N scale wheels and coupler questions

[Neon Man]

As I've noticed before, N scale has made a tremendous amount of progress in the past 20 years or so! I am still attempting to "catch up" with this progress as I experiment with my 2' x 4' coffee table layout. ( I have DEFINITELY noticed a great improvement with my new Kato loco! *lol*)

I would like to be consistent with all my rolling stock, etc. and have been under the impression that metal wheels are superior to the plastic ones, and that "knuckle" couplers are better than the old "Rapido" couplers.

I have a few pieces of Bachmann rolling stock with metal wheels and Rapidos, and some Atlas boxcars with knuckle couplers but plastic wheels.

May I please ask this group's consensus on the merits of plastic vs metal wheelsets? Do plastic wheels make the track "dirtier" via plastic residues, etc.?

Also, where I could buy a number of metal wheel sets with the knuckle couplers so I could make sure that all my current and future rolling stock would be compatible?

Perhaps I am confusing "magnetic" knuckle couplers issues with the "regular" knuckle couplers?


All best, and thanks again for putting up with my newbie questions,
Joe

[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.