Atlas claw coupler question...

Garfield, I think you just have to live with it.

Atlas dances to the beat of their own drum on some of this stuff.

FWIW, lots of the MTH and Lionel couplers are the operation as the Atlas.

  I have couplers that have been removed for Kadee conversions over many years. They have made changes over time. Even the Bettendorf trucks got thinner side frames at one point. I know there’s at least 3 versions of mounts. The differencing being the position of line up boss for the sideframes.  If your interested in changing them out. Hit my e mail and I’ll see what I have and can get them out to you.

Thanks for the replies everyone -- I kind of assumed there's no simple solution.

@Dave_C Thank you for the kind offer, but I don't think it's worth the effort. My favourite couplers are the Lionel which I've seen on MTH cars as well, but the trucks are not compatible with Atlas which comprises most of my rolling stock. I don't care for any of the Atlas claw couplers; operationally they're rough and it appears they tried to improve the looks by hiding the unlatching pin, but in doing so made couplers more difficult to unlatch. Oh well...I guess this is one more reason to go with Kadees, but I don't want to loose the functionality of the electro couplers on my switching layout. Going forward I'm going to look closer at MTH rolling stock.

Not sure what you have regarding engines. But an Kadee 805 coupler mates up well at least with Lionel’s coil coupler. Not so much with MTH’s. Might be worth trying on one car that’s easy to convert and go back to stock like a Weaver. If nothing else picking cars up a few at a time is much easier.

You mentioned doing switching moves and the operation of the different couplers. Are you using magnets and different couplers perform better ?  Or are you manually uncoupling and prefer to press downward rather than in to release the coupler ?

@Dave_C posted:

Not sure what you have regarding engines. But an Kadee 805 coupler mates up well at least with Lionel’s coil coupler. Not so much with MTH’s. Might be worth trying on one car that’s easy to convert and go back to stock like a Weaver. If nothing else picking cars up a few at a time is much easier.

You mentioned doing switching moves and the operation of the different couplers. Are you using magnets and different couplers perform better ?  Or are you manually uncoupling and prefer to press downward rather than in to release the coupler ?

I've tried Kadees but found them finicky to couple on my 3-rail Atlas track/switches with 2-rail trucks. (3-rail equipment works well but 2-rail has more lateral slop due to the smaller flanges which can cause issues when coupling.) And I decided I didn't want to loose the electro-coupler functionality.

No, I'm not using magnets -- hand coupling/uncoupling (and switch throwing) only -- pressing down on the large tab that Lionel and MTH provides is much easier than trying to get your finger in-between connected Atlas cars to get to the unlatching pin.