Hi - This cool-looking metal knuckle was mounted on old metal HO gondola I picked-up on eBay. It has a locking pin which slides up and down to open/close the knuckle, sort of like the prototype. You can push the pin up by the brake hose below. Anyone know who made it? It obviously never caught on in the hobby. I tried searching a bit but came up empty. (Sorry if this was discussed already... I'm new to the forum.)
https://flic.kr/p/2kCK3eJ
https://flic.kr/p/2kCK3eP
https://flic.kr/p/2kCJutP
to the forum. Looks like your post got held up in moderations so I will give it a bump off the list.
I've not see those before.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Devore made it.
I have some old rolling stock from the 1950s or 60s that have those. They used to be my fathers. I could never get them to work very well. I have several in my scrap box. Saving for a junk pile outside a car shop some day.
rrebell Devore made it.
Actually no, as previously discussed in a different thread Model Die Casting made it, Devore was just one of the first companies other than MDC/Roundhouse to include it in their kits.
In my 53 years in this hobby, working in the hobby shop for 10 years, every pack of those we ever saw or sold came from Model Die Casting.
https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/doctorwayne/Some%20kitbashed%20stuff/Olderstylecouplers004.jpg
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Roundhouse-HO-Automatic-Couplers-Model-Die-Casting/333580355500?hash=item4daaf047ac:g:dk8AAOSwsXFZJ3Rp
Somewhere in all the stuff that is still packed I have a few unopened packs myself in some Athearn metal freight cars that also came with them a for a few years.
Those all say Model Die Casting, just like the Ebay listing above.
It was a moderately successful coupler in the late 40's and early 50's, but the automatic coupling and uncoupling was hit and miss at best.
Since many HO modelers were just starting to think about "operations", dummy knuckle couplers, included with many/most brands at the time were the single most popular coupler at that time.
My first layout was all scale dummy couplers until I started converting to Kadee's.
Sheldon
I agree with Sheldon on MDC as the manufacturer. I always liked the look of them, but the Kadees worked more reliably...
...the ones shown above pre-date the magnetic ones.
Wayne
I was wondering if those couplers could be made to operate with a cut lever? And no, they may have been bought by MDC but were produced by Devore. Sept 1949 MR revue.
rrebell I was wondering if those couplers could be made to operate with a cut lever? And no, they may have been bought by MDC but were produced by Devore. Sept 1949 MR revue.
Well OK, it would be nice to know the complete history because Devore did not last long in this business with any of their products. It is very likely, since Devore, Athearn and Model die Casting were all within a short drive from each other in those days, and it is known fact that Athearn and MDC worked together, that Devore may have developed the design, but possibly had MDC do the actual tooling and casting.
I say this because there is little evidence that Devore was a casting company, the rest of their product line was stamped metal.
OK, so it does appear Devore first developed and marketed the product, but Model Die Casting produced and sold them for the next three decades after Devore was gone.
It was commonly known back when I got in the hobby as the MDC coupler.
This happens all the time, one guy develops a product and can't get it off the ground, then someone else does.
I accually had a set in Devore packaging way back when, got it in a box with a bunch of train stuff. Devore as a company called themselves the small casting company. It would not surprise me to see that they did small castings for all the neigboring buisnesses. But heck, even Microsoft started with someone elses product.
So, I did some more research, marketing is a funny thing. And the MR ads suggest I am possibly right that MDC had some sort of involvement even when the coupler was under the Devore name.
June 1949 MR - first ad for the "Devore" coupler.
January 1952 MR - last ad for the coupler under the Devore name. Same issue, MDC ad showing the couplers on the box car pictured.
So it appears the couplers were only sold under the Devore name for about 18 months.
April 1952 MR - MDC with multiple rolling stock pictured, all have the couplers and ad says "with automatic couplers".
July 1952 MR - MDC ad says all kits include Model Die Casting's "famous automatic coupler".
That was a pretty quick evolution from a product that was brand new in 1949 and by 1952 is the "MDC famous automatic coupler".
Sounds a lot like the the Athearn/Globe story. Lots of people think Globe developed the Athearn plastic F7 - but Athearn already owned GLOBE at that point, and used the GLOBE name to introduce the plastic line and protect the Athearn reputation if the plastic line flopped.
But it did not flop, and they quickly dropped the GLOBE name and added the products to the Athearn catalog.
I have "GLOBE" streamlined passenger car kits with instructions that say Athearn, produced during the change over when Athearn eliminated the GLOBE name.
The HO Seeker instructions to the Devore depressed center flatcar remark that you could intall their truck mounted coupler if you prefer and that it would be in stock at your local hobby dealer.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the replies... an interesting discussion and history lesson! I've never heard of Devore before. (I started modeling in the '70's.)
Here's a prior post I found on the Devore flat car with related coupler discussion (some of it by same posters above). Wayne includes (towards the end) a picture of the coupler's MDC packaging:
https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/272780.aspx?page=1
Sounds like these couplers primarily suffered from reliability issues, fear of long term availability, and lack of standards. The biggest nail in the coffin appears to be when Kadee introduced their magnet-based design.
Coincidentally, I found someone recently selling 50 pairs of S Scale Devore couplers on Ebay. Here's a screen shot of packaging:
https://flic.kr/p/2kFyeDc
Regards, Rob