Anyone else dislike these new knuckle couplers as much as I do? ...Until about a year ago all my equipment was older and had horn hook couplers, also known as X2F couplers. When I started getting new locos and rolling stock it all had magnetic knuckle couplers which I discovered were not backward compatible with the old X2F couplers. I discovered that not all of my older locomotives could be easily converted to knuckle couplers without major surgery which I am not willing to do. Some of those old locos still run good but are out of production with no parts available so I don't want to take the chance of damaging them if a coupler conversion doesn't go well. I made up several transition cars out of cabooses so I could run the old locos with new rolling stock. I remember seeing trains on the Norfolk & Western in the 1960s with a caboose behind the locomotive used as a mail car so that would be historically accurate for the era that I model. ...After I started running the new knuckle coupler equipped hardware I discovered that the knuckles don't like grade changes or rough track. Also different brands of rolling stock won't always stay coupled. Long strings of cars come uncoupled almost constantly. Another big headache is the microscopic coil spring on the knuckle couplers. A derailment or a hard hit on the coupler will dislodge the spring and it will then spring away never to be seen again. Replacing those springs is almost impossible with my middle aged eyes so I have to replace the coupler to fix them. I experimented with the knuckle couplers to find out why they were causing me such a big reliability problem and discovered that a hard pull such as an upward grade or a long string of heavy freight cars will cause the coupler to travel vertically and slip out of the other coupler. The old X2F couplers have a shelf on the bottom of the coupler to limit vertical movement so it cannot slip out of the other coupler. That is why the X2F is a more reliable coupler that will stay together on grade changes, uneven track and will even stay coupled in a derailment. The X2F also has no coil spring to dislodge and render the coupler useless. The X2F will also couple on a curve while the knuckles will only couple on straight track. If I set up a layout with an overpass I will only use the old hardware with the X2F couplers if I want the train to stay together. I started looking at different couplers and discovered that Kadee made knuckle couplers with a lower shelf. They are the Kadee 118 and 119. They are both medium center set so they won't fit everything. The 118 uses a separate spring and the 119 has whisker springs. I got some of these and tested them. The lower shelf on the coupler limits vertical movement and keeps them together on less than perfectly level track. Recently I purchased an IHC 0-8-0 steam locomotive with a Magic Mate coupler. I noticed that it had a lower shelf built into it and no coil spring. The trip pin can be slid up and down to adjust for clearance instead of having to use special pliers to bend them. The majic mate coupler is a universal coupler so they will also work with the old X2F couplers as well as magnetic knuckle couplers. I got some majic mate couplers and installed them on several locos to test them. The magic mates are a medium center set style coupler only so they may not work on everything. On the test track the magic mates will hook up to both knuckle and X2F couplers and stay coupled as reliably as the X2F couplers. ...They still won't couple on an 18" curve, you have to push the cars to a straight section of track like standard knuckle couplers. The majic mates will couple to anything and don't have that tiny coil spring that can dislodge and cause a coupler failure so I will be replacing the standard couplers on my equipment with magic mates any time they fail.