Couplings and Uncoupling Ramps

[Railtwister]

When I was a kid in the mid to late fifties, my trains came with Mantua brand hook and loop style couplings (called “tension-locks“ in the UK). Fortunately, Kadee magne-magic knuckle types were being introduced at about the same time, so I quickly switched to using them instead, since they looked very much like the couplings I saw on the real trains where I lived. Fast forward about 45 years, and I bought my first “Thomas” loco from Bachmann, and quickly became fascinated with British outline model trains, which recently has lead to a few purchases of OO scale models.

With my first Thomas item, I was reminded of my “old days” with the Mantua couplings, and so, I tried to replicate the uncoupling ramps I had used way back when, which were just a simple piece of clear plastic perhaps a half mm thick and about 10-11 mm wide by 75 mm long, which was tacked between the rails so as to have a slight ”bow” upwards just slightly above the rail head. As the trains ran over the clear plastic, their coupling hooks were lifted up, and if slack was introduced, the hooks disengaged the loops and the cars were uncoupled. I made a test sample using some model airplane canopy material on a couple pieces of snap track. I was so surprised that it worked (sort of), that I took it to the local shop and showed them. They were impressed, but since by this time the Kadee knuckle type couplings were widely being used in the US, and already came installed on most ready to run HO rolling stock, they wondered aloud ”why bother?” When I suggested that I might like to use these uncouplers for shunting some of the “Thomas” trains, they kind of smiled and shook their heads. I converted some “Thomas” wagons to Kadee using a combination of their NEM couplings, plus some Kadee couplings with their own draft gear boxes glued onto the floors of cars that didn’t have NEM couplings. since I wasn’t inclined to cut up any locos at the time, just in order to fit Kadees, a few cars were converted with Kadee knuckles on one end and tension locks on the other, to be used as adapter cars. Besides, somehow the knuckles just didn’t look quite right (not that the tension-locks look any better, really).

Sadly, my little “Thomas” layout never got built, and my snap track uncoupling tracks have since been lost to time. Almost two years ago I tried using some Kato HO UniTrack for a display at local train show set up for the holidays, and was so impressed, especially by the switches, that I’m again thinking about a small, portable Thomas/British outline layout, this time built using UniTrack. I would also like to be able to run my smaller pieces of On30 (Oe), Sn42, and some of my HO pieces as well, since the rails are the same. Buildings could be swapped out to match the scale of the trains running at that moment.

All of this just to ask: are there any more simple or reliable uncoupling ramps for tension-lock couplings that might be compatible with UniTrack? Should I try to accommodate the two coupling types on my little layout, or should I just convert everything to the Kadee knuckle types and be done with it? I really like the smaller locos and cars of the British Proflie models, but I don’t have space, funds, energy, or time to build a lot of separate layouts.

thanks,

Bill in FtL

[Buz]

Hi railtwister

I have similar problems only mine is caused by a multitude of tension lock from early Triang through to the modern mini tension lock and Hornby Dublo couplings.

My suggestion would be pick a coupling given your in the US by the looks of it, I would suggest Kadee's would be your best option umpteen different varieties including NEM easy access to the tools if you need them.

Wack the magnets under the Kato track and away you go, also make marker posts to suit all scales you want to run as well.

I saw pictures of the Bachmann Thomas layout on line, its not very big multi-layered very thick foam so is light weight and with a little malice of forethought could be adapted to your multi-scale idea.

It would definitely adapt to a nice compact On30 layout the very small port may be a tricky one to multi scale.

But it would need better scenic's than Bachmann used, but they of course did it for commercial reasons not as a hobby.

But still worth trying to find it on line for ideas.

regards John

[Railtwister]

Hi John,

You are absolutely correct about how too many different manufacturers spoil the interchangeability of what should be a standardized design. That problem was there in the USA with the original hook & loop couplings of which the Mantuas were only one of several brands used on early equipment.

The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) came up with the NMRA X2f coupling design specification (which  it made available free to all manufacturers at no royalty cost) to try and address the problem in the mid fifties, and that didn’t work either, for the same reasons. Each manufacturer’s design team made small tweaks and changes to the original X2f design which soon  prevented the couplings from different manufacturers from working properly together, while almost any one of them worked pretty well if you didn’t try to mix brands.

Then along came Kadee, with their patented “Magne-matic” design and things went pretty well until their patents timed out, allowing any manufacturer to make clones, and the whole tweaking cycle began anew. I have noticed that the same thing seems to be happening with the NEM standard on your side of the Atlantic, where the standards for height, shank & dovetail size, and even material type seem to be different, preventing proper interchange. Seems like a decent manual magnetic hook-lifting wand could be made for the tension locks could be made if only ALL the coupling hooks were made of steel, instead of some steel and some plastic.

If Kadee had stuck to their original stainless steel centering wire on their NEM couplings, I probably would just use them as a standard, but their new design with plastic centering springs just ars not as reliable (a fact ironically proven by all the Kadee clones out there that tried unsuccessfully to use little plastic molded-in springs for centering and on the knuckles).

thanks for your input,

Bill in FtL