Not in HO- the introduction of magnetic brake lines vastly improves the looks of the rolling stock. The most ideal is using the magnetic brake lines with Sergents couplers for the more prototypical look. The big obstacle here is the engineering due to the smaller sizes needed, both for the coupler and the brake line, so don't expect thise breakthroughs for a while yet- but they very well could come to N scale.
Haha...funny. However my statement is consistent. Brakelines are not couplers, and I never mentioned anything about brakelines operating prototypcially. This feature is already available in N-scale, but it's so expensive as to be prohibitive. I've seen some home brewed N-scale brakelines that hook up automatically, and release without pulling the parked car backwards...they're made from black string and pieces of super magnets. Commercially manufactured ones would look better (I hope!). Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
OK, but if you want a new coupler that "operates and looks prototypical" (with manual coupling and uncoupling), why then don't you insist on cut levers at each end of the car as the only means of opening the knuckles? Where and how do you draw the line on what is sufficiently prototypical and what you just let slide?
What a breath of fresh air this discussion has been...even folks jumping in to avoid much thread drift. Not kidding either. Thank You to the moderators and the folks who have been working to keep what seems like a simple question spinning out of control. Joe at MTL
Exactly how do we define manual coupling? Lifting one car to drop the coupler over the other or the other end of the spectrum by opening one knuckle with a working cut lever and making sure both couplers are centered, if we go for the latter do we also have to get between the cars with a pair of tweezers to join the air hoses and open the brake cocks. I'm happy uncoupling using an uncoupling tool and coupling by just nudging the cars together. Though MT couplers today sometimes need more more of a bash together than a nudge like they did when they first came out.
