With everything that has been said about these couplers, I decided to take a slightly different tack and look at how well they mate with both Lionel and other brands. I’ll designate them “2021” for now. I tested these couplers against Atlas O, MTH RailKing, MTH Premiere, K-Line, Weaver, and several different styles of Lionel. I tested the various combinations starting with both couplers open, then one closed and then the other closed.
The Atlas O, Weaver plastic truck, MTH RailKing, newer Lionel diecast with thumbtack, and Lionel Symington Wayne non-operating couplers all performed reliably. The MTH Premiere and K-Line couplers were in the middle, with at least one combination not functioning correctly. Other Lionel couplers were very problematic, with the Kinematic being the worst. I could bang the Kinematic car into the 2021 car as much and as hard as I wanted, and they still would not couple. If I lifted one and placed it into the other, the connection was hard and stiff. This resulted in the wheels of the 2021 car lifting off the track on an O-72 curve.
Other Lionel cars tested included an ore care from 2014 with plastic trucks, a flatcar with the newer diecast thumbtack equipped truck, and a hopper car with Standard “O” trucks which have been around since the late 1970s. I did not test any other MPC truck, nor anything newer than ~2018 from Lionel. I did not test passenger cars or engines.
Since I have a 3 pack of 2021 cars, I tested all of them. Some worked better than others, which leads to the conclusion that not all the couplers are made exactly the same. This explains why some people do not experience the problem while others do.
Next, I tried Rays suggestion of filing off selected areas of the 2021 coupler. From watching the repeated coupling failures, I determined the best chances of success would be to remove material from the outside of the coupler pin area (circle), and the inside or gullet area (arrow) of the knuckle. Material needs to be removed from both the coupler arm and the knuckle, in the area of the pin. It is best working on both areas with the knuckle closed. I used a flat diamond file on the outside, and a round diamond file on the gullet.
I removed material carefully and slowly, stopping often to test my work with the 2014 ore car and the Kinematic car.
This is one with enough material removed from the mentioned locations.
The 2014 car started working first. I did not want to remove too much material, so in some cases, I was unable to get the Kinematic car to behave reliably. When I did get the Kinematic to work, it still did not mate correctly.
Removing enough material to get the Kinematic to work did not affect the function of any of the other cars. They all worked reliably. I touched up the filed areas with a black sharpie.
Chris
LVHR
