I came across the following web page about two years ago concerning Proto-Max Couplers
http://www.pmrr.org/Articles/RollingStock/Articles__S-scale_Couplers_LVL2_Proto_Max_Couplers.htm I have been installing these on my cars since then .....there is some play between couplers ....but the spring mechanism is completely different from the 802 ....so other then the slack between couplers there is no slack action from the spring. Twenty pairs retail at $24.95 a pack ...most of the time I can average $20 at shows ...that comes out to be only $1.00 a car. The only hidden cost I have found is I end up buying Kadee screws (item #402) for mounting this comes out to 41cents more per car ...so total cost is about $1.50 a car. The only drawback is that the mounting holes are slightly to narrow for the standard S Helper per-drilled mounting holes ...but I bore out the holes on the draft box slightly with a file, and they fit fine. If anyone is coming to the NOSS yearly scale meet here in Medina Ohio September 29th ...I have volunteered to do a short clinic on my mounting technique. So far with a little over a year of running these I have had no problems ...although my time running trains in the last year has been limited. I have been using these in combination with my cars that already have 802's & S Helper couplers. At one point I had several cars with Proto Max couplers mixed in on a 90 car S helper Reefer train on the CVSGA Scale layout while it was set up at the NMRA Division 4 train show in Berea Ohio..again I experienced no problems. Matt Ward North Canton Ohio "Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others."- Robert F. Kennedy APRIL 05, 1968
