Couplers

[Anonymous]

Hi, everyone.
We haven't posted for about a year. Our basement kept flooding after each heavy rain and no one could stop the water from coming in. Finally someone with smarts stopped the water entry for good so we can now resume thinking about building a railroad in the DRY basement.
I recently picked up an Athearn engine, but I can't figure out how to close and open the proto. couplers. The hobby store said fingers or pliers.(?) One coupler is open in front and the rear coupler is closed. I can neither close the open one or open the closed one. What's the secret?
Good to be back. Thanks, folks.

[barrydraper]

From your description I would say you have a loco with two broken couplers! All Kadee compatable couplers have the knuckle spring loaded in the closed position. It should open easily and spring back to closed. Kadee and some competitors use a tiny metal coil spring for the knuckle. Some of the cheaper copies use a little piece of plastic as the spring. I can't give my opinion of the plastic springs because I don't want to be banned from this forum, but in any case the knuckles should open easily and spring back closed to operate properly.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I'll go back to the shop and talk them into new ones. No matter how hard I trist the lever nothing happens.

[CSXrules4eva]

QUOTE: Originally posted by raymar

Hi, everyone.
We haven't posted for about a year. Our basement kept flooding after each heavy rain and no one could stop the water from coming in. Finally someone with smarts stopped the water entry for good so we can now resume thinking about building a railroad in the DRY basement.
I recently picked up an Athearn engine, but I can't figure out how to close and open the proto. couplers. The hobby store said fingers or pliers.(?) One coupler is open in front and the rear coupler is closed. I can neither close the open one or open the closed one. What's the secret?
Good to be back. Thanks, folks.

LOL it almost sounded like you were going to have to build your railroad in your attic. LOL At least now the basement is nice and dry :) Good Luck.