How do I keep couplers closed on train cars

Have you tried the "search" function? It seems that every other week, there has been at least one discussion of keeping the big knuckle couplers closed. Most response have been ; 1) fix them, or 2) glue them closed.

If you have decent finger dexterity, you can also use very thin wire to hold the coupler from opening. The downside is no automatic track uncoupling can occur and you have to use more effort to attach the car to your consist. Some less expensive cars have pretty fragile couplers and if the train consist is too long and or the weight drag too great, the couplers release while the train is chugging along. 

Not everyone is ready to plunk down money on new higher quality couplers to upgrade their set, so use some good old ingenuity to keep them closed.

hope that helps

Keep a supply of small black twist ties on hand. They work very well.

I am lucky my new ones all work. At times some of my Post War have and issue or two. I am lazy and I use a small wire. Some day when it gets to me I will either try to fix or maybe replace the truck.

At least Brianel gave you some usefull tips / suggestion more than I could come with.

I have a few I wrapped with a thin section of black plastic electrical tape in the right place.  They don't open but I can still couple and uncouple by lifting them: works for me.

I try to keep the heavy cars at the front and tie the ones that come loose  with the ties mentioned above. I mentioned heavy cars because my experience is the lighter cars will disconnect from the heavier cars  ,

Brent

G B Weld fixes the problem.  Lift the end to couple/uncouple.  Works really well to end Vexation.  :-)

If you are having trouble with post war electromagnetic couplers, the problem could be replacement sliding shoes. A lot of the aftermarket sliding shoes do not have a proper spot face for the rivet head to sit in and the rivets have oversized heads.  This results in the rivet head sitting above the edges of the slot. When this occurs the rivet head will hit powered center rails when going through switches and crossings resulting in the coupler opening.  To fix this, before assembling new sliding shoes, try the rivet in the hole and be sure it sits lower then the sides do the slot.  To correct those already installed, use a Dremel tool to grind down the head of the rivet so it is below the sides of the slot.

 I have found that the small rubber bands they use on kids braces work for me.

If you need some e-mail me.

some of the above suggestions are OK but you see the "fix".

these are black and you can hardly see them.

keep that coupler closed

The black rubber bands seem to be the ideal solution, but will they prevent the coupler from being opened with the uncoupler track?

Yes.

small, black electrical cable zip ties!!!

cut off the tail after installing.

I use them often, especially on MTH rolling stock.

They are black and can be cut off if need be.

available at Radio Shack, or local hardware/electrical stores.

The solution is going to depend on what your intentions are.

If you want the couplers to couple and uncouple without intervention from the "Hand of God" you need to take them apart, see what's wrong, and fix or replace.

If you just want the cars to stay coupled, any of the wire or rubber band solutions will work.

Similar to what brianel l-lineguy said above, on modern cars, the 'pin' that enters the knuckle does not do so at a perfect right angle or it does not completely enter the coupler.  Pull the plate that the pin is attached to downward and with care, slightly bend that plate upward to change the angle of the pin as it enters the coupler.  This will also insure that the pin goes completely up into the coupler.  If the pin is perfectly vertical or better yet, angled slightly towrds the end of the car rather than away from it; it will reduce the chances of unintentional openings of the coupler - its physics   This trick was posted here on the forum and has worked for me prior resorting to keeping the knuckle permanently closed via methods listed above.

Best,

Dave

I have found on older cars that sometimes just turning the car around will eliminate the problem. Also I move cars with weak couplers to the tail end of the consist.

A few couplers on heavier cars got wired shut.

By doing these steps I am able to run a 58 car consist behind my big Boy and completely fill an 11 foot by 23 foot loop. This includes some old PW cars as well as my newer cars.

This loop was on a slant of about 3 inches in the 23 feet for a grade of roughly 1.5% and had an O-72 S curve at the bottom of the up side of the grade.

The Imperial Railking Big Boy ran as if the consist wasn't there.

Warning: If you try this be aware of the large amount of coupler slack you accumulate. Don't bunch the train up as you build it or you may run out of track before you run out of slack.