Hi Ken,
I have been converting couplers for quite a while now and really found the cars perform very well. My 86 foot Auto Parts box cars Athearn put out had a long shank on it’s coupler swivel box and if you backed them anywhere they would take your train right off the track. The arm was tied in to the wheel trucks with a couple of plastic tangs and the arm was thin plastic. All I did on those is cut the tangs off and cut another cross bulkhead that I glued into place just behind the coupler box to the bottom of the floor I knotched a groove for the shank to slide in limiting the travel left and right and just loose enough to allow the shank to slide without letting it droop. Install your KD of your choice. Mine was the Kadee no 118 Double shelf coupler which will really stay connected. This coupler is a good choice for long cars. These are also suppose to be the correct coupler for modern passenger cars which use the H coupler that are suppose to be the positive lock coupler I did this as I run a lot on older modules where the level from each module as they crossed to the next module a number 5 would walk out of the coupler because the modules have warped a bit over the years. I am now backing 10 Auto Boxes into a switchyard no 6 switches with 8 or 10 Walthers Auto racks on the end of the train they have to push against when backing up. Try that without this little fix Trailer flats I do the same. This is where I learned a lot about the knuckle couplers and especially the Kadees. These no 118 couplers work really well where the McHenry coupler which was suppose to be a positive lock double shelf was only looks they never stayed coupled over unlevel track The shelfs never kept them locked together and of course they were also plastic and more delicate. If you want to see the strength of the Kadee, Their display at the MFG Shows has a clear tube of freight cars hanging many cars from their couplers from way up high. I think with that many cars hanging on plastic couplers they would break from the weight. Good luck on getting them over there in the UK am sure they get you on shipping. Good Luck with your conversions from Newman Atkinson

Sheldon,
What ever couplers you choose to install the effort is worth it. Check out my Caboose Parade videos, Almost all of the Cabooses were old horn couplers and about as many were truck mounted couplers and one of them was my very first caboose from 1959. Each car you may work on might need something different to make it work or adjust the height of your new coupler. A thin plastic shim for instance. A lot of those cabooses I had as a kid and I basically worn them out or broke couplers without a good source of replacements or instruction at the time. I started digging into some of my old boxes and decided into repairing the ones I had and it wasn’t long before I had quite a few repaired and converted. As you can see the Caboose Parade 2012 and caboose parade 2015 have the cabooses in working order. That doesn’t say they don’t need windows, ladders, detail parts and paint. These trains were run on New year’s Eve. 2016’s run was done on someone else’s layout and I have not got it on my page yet. The 2016 run has the highest amount of them to date and I have about 7 cabooses that still need repair or are wood kits that I have found. As you can see the number of the cabooses on these trains is a lot and there is a lot of pull on the couplers. So although there are a mixed set of Manufactures of couplers on this fleet Kadee’s have held up well where the others finally give out. If you pull this caboose line up by hand you can feel the pulling power it takes to make the run. I mostly use the ones with the KADEE couplers installed toward the front of the train to reduce the load on ones neasr the back to help the life of those plastic couplers. New Years 2017 is quickly coming up and again I will break them out for its annual run and with a couple more on the car log. I have also given clinics on how to convert old Athearn High cube 86 foot auto box cars. Athearn never designed those couplers right and now with how I do it I am now backing long trains into multi swtch switchyards and the piece of plastic is only 20 cents a car to do…… Good Luck and check out the videos from Newman

If you do decide to convert your couplers, be perpared for the cost, the time and energy that you will need to do the conversion with. And don’t foreget about the adjustments that you will need to do to get them to work right, and the occasional adjustments when they get knocked out of alignment.

Please understand, I’m not against anyone who wants to do the conversion of couplers. I just feel that the size of the layout and the time and amount of energy needed for the conversion and up-keep should be considered as a factor in the process.

Hi,
We are using Dapol magnetic they are automatic once a magnet is set in the track to where you want to uncouple. We have changed most of our sprung couplings on our coaches which are UK rolling stock and found no trouble with them. We are running N Gauge Graham Farish.and Dapol rolling stock including locomotives which some are easily to convert just by pulling gently on the NEM coupling and inserting the magnetic coupling on a couple of our coaches we have cut away a piece that holds the sprung coupling and glued the magnetic coupling in its place.
Hope this helps,
Gloria.(GWRGirl)

Do you like shunting, well Tension lock and NEM couplers from Europe can be cantankerous if that’s your thing. In that case, yes convert your fleet. And as suggested above, delayed uncouplers like KDs and the clones are surely the way to go. Whenever you buy a piece of rolling stock buy the relevant buff envelop of KDs and convert it.

It’s another new skill in the toolbox.