Hook Couplers

[HO67]

Bought a Bachmann "Harry Potter" train. Needs some replacement hooks. Surprise, surprise....can't just find them. Went to the coupler site that was talked about in the forum. No hooks there. Can anyone shed some light?

[jward]

i am assuming that the site you went to was kadee? they only sell knuckle type couplers.

what you are looking for is a hook and loop type coupler similar to the ones used on the thomas line. thomas couplers are available through parts and service for $1 apiece as part# OOCO1

[Doneldon]

HO67-

Broken horn/hook couplers (aka NMRA or X2f) provide a great excuse to replace them with knuckle couplers, at least if you plan to remain in the hobby. Of the knuckle couplers, the Kadees are the best by far, and they make a huge variety of configurations so you can equip anything with them. Properly installed Kadees (it's not hard to do) are much more reliable in operation and durable for the long run than horn/hooks and even other knuckle couplers. Yes, converting everything to Kadees will take some time and money, about ten minutes and $1.15 per car, but it is an effort and an expense which will return better value than you put into it. Plus, you'll find that the majority of equipment sold these days already has knuckles (not necessarily Kadees) which means you'll be retrofitting couplers anyway. You probably won't experience a cost for this as just about everything will include some X2f couplers in the package.

                                                                                                                                                             -- D

[RAM]

(aka NMRA or X2f)  As a menber of the NMRA for well over 50 years, let me say please delete NMRA .  It is X2f coupler.  The members turn down the X2f.

[Doneldon]

(aka NMRA or X2f)  As a menber of the NMRA for well over 50 years, let me say please delete NMRA .  It is X2f coupler.  The members turn down the X2f.

RAM-

I understand. However, many manufacturers who install knuckle couplers
put on their packging that NMRA couplers are included. ... So, I use the
term when communicating with new modelers who might know the X2f as
NMRA.

               -- D

[jward]

horn hooks were not used on the hogwarts express. they used a hook and loop type. the two are not compatable.

[ripvanwnkl]

What about these? 

http://www.amazon.com/Bachmann-Trains-Thomas-And-Friends/dp/B000EHNSQM

[jward]

those should work.

[Jhanecker2]

I am sorry that I am about to rain on everyone's parade the Thomas Hook & Loop connectors  are a different size than the hook  & loop connectors on the "Harry Potter" Hogwarts Express . Having said that I did replace the connector on the back of the tender with a "Thomas" type connector and it worked well to couple to "Thomas" type cars .  Replacing the couplers on the "potter" cars will mean having to remove the talgo type couplers from the trucks  and installing body mounted coupler pockets to the cars . You are going to have to modify the cars to either use the "Thomas" style  hook & Loop coupler or to install knuckle type couplers. I have 3 sets of Bachmann Hogwarts Express cars  that I will eventually have to modify . The advantage of doing so is that it will make the cars less suseptical to derailing when backing up and being able to connect other cars & equipment to the "Potter" cars.  The Thomas couplers will connect to the Potter cars but the connects are not optimal. J2.

[Jhanecker2]

To HO67 :  Checkout discussion At  General Discussion , Topic : Hogwarts Express - Need Manual . Dated November 20.2012 , 11;32:43 PM , Author "AVale" Further down I asked about the couplers used on british models . You might want to check out the links for more information . J2

[ebtbob]

Good evening all,

     Let me add to what Doneldon said earlier.   I got in the wonderful hobby of model railroading back around 1957.   At that time,  the Mantua hoop type coupler was being fazed out by the "NMRA" coupler.   It wasn't until late in the 1960s or the early 1970s that I ever heard the term hook/horn which,  now I understand it,  should be horn/hook.  I do not know when I ever heard the term X2f.  I didn't even know what NMRA refered to,  it was just a term.   I was like almost every other model railroader in my area and that was the term that was used.  It was not meant,  as far as I know,  as a slur to the National Model Railroad Association.  Going back to X2f,  where did that term come from and other than a name for a coupler,  no longer to be called an NMRA coupler,  does the term have any specific meaning?

[ebtnut]

Re X2F:  I believe that term came out of the NMRA committee that was trying to develop a "universal" coupler, and that it was simply a file code for that particular design iteration.  Even I'm not old enough to know the details, but my understanding was that this design became a Recommended Practice, hence the NMRA imprimatur even though it was never a "standard".  The industry liked it because it could be cast in one piece with the rest of the kit parts for plastic cars, and because it wasn't proprietary, they didn't have to pay any royalties as would have been the case with something like the early Kadee coupler.  However, even by the early 1960's when I entered the hobby the "scale" guys were already moving to the Kadee because they worked well and looked like a real coupler. 

[Len]

The NMRA had a committee looking at coupler designs from 1952 - 1955 in the hopes of adopting a standard design for HO use. The committee developed a Data Sheet http://www.nmra.org/member/sites/default/files/datasheets/General/d1i.PDF for a coupler design designated X2F, but it was never adopted by the NMRA as a Standard or Recommended Practice.

The data sheet was made available to manufacturers but, since it wasn't a Standard, variations in  shank design ended up being used. The two most commong being the large hole 'Athearn' body mount style, and the small hole 'Tyco' talgo truck design.

Len

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

No joke, thanks for the interesting "coupler history." The trains I grew up with in the 60s and 70s were all RTR with NMRA/X2F/horn-hook couplers, so it's interesting to me to know some of the history behind the design.

Quite regularly I see items with the older Mantua "loop" couplers come up on eBay. I always think they must be from the estate of someone who has passed on. 

[ebtnut]

Back in the early days (late '40's/early '50's) the Mantua loop and hook was the most popular HO working coupler.  The knock with them was that, when properly installed, they were a very good coupler but a not-so-good uncoupler.  Stories used to circulate about having trains derail and everything went to the floor because the cars wouldn't uncouple. 

Some folks just used dummy scale couplers.  Just getting a train to run was a good thing, and there was not the emphasis on operations that there is these days. 

There were also the MDC and DeVore working knuckle couplers which looked good but were not very reliable.  Also out there was the Baker coupler.  It was a loop and hook type fairly similar to some of today's Euorpean designs.  They didn't look like a coupler, but they apparently worked well.  I believe both Whit Towers and John Allen used them for that reason.  The original Kadee MK coupler came out in the mid-50's if memory serves.  These had a straight uncoupling pin extending down from the end of the knuckle.  A diamond-shaped ramp was used to mechanically uncoupler the cars.  The current magentic design followed a few years later.