Congrats on your good luck with Kadee couplers, Ed. But now that I'm awake and can think a bit more, other reasons I personally know of that drops the reliability rating of Kadee couplers for me is that, like any coupler, (1) they do not always couple on the first try when coupling on curves or too close to turnouts or changes in radius, and (2) the often-discussed issue with their magnematic operation where they often fail to DISconnect as they should over magnets... just to name two other off-the-top-of-my-head issues. I have also heard of Kadee couplers in HO and S occasionally and unwantedly UNcoupling at random over fixed magnets when the trains pass over them (due to the excessive play in the nuckles on the HO side and the excessive play in the nuckle AND the shank spring on the S side).
Then there is the obvious problem where they fail to look and operate like a real 1:1 coupler... which I also consider to be a failure. <G> But of course, these are only MY experiences and persepctives, and may not be that of others... John Degnan [email protected] [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 11:33 AM Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Kadee reliability > ... how many times have we all had to replace a nuckle spring on one that had suddenly lost it's spring for no apparent reason? > John Degnan Three times in 28 years. That is far too many times for Kadee to be considered reliable. Yep! You bet. How many times does the prototype bust a knuckle? Just wondering. "S"miles...Ed L.
