Are N Scale Couplers Actually HO?

[KB02]

Saw a photo recently of an extremely well put together and expertly weathered HO locomotive the other day (can't quite remember where), and about the only way I could tell it was a model and not the real thing (again, beautiful work!) was looking at the knuckle coupler. It just looked a little too big (that and the uncoupling wire is always a dead give away, but I digress). It just got me to thinking whether or not the N scale knuckle couplers might actually be more to HO scale than what we use.

Just a query...

 

[bnsf971]

Many die-hard HO true-scale modelers will use N scale couplers on their equipment, even though I think it's slightly undersize for HO. A standard coupler knuckle is 11" tall. Most equipment is coarser to keep things rolling along together over the less-than-perfect track on our layouts.
And the EZ Mate couplers on that GP38 are oversized anyway. Kadee does make semi-scale couplers, if you want to go to the trouble of switching over, though you'll probably find your stuff comes uncoupled during operation.
Since you're starting down that rabbit hole, wheel flanges and treads are also oversize so the wheels don't fall off our trackage. Nearly all our equipment has to have more play and slop than the real thing just so we can run it.

 

[RhB Michael]

Even when the Europeans reduced the wheel flange depth on the wheels, they are still slightly over-scale as are much of the rest of the HO world. They don't call them pizza cutter flanges anymore, but they are still larger than scale.

And forget about a scale coupler. If they used scale couplers on locomotives and rolling stock you would be forever coupling and uncoupling wagons. I believe Weinert makes a true-scale coupler for display pieces and trains that will never be uncoupled, but they are quite fiddly and require a certain amount of patience to couple up.

Right in the middle of the two horizontal rods is a nut that tightens the connections after the wagons are buffer-to-buffer.

 

[Selector]

The NMRA guidelines about such things are there for a reason, and after much debate and engineering. They just work. Scale modelers, those actually seeking to mimic an item in scale on rails, would want something more realistic. You almost couldn't see scale HO flanges.

 

[kjd]

Look at Proto87 for scale wheels and trackwork. Sergent used to make scale HO couplers but has since made their product line open source. Last I looked, they are available on EBay from several sources.

HO Kadee #5 are actually S scale.

 

[cv_acr]

And forget about a scale coupler. If they used scale couplers on locomotives and rolling stock you would be forever coupling and uncoupling wagons. I believe Weinert makes a true-scale coupler for display pieces and trains that will never be uncoupled, but they are quite fiddly and require a certain amount of patience to couple up.

Right in the middle of the two horizontal rods is a nut that tightens the connections after the wagons are buffer-to-buffer.

The fact that any modern country is still using any kind of manual non-automatic coupler when the Janney knuckle coupler is over 150 years old is absolutely insane.