Kadee 740 coupler & locomotive electrocoupler compatibility?

Use the 805s if you want to grab traditional 3 rail couplers.

What Norm said 

I did a video several years ago thats in my YouTube channel about switching with Kadees and the 3 rail claw. It can be done but you need something to shove up against for the 3R coupler to close when using Kadees.

Thank you for the replies.  I watched LAIDOFFSICK's YouTube channel about switching with Kadees and the 3 rail claw, but I was not sure if it applied to the Kadee 740.  I will use Kadee 805s for my rolling stock.

Good topic for those of us thinking about making the conversion.  The You Tube videos are really well done, thanks Laid off Sick ! 

Those videos were made before the 740's hit the market. You can NOT do the same thing with the 740s that I did in those videos with the 805's.

The 740s dont even couple to themselves as well as the 805s do.

 As far as leaving on your coil couplers. I have 2 MTH RS1's that won't stay coupled to the 805's. You need a transition car. I just picked up an Atlas RS3. All my rolling stock has Kadee's. They couple nicely to the Atlas coupler. In fact with the coil coupler in the close position. You can couple slowly at about 2 mph to an 805. I do use uncoupling magnets but I've found it's easier to fire the coil coupler. Yes you have to close it to pick up your next car. I find it easier to close the coil coupler out in the open. Than uncouple two cars reaching over the layout with a skewer.

 As Doug mentioned. If you place your cars up against a bumper or wheels stops it should close. The Atlas will pick up even one car out in the open with the coupler closed. All my Lionel steamers have Kadee's installed. I can't comment on how their couplers work with Kadee's. 

All the 3 rail claws are a bit different, the knuckle being a little wider than others and some having a mold seam right down the middle. Most times, a touch of filing that seam off or making the knuckle itself a little thinner on the inside edge. 

I keep one transition car around for those times I feel lazy and don't feel like messing with claws. I have started converting all my steam engines to Kadee as well, front and rear. Eventually ALL of my claws will be gone.

Dave_C posted:

 As far as leaving on your coil couplers. I have 2 MTH RS1's that won't stay coupled to the 805's. You need a transition car. I just picked up an Atlas RS3. All my rolling stock has Kadee's. They couple nicely to the Atlas coupler. In fact with the coil coupler in the close position. You can couple slowly at about 2 mph to an 805. I do use uncoupling magnets but I've found it's easier to fire the coil coupler. Yes you have to close it to pick up your next car. I find it easier to close the coil coupler out in the open. Than uncouple two cars reaching over the layout with a skewer.

 As Doug mentioned. If you place your cars up against a bumper or wheels stops it should close. The Atlas will pick up even one car out in the open with the coupler closed. All my Lionel steamers have Kadee's installed. I can't comment on how their couplers work with Kadee's. 

We can fix that...

 I've looked at those on the Shapeways site. Will they work with the MTH RS1 ?  Is there a ready made spacer to fix the pilot or do I just make one up out of styrene ?

  All my steamers have Kadee's. The 0-8-0's have them front and rear. Just started looking into assembling a fleet of early diesels. Looking to switch up the layout into different eras.  Fixing the pilots and Kadee's are in my future at least for the MTH RS1's. The Atlas RS3 couples pretty nicely yo the 805's and I can live with it the way it is for now. I don't like the look of the coil coupler but after playing with this one. I do miss the operation of it. MTH years ago mentioned doing a scale remote coupler. Maybe with more people getting into Kadee's it will happen.