The first one went together pretty much as described. I added a shot
of graphite to the inside before assembly. I didn't paint them first as
the instructions advise (see i told you) cause i was in a hurry to try
them out. I assembled the second one without test fitting it (bad
move).
On this one the knuckle did not want to stay open. I thought the ball
was
forcing it closed so i tried to pry the two halves apart to have a
look.
Since they were cemented with ACC it was not easy. It did finally come
apart without damage. After some test fits i determined that it was not
the ball but the areas when the knuckle pivots on the coupler body
needed
filing flat. The castings are very clean but is still important to make
sure the pivot areas are smooth.
I mounted one coupler on the front of my SW-9 and the other on a
tank car (figuring it would help with visibility). I took two photos
below.
The coupler shank has a keyhole shaped cutout (see the photos on the Sergent site). The round part of the keyhole fits over the center pin of the coupler pocket. The long part of the keyhole is loaded with a spring that applies pressure on the center pin causing resistance for the coupler to swing. Since the shank rotates on the center pin there is no forward or back movement and therefore no slack between cars. I always thought the Kadees had WAY to much slack and hated the spring affect (it seems worse in S then it did in HO?). Note that is should be possible to mount the coupler with just a screw and a washer (leaving out the spring). A little pressure on the washer will have the same effect. You should also be able to make any kind of coupler pocket that is appropriate for your prototype and the coupler should operate fine.
Getting more into the objective portion of our program... I do like the way they look, no wire hanging down, no spring on the side. There is some detail cast into the sides which should come out nice when properly painted and weathered and when they are coupled it is a real nice tight fit. Using the same center pin that is used for the Kadee's the spacing between the cars is about 1/2 way between Kadee's "stretched" spacing and their "compressed" spacing (does this make sense?). As for scale accuracy, well i don't know what the real dimensions were so i can't comment on that (they are about the same size of a 802 though). The down side (yes there is one) is that they are difficult to uncouple. (See Addendum below) Unlike Kadees if you lift and pull the cars apart you can't then just couple them again. With these couplers you need to release the knuckle and leave it open. If you don't have your magnet on you, you can turn the car over (which causes the ball to raise (drop?)) and release the knuckle. Depending on what you like to do (or not do), the assembly is a fair more complicated process then what you have to do with Kadees.
IMHO, these couplers appear to be a quality product that look good and seem to work when carefully assembled (sample of two). Since the price is reasonable they would be a viable alternative to 802s. Will I do it? I might (i only have couplers for about 1/4 of my cars so replacement cost is not an issue). I need to play some more.
May 5, 2000 - You always tend to miss things when you are sleep deprived. I was so excited about the new couplers that i just had to report. Writing late into the night i did end up missing some things and i now have a little more experience using the couplers. I have also whipped up a half a dozen more couplers and mounted them on some other rolling stock including some 80' passenger cars.
First a couple of things i missed. The couplers are packaged 2 pair to a envelope. There is also a complete set of parts for one more coupler, just in case your break something or one of those steel balls roll off the table into oblivion (i.e. the carpet). If you are real careful you can get 5 couplers per package! One thing that helped during construction was the decoupling tool. The magnet is great for corralling the steel balls and placing them into the coupler.
One thing that i didn't state when i mentioned uncoupling problems was that i was thinking that they were MY problems due to lack of experience with the couplers. One (perceived) problem was that the couplers couple SO tight that i could not get the wire (on the magnet) down inside to open the knuckle. After playing some i realized that that wouldn't help since even if i got the wire in there i could not open the knuckle without moving the cars. Doh! Using the throttle AND the magnet made a difference. Now uncoupling is a snap, back the engine up to release pressure on the knuckles, hold the magnet over the couplers and move the engine forward. It really looks great when you pull away with knuckles left open!
To couple, the couplers must be lined up but this lets you couple on curves and considering that Kadee's only work on straight track this is actually a feature. Oh, and when the knuckle closes you can almost hear the clank!
I found that i can mount the coupler by simply inserting a length of 3/32 styrene tubing, drilled out for a mounting screw, into the round hole in the shank. When you tighten the screw it creates enough pressure to keep the coupler from flopping around. A quick way to get your cars on the track and also allows you to put the coupler where you want by just drilling the hole for the screw where you want.
I was thinking that my next project would be to convert a coupler into a working drop coupler for my M1 pilot.
If is sounds like i'm now sold on these things i am and i plan to make them the standard for my railroad.
The views expressed here are solely my own and I am in no way associated with Sergent Engineering.