Sergent Couplers


macjet

macjet

Member
I'm planning on installing Sergent couplers in my fleet as they make their way through weathering. I'm curious as to what issues people are having with them. Are they drop in replacements for the KD 5/58? Are the boxes requiring modification? Do the couplers work as advertised?

Any and all info on Sergent appreciated.

Thanks.

Jacob
 
EC87's fit in Kadee boxes fine. The EN87 only fits scale boxes (IM Maxi-IV, Genesis covered hopper, Accumate P:87 box).

The only issues I have are short shanks, on the forward couplers, when a plow is on the front pilot of a locomotive. Also, they do not fit well in Walthers coupler boxes (at least older kits) because their boxes are designed too thin.
 
Sergent couplers work very well and look great. When I have my own layout, I will be using them, but for now only a select few items have them. The club I belong to is Kadee, so putting Sergents on all my stuff now is pointless.

The fact that Railflyer has a Sergent couple available for their scale coupler plates makes the switch to Sergent even more appealing for me, as I have several of their locomotive kits to build.

Sergent couplers are only available in one shank length, so clearing plows can be a pain, but with no trip pins, like on Kadee's, it is not such a big problem. There are also no offset shanks, so coupler height issues must be addressed by shimming the coupler or trucks.

Keep in mind that they are a bit of a pain to use when compared to Kadee style couplers. If you are looking for realistic operations, they are the way to go for sure, but if aligning couplers by hand and the occasional broken knuckle doesn't sound like fun to you, you may want to reconsider.
 
macjet said:
What was the problem exactly? Is it just too short to clear the plow?
Click to expand...
They clear the plow, but not bu much. An extra MM or so would be nice for pilots with plows. I noticed plow to plow coupling does not work the best below 24" radius, at least in my trials, I'm not fully converted yet, nor is my layout operational so it could have just been a one time issue.
 
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