Can other model trains work on Bachmann EZ track and Bachmann couplers

[CPRailfan31]

I am thinking about buying more model train stuff from other companies. Can I take out there couplers and replace them with your ez mate ones

[bbmiroku]

Unless you absolutely want to spend your money, if the other models already have knuckle couplers, the EZ Mates will work with them.

[Joe323]

Make sure they have knuckle couplers. If you are going to replace them consider using metal Kadee couplers.  No sense in having to do it more than once.

[Trainman203]

Metal knuckle couplers with coil springs on the knuckles are much better than plastic couplers with a little thin plastic feeler holding the knuckle closed.  The feeler will lose elasticity and allow the knuckle to shift open and closed, losing dependable closure .  The plastic coupler can come apart over time.  Most clubs prohibit plastic couplers, and plastic wheels as well.

[wiley209]

The E-Z Mate knuckle couplers are based off Kadee's knuckle coupler design that dates back to the 1940s. Originally, only Kadee made them, but in the late 90s when their patent expired, other model train companies began making couplers using a nearly identical design, including Bachmann. The E-Z Mate couplers will work with Kadee couplers, along with other companies' couplers like McHenry and Walthers. While Kadee's are the highest quality (and I use them on some of my locomotives and rolling stock), I have had nearly no problems with the other companies' couplers. Until last year, Walthers also made knuckle couplers sold under the Life-Like brand that could easily be installed in older Life-Like, AHM and TYCO rolling stock and locomotives. They could work with pre-1990s Bachmann locos and rolling stock as well, but you would have to drill the hole a tad larger to fit Bachmann's unusual coupler hole size of the time that had to be screwed in (maybe it was proprietary or something?)

As for E-Z Track, virtually any HO-scale two-rail train will work on Bachmann's E-Z Track. While my current layout uses Bachmann E-Z Track, I do run other companies' trains on them as well. (In fact, the train sets made by Athearn and Walthers include E-Z Track as well.)