I think it was back in the early 90s. The coupler tabs were made out of Delron and it was weak. At the time the TCA museum hosted meet and greets with Train manufacturers on the Thursday before York. So I brought up the subject of the weak couplers to the Lionel representative and asked him when they were going to make a coupler that worked? He didn’t have an answer. A fix that went around at that time, was to heat the tab and then bend it upwards. That seemed to work well. Now they’re made out of steel and they do the same thing when you’re running the train the tab drops down and the coupler opens for no apparent reason. I encountered this on a set of LIRR passenger cars that I bought new on close out. Not sure when they were made. When I contacted the dealer he suggested gluing the coupler closed.
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