I recently completed a detailing and painting project, turning an undecorated HO Atlas RS3 into Lamoille Valley #7804. This unit operated with a snow plow mounted on the front of the long hood, so I installed a Details West metal plow to the pilot. When I went to re-install the Atlas supplied couplers, I found that the new snow plow interfered with the coupler trip pin. I tried Kadee #5 couplers, but I had the same problem. I decided to check out the Kadee web site to see if they offered a solution for this problem (www.kadee.com).

If you have been in the hobby for a while and performed a few HO coupler installations, you probably already know that Kadee makes other couplers for other installations. But for others who are new and have not had to go beyond the basic Kadee #5 coupler (or have pretty much stuck with the factory supplied knuckle couplers common on today’s cars and locomotives), I wanted to share some basic information that may help you. And I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the wealth of information available on Kadee’s web site.

Web page written and maintained by Mike McNamara

If I had a coupling height problem, Kadee offers offset knuckles to effectively raise or lower the coupling height. For example, if I needed a lower coupler height, I could go with the #49 for the longer shank length and a lower coupler head (overset shank).

The web site also offers an extensive locomotive and freight car conversion listing that will help you convert your cars to Kadee couplers. For example, need to put couplers on that Walthers Jordan spreader? A #5 works on the rear, but you’ll need a #36 (longer shank!) on the front. Did you lose the factory knuckle coupler on that Atlas caboose? A #27 (medium shank, underset to raise coupling height) is the replacement you need. The web site makes quick work of figuring this out for you, most with a drawing to help explain the installation.

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