Was at the LHS today, they had some of the whisker couplers there, so I bought some. I have always been using the #5 couplers with the brass centering spring plate before. Well, for those of us using magnetic uncoupling, I gotta tell you, the whisker couplers and draft boxes are first rate. The old style centering spring was a pain, both in installation and in getting 100% satisfactory operation. I'd put them together, put them on the test track with the magnet, and would have about a 20% failure rate, then I would squirt some graphitie in, that helped some of them, but the rest would have to be taken apart, a new spring put in, then back on the car, and tested again. Not fun. But what little I have played with the whisker couplers, wow, 100% flawless. I'm feeling much better about the uncoupling now. These things snap over to the uncoupled position when over the magnet, and snap right back to center when off the magnet. Couldn't say that about all the #5s.
Er.... but the bad thing is, Kadee is fixing to get a bunch more of my money
The whiskers are the way to go. I purchased somea while ago and I'm very pleased with them. It's such a simple solution , I'm surprised that it wasn't thought of earlier.
I've converted all my rolling stock to the #158 and have been very happy. I'm also switching all the wheels to the Intermountain .088 semi-scale wheels. They look much better and I've seen no increase in derailments.
Tom
I gotta say I agree. While I've been actually converting to the # 58's semi scale spring couplers, I was impressed by a couple pairs of the # 158 semi scale whiskers I picked up a while back. Easy to install and they work like butter.
The downside... they cost more. :?
Glad to hear that y'all have had good results too. At some point, I'll begin swapping out all the #5s.
From the beginning of my US model railroading in 2006 on i equipped my rolling stock with the Kadee #58 scale couplers.
All plastic clones were removed and replaced with the Kadee's
When the wiskers appeared in my hobby shop i tried them and stayed with them. They are still a little bit better than the ones with the bronze springs.
Lutz
While I haven't brought myself to use the 'scale' size couplers, I do now use the whisker variety whenever posisble (I still have some good old #5's to use up). The whiskers are particularly handy with Athearn cars with those metal snap-on cover plates. With a regular #5 you had to manage the car, the coupler, the flat spring, and try to get the lid on. With a whisker, no more flat spring to worry about.
I do replace EVERY knockoff coupler with real kadee, they are the only ones I have found to be completely reliable.
Dunno if I will swap all of them out for the scale size, I think my next major project will be paiting all the couplers. That should help make them look a bit smaller. I just got done putting resistors on the wheels of all the cars I run on the club layout, and painting the wheels, and polishing the treads.
--Randy
I have to agree with everyone else about the Kadee whisker couplers. They work very well. While I'm not replacing all of my 200+ pairs of # 5's, I am replacing all of the dreaded McHenry's that I installed before I knew better.
Willie
I have a few of the whiskers and agree they are much easier to install. I have no real problems with ol reliable #5 so not going to replace all 600 of them, but if one of them ever break I will use the whisker ones. Also I have been replacing #5 on the front of locomotives with the #58 scale Couplers, just looks better.