suboptimal copy. And yes, *%$# is the technical term. There are others including $%#@! and ^&%$! plus whatever it is that Q-Bert used to say. (Sorry... I just saw "Wreck-It Ralph.")
Oh dear, here we go again. Gouda, I had to switch out everything I bought to MTL's knuckle couplers. I have no use for many of the others as they are all problematic. I did say "All" right? Two exceptions and see below for continuation of this thought. Now, I haven't finished my project as my budegetary considerations brought my purchasing to a halt. To many co-pays, teeth pulled and vet bills to tend to. Stop this merry go-round I want to get off it. The two exceptions. The Accumates and McHenry's, that you find on most Atlas and some Intermountain train cars and locomotives interacts well with MTL's. Now please, don't quote me on this as I have a good repuation with MTL. Nothing but respect for MTL's knuckle couplers. I think highly of their proudcts. However, I have used McHenry's to replace broken MTL's. Less moving parts and I don't have to hold my mouth just right. Easy change out and works nicely....how beit a bit oversized. My favorite bar none is the Z scale MTL's. It's my plan, should I live long enough, to switch over all my locomotives and passenger cars to the Z scale MTL knuckle coupler. See "Similar Threads" below for more intense discussions on this here same subject. I hope that helps.
Bachmann first knuckle couplers are a bit oversized, Kato are a bit undersized........MT is sort of the "standard" size. I have had problems with virtually every coupler, but Bachmann and Kato are both "change em or live with it".......I won't run either in mixed trains. They both do OK with couplers of their own kind, but they don't play nice with others......so my Kato passenger stuff is still Kato coupled, but all my freight stuff is either MT or accumate. As umtrr says " compatability is a relative thing"..........coupling and STAYING coupled are 2 different things
Gouda, welcome to Trainboard. Fresh meat!!!:wink: I prefer all MT N scale couplers on my gear, but I do still have others that re-affirm my plans often. Although the Z scale coupler is more to scale in N I prefer the ability to see the coupler and use a pick when uncoupling. So for a nice static model the Z scale coupler may be a good choice, but I like to run my stuff. The McHenry couplers do look very nice, but are not reliable runners in my experience. They are also huge and would look much more in place on an HO model. ALL the other are downright atrocious in my experience, so if you have a bunch of ill equipped rolling stock consider the bulk pack of MT trucks and couplers. Also, to help enjoy the hobby that much more please do not hesitate to ask as many questions here as you need. The folks here will talk you into spending your money wisely to avoid the many issues the cheap stuff causes.
A potential issue with the Bachmann cars is that some need an oversized hole in the truck. If the car has the protruding shaft into which the screw that holds the trucks goes*, then the standard sized hole of the Micro-Trains truck needs to be reamed out a bit in order to fit over that shaft. Ask me how I know this... *That is a terrible sentence construction.
Problem with brands of couplers is that they do not all work together well and each brand has some problems. There are no perfect couplers in N scale, just some better than others. MT is pretty much my Platinum standard for working reasonably better than the other brands. The slinky effect can be resolved by using the truck axle springs made by MT on either caboose or end car although that does place some rolling resistance to that car and if the loco in question is marginal in pulling power, well.... They don't need to be used for very short consists of less that 10 cars in my opinion. The old Kato couplers were a POS in my opinion and the newer couplers used by them seem okay, they may even be MTs. Atlas stuff either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't rip it out and replace with an MT. Concors dummy coupler that will suposedly work with MTs is another POS. Bmann coupler works, just too dang big. The Unimate is my choice for unit cars like ore jennies where I have ten staying permanently coupled with MTs at the opposite ends of leading and trailing cars and F unit ABBA sets that stay permanently coupled as a set. The Z couplers see occasional use in steam pilots where you just can't fit an MT or one of MTs pilot conversions, and on a few of my critters.
Thanks for all the replies and info. I did try the new bachmann cars with the MT's and they seem to work fine. But unless I switch all my locos to MT's it really doesn't help. So, I just will not buy any more bachmann stuff and convert what I have to MT's. I also found on one of the new bachmanns that the flange on one wheel is to thick to pass freely through one of my Kato switches, it rides up on the guard rail and derails. None of my other cars of any manuafacturer does this. Learned my lesson on this excerise.....No more B........
Gouda, I have 25 locomotives, around two thirds Atlas and one third Kato. I have about 90 freight vehicles. ALL have MT trucks and couplings. A friend converted the locomotives for me and I use the MT 1030 in packs of 10. It may not be strictly correct for each design of vehicle, it's expensive, it takes time, but at least everything matches. I moved over from UK outline about 2 years ago, after years of getting nowhere with coupling/uncoupling different versions of the "Rapido" style common in Europe. You may have seen less polite references to this style! Regards, Pete Davies
I don't know how to answer this because while I own numerous Bachmann locomotives developed over the past 10 years... to this day... I have absolutely NO Bachmann rolling stock recently made. My Bachmann locos have not had problems with coupling or uncoupling to other makers knuckle couplers... whether they are magnetic on non-magnetic. So... the question now is... are the Bachmann rolling stock and locomotives using very different couplers??? My preference of knuckle couplers is still Micro-trains... despite some of their 'slinkyness'. Accumates are pretty good as are the McHenry. The non-magnetic or fixed couplers such as the Unimates are very reliable to stay coupled... whereas... the Kato couplers are notoriously unreliable and have frequently uncoupled under certain conditions (like 'S' curves). I haven't used any Z scale couplers yet... but... would like to see how they perform in a long consist... specially body mounted... which would be my prefered way to use them.
The new Bachmann couplers on their freight cars and steam locomotives work well here, I have no complaints. The couplers are quite big, but work. Sometimes I think I might have less coupler problems here than others have, but don't know why. The couplers I had the most problems with are Kato, and I routinely replace them on locomotives. I still have a couple of their covered hoppers that I have not converted because I could not find a proper way. The trucks are nice and I would like to keep them. All these rigid couplers (i.e. cast in one piece with no moving parts) are banned here because you have to lift the cars to couple and decouple. They might, however, be fine for unit trains or groups of cars that remain together. That is what I do, so far it works for me.
1030's are only for rolling stock as they are truck mounted couplers. Loco's will need a body mount style and that will all depend on manufacturer as to which one you'll need.
1030 on freight cars only. I've no idea what part number my friend puts on the locomotives. I suspect it varies according to make and model. I'll send him an e-mail and get him to publish his thoughts on here. He is a member. Regards, Pete Davies
Well, I'm the "friend" in question for my sins! Most locos I fit with 1015s although longer locos such as Kato SD-40s I fit with 1016s as Pete has some tight curves.
