HO Couplings

[EmporiaSub]

Having just started on a micro German HO scale branchline, one quandary I've come across are the different couplings in use.

(I've been using Kadees on my US HO layout since I started back in the last Century.....).

The newer Fleischmann freight wagons are now fitted with their own brand of close couplings, as opposed to the standard couplings used by most other European companies. Now, I've tried using them for shunting but don't find them user-friendly. However, with passenger cars, I have no problem with them as I don't usually break up the sets, so have standard couplings on the end two vehicles, as all my loco's are the standard couplings.

 

Any ideas or comments please on what others find easier?

 

 

Brian

Edited June 20, 2017 by EmporiaSub

[Bernard Lamb]

Having just started on a micro German HO scale branchline, one quandary I've come across are the different couplings in use.

(I've been using Kadees on my US HO layout since I started back in the last Century.....).

The newer Fleischmann freight wagons are now fitted with their own brand of close couplings, as opposed to the standard couplings used by most other European companies. Now, I've tried using them for shunting but don't find them user-friendly. However, with passenger cars, I have no problem with them as I don't usually break up the sets, so have standard couplings on the end two vehicles, as all my loco's are the standard couplings.

 

Any ideas or comments please on what others find easier?

 

 

Brian

Just as much a minefield as in other scales.

I have settled on the Roco type as currently also available from Hornby.

At first I used them on coaches and the relevant locos but quickly adopted them as standard as a lot of my stock came with them.

They work fine and are fairly bomb proof but don't like any variation in height. But that rider applies to several other types.

Bernard

[Neils WRX]

I use Roco close coupling within rakes of coaches or wagons that aren't normally split and Roco couplings on the end of the rakes. I find this works well.

 

The only exception are my Marklin Belgian M2 coaches that retain their Marklin close couplings between the vehicles, but again with Roco couplings on the ends.

[TonyA]

I have used Kadees on both my German layouts and intend to do so on my next one. I know they are not realistic but neither are the alternatives. However, unlike British models, newer continental stock follows NEM standards for mounting boxes and makes swapping couplings simple. The only exception is my Piko Ko 1 where I use a barrier wagon.

 

My luckiest find was a pre-NEM Fleischmann T3 second-hand at a show which already had Kadees fitted and could immediately replace a loco that had decided to cause trouble when I was exhibiting Nürnberg Winkelhof.

 

Tony

[jjb1970]

I use the Fleischmann type, I find they work very well, are dependable and a lot less visually intrusive than the Roco type/ In some ways the best HO couplers are still Kadees, but in my experience they are ruthless at exposing less than perfect track work or any discrepancies at all in height between couplings.

[EmporiaSub]

I have used Kadees on both my German layouts and intend to do so on my next one. I know they are not realistic but neither are the alternatives.

Tony

I take it you use the one that is the NEM Standard. Just wondering as I see three different length shanks, what one is best for close coupling, as I have some fairly tight pointwork,

mainly due to the nature of the present layout. (The next one will be using larger radius points!) The only drawback in my view is having to change out all the couplings on the freight cars I have at present.

 

Brian

[TonyA]

I take it you use the one that is the NEM Standard. Just wondering as I see three different length shanks, what one is best for close coupling, as I have some fairly tight pointwork,

mainly due to the nature of the present layout. (The next one will be using larger radius points!) The only drawback in my view is having to change out all the couplings on the freight cars I have at present.

 

Brian

 

I use mainly no.18 NEM couplings, as much as anything out of laziness but the closeness of coupling hasn't worried me so far.

 

Pointwork is 2ft radius. The important thing is to leave at least one wagon length of straight each side of the uncoupling magnet, otherwise you will have problems. I didn't originally and had to realign the track.

 

This photo should show how close the wagons are and also how much curve you can get away with for the uncoupling magnet.

 

Tony

 

[CloggyDog]

Another Kadee user here.

 

I use a mix of #17 and #18, sometimes one of each on the same wagon to get the optimum closest coupling distance (even if this then means some of my stock is 'handed').

 

I'd suggest buy a couple of packs each of #17 and #18 and maybe 1 pack of #19 and experiment to see which type best suits each item of stock. I've made a simple list so I know what to fit should I get additional ones of a item of stock I'm  already running

 

On the few non-NEM items I've retained (older, DDR-era production DR stock), I've bodged NEM Kadees using mounts salvaged from my UK stock (where I use screw/3-links)

 

Ideally, I'd prefer to use screw couplers (requiring sprung buffers) on my German stock too, but the cost of doing so with available H0 products is rather off-putting

Edited June 22, 2017 by CloggyDog

[readingtype]

 

These are interesting, and I like them, but I am not ready to vouch for them because I have no experience of playing with them properly yet. The design is known as die Originalbügelkupplung and the ones depicted are cast nickel silver. At the moment I am fitting the cheaper lasercut plastic cooking variety (available from h0fine.de) to a motley collection of goods wagons and will then be looking for a chance to try them out in service. Both types are hand assembled.

 

 

Thing is, the designer intends them to be so closely coupled that sprung buffers are essential. On straight track I have already discovered that this means wagons bouncing away rather than coupling up. They are mounted through the headstock so you can choose to be leave the shank projecting a bit further to be more accommodating, and perhaps avoid the need to have sprung buffers. Bufferlocking is also a potential problem.

 

NB the V60 is not three rail!

 

I would prefer to use a magnet than an uncoupling ramp but I cannot see a way to do this. The hoop Bügel (bow or hoop) is made of steel wire and easy to lift from above with a magnet, which I am sure is what the designer originally intended.

 

Perhaps for most they are just a curiosity. But visually they are a real step forward from NEMs (to which they very happily couple by the way). They are exceptionally unobtrusive.

 

Edit for translation error: _Bügel_ is 'hanger' not 'bow' or 'hoop'.

Edited July 16, 2017 by readingtype

[steve1]

Another vote for Kadees. I use them on Starker Verkehr and find them easy to fit, reliable and, using a wooden skewer, easy to uncouple.

 

steve

[EmporiaSub]

Well, a quick update!

Went to Morris Models of Lancing and got some KD 17's and 18's.

Fitted a pair of 17's to the Roco V100 and several pairs of 18's to some freight cars.

Even using 18's, the difference between the buffers is 2mm less than the standard couplings,

whilst between the 17 and the 18 is only 3mm.

However, as I'm using Peco Setrack for the initial micro/mini layout, I'll have to be careful to avoid buffer-locking,

which is why initially I'll stick to the 18's on both ends of the freight cars!

 

Brian

[roythebus]

I used Kadees on my German layout which I started building in 1983. I never had any problems even on 1st radius corners on a spiral down to the hidden loops, even with scale length coaches! On my Br110 I had to remove the buffer beam from the loco where it close coupled to the push-pull s-bahn set.

 

I even managed to fit Kadees to a Brawa KoF that was not designed to take them.

[CloggyDog]

I even managed to fit Kadees to a Brawa KoF that was not designed to take them.

Ditto!

 

Though I had a set of the nem adaptors with my DR one, so managed to use a set of Kadee #17s, suitably cut down at the tail end.

 

Much more fun was cutting and splicing Kadees onto the coupler shanks of old Piko V60 Osts