A momentous day!
- Thread starter KB02
- Start date
trailrider
Well-Known Member
You sure you don't want a few spares, just in case? I can give you several hundred residing in a drawer in my shop (away from my layout). Don't know why I'm keeping them. Case of packratitis, I guess. 
You blokes sound like me. I hoard. It's a terrible affliction. "It/they might come in useful some day" seems to be the reasoning (excuse) for doing it. In fact it's really about money I think. "I bought this. I paid good money for these. Am I REALLY just going to throw them away?"....."No!, I'll put them in this box, or in this Jar, they'll come in handy one day". "Or, I might be able to sell them, make some of what the cost me back". "Now, there's a plan!"
goscrewyourselves
I'm the one
Congrats KB02 one more thing to scratch off the bucket list!
Hoarding, yeah can probably include me in that as well and for the same reasons as Toot'n - hate throwing out money
Hoarding, yeah can probably include me in that as well and for the same reasons as Toot'n - hate throwing out money
N
NP2626
Guest
When I decided to convert to Kadees when I started back in the hobby, the first thing I did when I opened a kit box was "Chuck" the X2Fs into the garbage. Never kept them, don't miss them and don't see a time when I would ever need them for anything. Later, when I decided on Metal Wheels, I put the plastic wheels in a kit box, saving them for some reason I have yet to determine!
KB02 your on the main, now!
KB02 your on the main, now!
KB02
Well-Known Member
You sure you don't want a few spares, just in case? I can give you several hundred residing in a drawer in my shop (away from my layout). Don't know why I'm keeping them. Case of packratitis, I guess.
Ha, ha!
No.
I, like the other, have a bunch saved for no reason that I can think of. I have seen ebay auctions, though, where people are actually trying to sell them.
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Congratulations on the conversion completion. I too have a box full of horn-hook couplers. I have cut many into pieces to add to scrap loads in gondolas. I did run into a dealer at a train show once that said he would pay $1 for 500 if I brought them in.
Willie
Willie
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
I don't know why manufacturers would put such a ridiculous thing on a model railroad car to begin with. Putting square wheels on them would have been an equivalent act.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
That is quite a milestone. I will never get to that one for my roster. I have a set of cars that still have their original Baker couplers, a set with their original Devore's, a few with there original Mantua's, etc. They will always remain original. Whether they will ever see service on the layout is a different story.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
That one is easy. in the 1950s the HO market place was a mess with every manufacturer having their own style of incompatible hooks. USA was not as affluent as it is today so almost doubling the cost of a freight car for couplers was not an option. The X2F enabled the industry to make cars that would work with other vendors for almost no cost. Had it not been for this coupler it is questionable if the HO scale "fad" of the time would have become the predominate scale in use today. Personally despite being an early adopter of the Kadee, I found the X2F to generally work quite well.
Some actually have come close to square. I had a few early Rapido (Canadian brand) coaches that you could actually see the pits in the treads.
IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
The biggest problem I remember having with them during my early years in the hobby, was the sideways pressure they exerted against each other, making it virtually impossible to run any car that I couldn't add weight to (such as tank cars) without them derailing on curves.
N
NP2626
Guest
They worked at the time and I believe they where designed by the NMRA, doesn't make them a good design; but, like I say they worked at the time. Your sort of showing your newness to the hobby, with the above question/statement. At the time the X2F coupler was in use, most of us kids involved in the hobby really couldn't afford anything much better, even though Kadees were being offered. I haven't gotten X2F couplers in a kit in 10-15 years, unless I am buying old stock, so manufacturers today are not offering the X2F coupler, anymore.
Congratulations KB02 - It is a moment in history!
A few really funny comments and several informative ones too!
I have moved 8-9 times in the past, but I have always saved my "precious" horn-hook couplers??????
A few really funny comments and several informative ones too!
I have moved 8-9 times in the past, but I have always saved my "precious" horn-hook couplers??????
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
I haven't seen a horn hook coupler on person for ages until I picked up a Stewart F unit on ebay to build my North Coast Limited. If I recall, that thing was whacked off shortly after this photo was taken. That locomotive must have been sitting around for ages.
I agree with Ken, they do look ridiculous, but they did work.
I agree with Ken, they do look ridiculous, but they did work.
N
NP2626
Guest
We all look back to how things were and wonder why we put up with what we put up with. At the time, I thought my HO trains with their huge Horn Hook couplers still looked far more realistic than the Lionel trains my neighbors & Buddies had. We didn't run our trains on three rails and the track had realistic ties, realistically spaced and the X2F coupler was more in proportion to the cars and locos on our more realistic track.
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