There was once a railroad, in the US of A, that proclaimed to be the “Standard Railroad of North America” (Or was it The World?). It was the Pennsylvania Railroad. Then there was the coupler that never thought of itself as the “Standard coupler” of model railroading; but for all intents and purposes WAS…The Kadee Coupler. (Still is in a lot of peoples’ minds)
Like trying to build a better mouse trap; many have tried to develop a better coupler, and a few have come close; but the Kadee has still held the spotlight, and has even improved.
Yes, it would be nice, and handy to be able to purchase a piece of rolling stock, that, out of the box would couple and uncouple with any other manufacturer’s product; but the standard coupler would NEVER please everyone, and never will. Taking scale, and era into consideration, there can never be a standard coupler.
I happen to have standardized on the Kadee “#1 scale” coupler. It serves my needs very well.
I happen to be deeply involved in operations, and am always observant of the market place, for new and better coupler products in order to improve operations.
Some claim that couplers that are operated by some device for “Pulling the pin” are the cat’s meow…maybe for them, but even in Large scale, the lift levers in long term will look nice but soon wear out or get broken. It is also rather hard to get our "VERY LARGE scale fingers down in between the cars on parallel tracks, in order to uncouple. The long handled, slot type screw driver does the trick with the good old Kadee.
Link and Pins are nice to look at and are dependable, but are a bitch to try to couple and uncouple in any real operation…then of course there is the scale question, and looks…
Yes, we can always go backwards in technology, and try to actually believe that we could be happy looking at the old Loop and Hook. Yes, they came free with most LS rolling stock (Saving a lot of money that can best be used for other needs. BUT…even the most devoted fan of the Loop and Hooks, cannot swear that they wish they looked a bit better, and were easier to uncouple…at times.
Then of course, when open mindedly debating the “Standard Coupler of the World” (!) issue; we always trip over the body mount, or truck mount disagreement.
It usually comes down to what is really wanted by a LS World, that is divided between people who are just wanting a simple loop or two in the garden to watch trains of any/all scales run around while they sip Mint Julips, and the other group that are more into scale, and operations. Standards might be of some interest to one group, but not the other.
My only suggestion is; that we might find some help in developing a standard mount. for couplers of some types on all rolling stock, that taking the scale of the rolling stock into consideration, could be used for any coupler the purchaser desires. The question of body mount or truck mount might be hard to answer, but at least there might be some help in that standard.
As we all know; no mater how much research and effort, by a lot of dedicated and well meaning individuals goes into any NMRA Standard; there will always be disagreement and rebelion…just like the old "Track power/Battery RC debates of old, and now the latest Battery Rc/ DCC/DCS debates of today…it’s a free World, last time I looked…Having fun in Model Railroading was supposed to be the only standard worth worrying about…!!!
