Lionel knuckle coupler change to horn hook.

[6pack]

All my stock have hook and horn couplers. Recently purchased at tag sale Lionel engine, year-1988 with one knuckle coupler. I'd like to change it to horn hook coupler. Can I ? Is there a certain type of horn hook coupler that I need to get? Appreciate some help. Thanks

[Trainman203]

I suspect horn hooks aren't made any more.  You may have to buy a sacrificial car to get one and it might take several tries to get one that fits.  Take this engine as an omen.  Convert now to knuckle couplers.  They are better in every aspect.  You don't need to do them all at once.  You can whittle the horn hooks to mate manually with the knuckles.

[rich1998]

Since you are happy using them I will not try to discourage you.
Go to ebay and search for horn hock coupler. There are many available. I just looked. No idea exactly which type you want. Good luck.

Rich

[Len]

Walthers has horn-hooks with the large hole, like Kadee knuckle couplers, item 933-995, and the small hole version by Life-Like, item 433-1410. You should also be able to find them at other places on line.

Len

[VTBob]

I still use the horn hooks on my passenger fleet which is mostly mid to early 80's Athearn cars. Kadees have a way of coming apart at the slightest rack rise or other imperfection.

You can usually find ziplok bags of them really cheap at swap meets.

VTBob

[Len]

If bypassing knuckle couplers on passenger cars are an issue, you could use Kadee #118 shelf couplers. They eliminate bypassing, and can be modified to look like prootype 'Type H' tight-lock passenger car couplers, as shown in the top right diagram here:
https://kadee.com/htmbord/page118.htm

Len

[Trainman203]

Kadee or knuckle couplers parting are usually caused by poor track leveling or a poor coupler height installation.  Once in a while that happens and I fix the issue.  It's not the fault of the coupler.

[Len]

Mostly I see knuckle couplers bypassing on small 'up & over' layouts with sharp vertical transitions onto the grades. The shelf on the old 'horn hook' couplers kept this from happening, which is why a lot of early pier sets got away with rediculous slope grades.

Len

[Terry Toenges]

That was happening on my Christmas figure 8 with E-Z Mate couplers. I switched them out for Kadee couplers and never had a problem again. I don't know why that worked.

[Len]

I think the metal pieces on the Kadee's are a bit thicker than the plastic couplers, leaving less space for parts to bypass without hanging up. But I've even seen #5's bypass on long cars running on a figure-8 with a "__/" type vertical transition.

Len

[bbmiroku]

The longer the car, the more vertical travel one set of wheels will get before the second set hits the slope.  Thus, the more vertical play the coupler will have.  Short cars, less play.

[Trainman203]

The worse the track, the more the problems.