Atlas coupler differences

The Kadee facsmile is newer.     Apparently the paten on the 805 style Kadees ran out, so a number of copies have started.    Kadee meanwhile started a 7xx series that has 4 different shanks for over, under, normal, or long.    They are compatible, but tighter than the 805s.

I notice that the knockoff atlas couplers while looking identical don't seem to work as well.    I replace the Atlas springs for both center and knuckle with softer Kadee springs which can be bought separately.     The atlas version does not seem to swing as smoothly in the box to me.

prrjim posted:

The Kadee facsmile is newer.     Apparently the paten on the 805 style Kadees ran out, so a number of copies have started.    Kadee meanwhile started a 7xx series that has 4 different shanks for over, under, normal, or long.    They are compatible, but tighter than the 805s.

I notice that the knockoff atlas couplers while looking identical don't seem to work as well.    I replace the Atlas springs for both center and knuckle with softer Kadee springs which can be bought separately.     The atlas version does not seem to swing as smoothly in the box to me.

I agree that the Atlas version does NOT swing smoothly.  As for replacing the springs, I usually do irreparable damage to the coupler box cover trying to remove it.  When you say that they don’t seem to work as well, are you referring to any specific area of operation?  I’m asking because I’m primarily concerned with being able to pull a long train without separating.  I’m not involved in switching ops.

As mentioned, the coupler does not swing as smoothly.     Also the tighter springs and looser specs cause the knuckle to be stiffer to open.    Those are the two major characteristics which cause me to say they don't operate as smoothly.

However, they do work and stay coupled.     I doubt they would hold for 1000 car train, but should hold just fine for anything under 100 cars - ie they should handle most any train on a home layout.

By the way, I about 95% successful in opening the Atlas boxes by using two small screwdriver blades to pull back the slotted tab at the rear of the box and release the bottom.     Some come very easy others are harder,  A very few break.

I have seen the original Atlas coupler break apart in long trains. I think this is one of the reasons they updated it. I don't have enough experience with the newer version to have an opinion. However, I have had problems when coupling a Kadee coupler to an Atlas coupler. A long time ago I performed a test coupling two different cars 20 times. When coupling Kadee to Kadee they work 100% of the time but going from Kadee to Atlas or Atlas to Atlas (especially the original ones) the percentage of the amount of times they coupled up correctly was much lower.

I should add some follow-up on the couplers.     They all work, just some better than others and some much better than others.    They all connect to each other so they are sort of "compatible".     The issues of intermixing them come into play when  you are switching cars and want to couple AND uncouple easily.     I have found that the tighter fitting ones such as the original Atlas are much harder to uncouple while on the layout.     So  if you are just running trains that stay together for awhile, any make and mix will work most likely.

The big caveat I have experience with is the old plastic weaver couplers.     On these, quite often the loop on the knuckle that was inside the coupler and pinned in the the wire "glad hand" was split, cracked or broken.     This caused the glad hand to spin loosely more or less.    It also led to the knuckle breaking out of the coupler.     With smaller trains, I had these couplers break on my layout.    I have noticed that the old Atlas plastic couplers sometimes have glad hands that will spin, so I assume they have a similar problem.

On the older Atlas couplers I found that snipping 1/16" off the end and filing it back to smooth helps coupling up to Kadees.

Jason

Jason Dickie posted:

On the older Atlas couplers I found that snipping 1/16" off the end and filing it back to smooth helps coupling up to Kadees.

Jason

I found it much better to remove the original Atlas couplers, throw them in the trash, and replace with properly located Kadee coupler assemblies. I stopped counting how many "coupler heads" broke/fell off those Atlas things, so I finally made the decision to remove and thrash each and every one! 

Aaah, but while I'm waiting for Kadees to arrive in England, it's good to have a temporary solution!

Jason

Gents, 

Here’s some pics of my workaround to mounting Kadees on newer Atlas cars with the zamac frames.  While using the molded, drilled and tapped .050” bosses to awkwardly mount Kadees plus a .025” shim does work, the resulting 5’ spacing and protruding coupler boxes looked silly.  Using a grinder to eliminate the .050” bosses was necessary to create a level playing field where new holes properly spaced could be drilled and tapped.  Shims were made from 1/4” X .064” brass.  The pictures tell the rest of the story.

Very nicely done.  I just did a similar underframe with a 50' PS-1 boxcar, but I also took the plastic bolster from the underframe of the car and cut it off,  I glued the remaining plastic underframe to the metal frame of the car.  The result gave me mounting the 70-ton trucks directly to the metal underframe of the car, where I drilled a centering hole in the metal underframe of 3/16" and used the provided black plastic pin insert.   The additional benefit for the 50' PS-1 boxcar is that it now rides lower and the trucks are tucked under the skirting of the car body... instead of looking like a boxcar with a lift kit on it.    The rest I did was just like you for the coupler.