I recently broke down and bought a couple of Bowser fully assembled cars: a PRR 50' flatcar and a N&W 100 ton wood hopper, both HO scale. These came with knuckle couplers but I don't know what kind. I don't think they're Kadee's or Accu-mates. But I read on these forums that Kadee is supplying couplers to manufacturers in China, which is where thear were made. Anybody know for sure?
Looks like they are those soft plastic brown couplers w/ a coil knuckle spring and with what I will call ''wiskers'' on the back end in the draft gear box. Break down some more and get Kadee's #158 ''Scale head w/ wiskers'' or #148 ''Standard head w/ wiskers''. There is no name or identification on the couplers.
Look so much like a Bachman E-Z Mate Mark II. Those Bowser cars have couplers that have the ''Standard Head".
These are not genuine Kadee couplers.
You should replace them with one of the two options listed above by PC101 for best performance.
Knock-offs never fail to be disappointing.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
About seven years ago I bought some RTR Bowser coal cars and at first glance without reading glasses, I thought cool, they come with Kadee's. But I didn't have a layout and didn't look at them more closely until some time later and it's obvious they are plastic.
Accumates are very thick and clunky looking so it's easy to identify them, which they are not. They might be McHenry's, the newer McHenry's that Athearn uses look pretty decent but they don't operate well or reliably. They tend to get jammed open or closed.
As for Kadee supplying couplers to manufacturers in China, that's a problem right now. I've heard from one rep and spoken directly to the head of another company and here is what he said: "Bad news is my US supplier of couplers (Kadee) is shut down due to Coronavirus"
Here are the US companies that supply their RTR rolling stock with Kadee's that I am aware of: Tangent, ExactRail, Intermountain, Spring Mill, Moloco and Wheels of Time.
- Athearn uses plastic McHenry clones.- Atlas uses Accumates- Walthers uses their own metal Kadee clones called Proto Max which are close to Kadee #5, or a tiny bit bigger.- ScaleTrains uses their own metal couplers on on Rivit Counter and plastic clones of their own design on the Operator series IIRC.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
And Rapido uses their own which they patriotically (for Canada) gave the name Mcdonald-Cartier to.
Proto 2000 prior to Walthers used their own knockoff which like some others has a tendency to jam open.
If you find some in stock, get kadees. Existing stock is all there will be for now until they are allowed to reopen, but I replace anything not Kadee with Kadee, and ONLY Kadee, they just work better. I've been using the whisker style for a few years now, they are much easier, especially in cars with screw-on coupler box lids. With the traditional #5, you have the coupler, the spring pan, the box lid, and the lid screw all to managed, with only 2 hands. Eliminating the spring pan from the equation makes the couple install much easier. Plus with all modern production coming with some form of knuckle coupler, there are much fewer issues with getting the height correct, and less need for oddball mouting methods.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks for the information. I didn't think they were Kadees. I'll replace with Kadee #5's as I've done on everything else.
The newer Kadee clone couplers, the ones with coil spring knuckles, seem to work OK. Most rolling stock comes with one clone coupler or another. I run the clones until they break. A few break but most of 'em last. I replace the failures with genuine Kadees. I have a stash, a 20 pack of #5's, which ought to last me a while.
If some rolling stock manufacter was installing genuine Kadees in their product I would expect so see some advertising bragging about it. I would pay a buck or two extra to get a car or locomotive with genuine Kadees. I am sure rolling stock manufacturers know this.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
kbaker329 Thanks for the information. I didn't think they were Kadees. I'll replace with Kadee #5's as I've done on everything else.
If you are going to use the Kadee #5 ''Standard'' Head or #58 ''Scale'' Head with the Bronze Centering Spring (BCS) on your Bowser rolling stock, be careful.
On the Bowser cars that I have (old and current), the coupler centering post that takes the screw, it is a smaller diameter then ''Normal'' coupler centering posts. In the Old Days, Bowser had horn hook couplers that had a smaller diameter hole that fit on to that smaller diameter post. If you wanted a Kadee with a ''normal hole'' installed, you would use a bushing that Bowser supplied.
Now comes the be careful part, if using a Kadee with the BCS be sure it is centered over that small post. If the BCS moves forward or rearward that tiny little bit as you install the coupler cover, screw and the Kadee coupler which will center on the small post because the bushing now is molded on the Bowser coupler cover. The BCS may move forward and the BCS side springs will snug up the Kadee's side to side pivot movement or if the BCS moves rearward the Kadee may not center 100% and side to side pivot will feel loose/sloppy (because the side springs do not touch the sides of the Kadee's rear...what ever it may be called).
Now if you use a #148 ''Standard'' Head or a #158 ''Scale'' Head, both with ''Wiskers'', the coupler will center it's self and pivit like it should 100%.
Personally, I would not use Kadee couplers that come with the bronze centering spring any more because they don't work quite as well as the whisker couplers. On some makes of HO freight cars there can be not quite enough room in the coupler box for the thickness of the centering spring, but the whisker couplers will fit just fine.
I only use Kadee #148 when I can't get #158, but my track work is good enough that I don't have issues with vertical kinks causing trains to separate.
riogrande5761 Here are the US companies that supply their RTR rolling stock with Kadee's that I am aware of: Tangent, ExactRail, Intermountain, Spring Mill, Moloco and Wheels of Time.
Add one more manufacture of rolling stock to this list, Bluford Shops.