I'm not even sure if this is possible, but can old Horn hook couplers be reused for something else? I don't think this thread is very serious, I was just wondering if it could be done.
Many collectors that I know are removing the newer kadee and mchenry style couplers and replacing them with the old horn hook couplers, so you may find a market for them.
recycled into lumber featured in Home Alone 17 when the bad guys step on them in bare feet offer on ebay at $48 per pair for the humor funky hair beads Instructables.com challenge - make a coffee table with them
If they're of decent quality (say, Life-Like or Tyco), they're actually fairly functional and can be improved a good bit visually by painting and weathering them. They're useful in situations where remote uncoupling is of lesser or no concern, such as a unit train or the majority (maybe even the entirety) of a passenger consist. Means you don't have to fit as many operating knuckle couplers (or if they're already present, you can redistribute them to places you need them more) to the rolling stock.
That is true. Can they still work if the "horn", the curved part, is cut off? I'll obviously need to leave the part where the couplers actually connect, but I think that could clean them up a good deal.
gather up all your discarded horn-hook couplers and take them to your local recycling center. IMO, they're worthless.
Once upon a long time ago I purchased a 12 car set of Roundhouse PS Covered Hoppers. 12 different road numbers. I set up 4 cars with Kaydees on one end and X2Fs on the other. I could run them in bunches or all 12 in a row. It worked out pretty good. When I got back into the hobby, all were converted to Kaydees. If I was not running them at home on the POCR, they would still be set up that way. I trimmed the bottom pin off the coupler as well as the horn. They functioned just fine.
I've mostly chucked mine. They are of course good for discussing in whimsical forum topics. Probably the best thing would be to take bunch and sell them on Ebay for a few bucks.