N scale wheels and coupler questions

[shaygetz]

I swap out all my cars with Kadee wheelsets and couplers---unfortunately, Kadees do not come with metal wheels and I am one of those folks who has seen that metal wheels do make a difference, at least in my HO models. For now though, I am content with the performance I have seen from my Kadees. Quite possibly, the weight differences between the two scales is what makes the metal wheels work in HO.

I well remember in the early daze of N, Kadee actually made replacement car frames that mounted the couplers to the carbody. This was because common practice in Ho showed that body mounted couplers tracked much better than the truck mounted ones did. However, it was soon found that it made little difference in N scale and the frames were soon dropped from their line. This may be the case with plastic vs. metal wheelsets between the two scales.