anybody use these or heard of them
- Thread starter blackz28
- Start date
wonder if they work as well as they look
C
catt
Guest
Though I have no use for them myself I understand they play real well with their own kind.I've also heard they do not play well with other brands of knuckle couplers
RCH
Been Nothin' Since Frisco
I switched over about two years ago from Kadee couplers. They couple, but not very easily, to Kadee regular and scale head couplers. For some reason they couple better to some of the Kadee clones than to Kadees. Maybe since the clones I have are plastic and they can give a bit compared to the all-metal Kadees they couple easier.
[Edited to add: Sergent couplers do not couple to Walthers dummy couplers, which is what I use on my unit coal trains, so I've had to designate some cars as adapter cars with a Sergent coupler on one end and the dummy coupler on the other end.]
Until recently the double shelf Type E and Type F couplers were not available from Sergent, so I used the McHenry double shelf couplers on my tank cars and pellet hoppers and those couple easily and reliably to the Sergent couplers. Of course now those types of couplers are available from Sergent so I'll be replacing all the clones with Sergents here in the coming weeks.
I never cared for the magnetic operating function of the Kadee couplers, so I've always been a bamboo skewer uncoupling person. The tool for uncoupling Sergent couplers handles about the same as a skewer, but where it might take a try or two to get the skewer to uncouple the Kadees I can get the Sergent tool to work the first time.
I don't think I bought any of the assembled couplers, so I can't vouch for how well they're put together, but I can say that I've not had any come apart that I put together in the past two years. I have about 140 Sergent equipped engines and cars, so that's a lot of couplers!
I'd say if you are interested in your models having a very detailed appearance and want something a little easier to uncouple than Kadee couplers with a skewer, give the Sergent couplers a look. If you like the automatic coupling function of Kadees (it is a trade-off and something you'll miss) and don't mind the slightly out-of-scale look or the occasional difficulty with uncoupling, Kadees are hard to beat.
[Edited to add: Sergent couplers do not couple to Walthers dummy couplers, which is what I use on my unit coal trains, so I've had to designate some cars as adapter cars with a Sergent coupler on one end and the dummy coupler on the other end.]
Until recently the double shelf Type E and Type F couplers were not available from Sergent, so I used the McHenry double shelf couplers on my tank cars and pellet hoppers and those couple easily and reliably to the Sergent couplers. Of course now those types of couplers are available from Sergent so I'll be replacing all the clones with Sergents here in the coming weeks.
I never cared for the magnetic operating function of the Kadee couplers, so I've always been a bamboo skewer uncoupling person. The tool for uncoupling Sergent couplers handles about the same as a skewer, but where it might take a try or two to get the skewer to uncouple the Kadees I can get the Sergent tool to work the first time.
I don't think I bought any of the assembled couplers, so I can't vouch for how well they're put together, but I can say that I've not had any come apart that I put together in the past two years. I have about 140 Sergent equipped engines and cars, so that's a lot of couplers!
I'd say if you are interested in your models having a very detailed appearance and want something a little easier to uncouple than Kadee couplers with a skewer, give the Sergent couplers a look. If you like the automatic coupling function of Kadees (it is a trade-off and something you'll miss) and don't mind the slightly out-of-scale look or the occasional difficulty with uncoupling, Kadees are hard to beat.
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