What are Kadee couplers and why should I use them?
Most locomotives and rolling stock come with an industry-standard coupler – for HO they are X2f (commonly called horn-hook) and for N they are Rapido. These couplers are only suitable for those who don’t plan to do much switching and coupling/uncoupling of the cars, their primary advantages being that they are free and require virtually no adjustment. Kadee makes a line of more prototypical looking couplers that are available in all common scales and which are used by most serious modelers. They are magnetically operated, allowing you to uncouple cars without touching them. Uncoupling ramps made of permanent magnets or electromagnets can be positioned at strategic places on your layout to perform this uncoupling. Rix (another company) sells an inexpensive magnetic rod which can be held between the cars to uncouple them without removing them from the tracks. Note that Kadee couplers are not compatible with the standard couplers, so once you switch you’ll have to convert all of your equi
