# Recommended car joiners/connectors



## Matison (12 mo ago)

I don’t have many locomotives or cars, but with what I have, there are 3 different styles of connectors. What is the best train car joiner for N scale? I’d like to have them all the same.


----------



## Mixed Freight (Aug 31, 2019)

Well, most folks will probably say Micro-Trains Line (MTL) couplers, hands down. Everything else is adequate at best, and go downhill from there.

Exception: Kato couplers are great, too. But only by themselves, as they don't work or play as well with others.


----------



## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Do agree with Mixed Freight..Micro Trains couplers are
the hobby standard...they're knuckle couplers, just like the real railroads...For bests 
results convert all your locos and cars to the Micro
Train couplers.

Don


----------



## Steve Rothstein (Jan 1, 2021)

I do this a little differently. I love my Kato locomotives and their couplers work really well with Kato cars. Unfortunately, DonR and Mixed Freight are correct that they do not play well with other brand couplers. So, my BLI and Athearn locomotives have coupler problems with my Kato cars and my Kato locomotives have problems with my MTL cars.

My passenger trains are pretty much a set where I keep the cars with the locomotive so my freight cars are the only real problem. I have one box car that has a Kato coupler on one end and a MTL coupler on the other. As long as I use that one car in the right spot (between the Kato and MTL cars), I can run any train I want.

I agree that the correct solution is to switch all of your couplers to one brand, and it probably doesn't matter which brand. But an "interface" car is much less expensive and much less work (and I am both cheap and lazy at some things).


----------



## pmcgurin (Sep 7, 2010)

I agree that ideally you would make all couplers the same, and MTL couplers are best. Cost might be an issue, and it might take time to complete a change of all couplers, and so an interface car with one end MTL and the other end Rapido or Kato as necessary. 

About twenty years ago U made all my passenger cars Kato knuckle couplers, because the locos came with Kato couplers. I have a few passenger cars I bought that had Micro Trains couplers, and these work with the Kato couplers.

Going all Micro Trains on the freight cars has not led to a perfect world, because sometimes the MTL couplers don't mate to esch other, even with MTL-made cars, but reordering the cars usually makes it work. I am left wondering if the MTL couplers wear out. Also, Kato couplers sometimes won't join with other Kato couplers, and reordering the cars in a passenger train isn't necessarily desirable. 

An issue with Micro Trains cxouplers can be one's eyesight when trying to put Micro trains couplers on locos. I am 73 and have macular degeneration, which makes close work on tiny parts difficult. I only use Micro trains couplers where I can buy the truck with them included. You could have someone else install them, though. I have decided not to spend much more on trains, because I have enough stuff and am selling off the stuff I don't need. So, the items with non-Micro trains I won't use or will have an interface car.


----------



## Matison (12 mo ago)

“an "interface" car is much less expensive and much less work”
[/QUOTE]
That is a great idea. I think that I will do it this way for now, because the other option is fairly expensive.


----------



## scenicsRme (Aug 19, 2020)

Every new MTL car and their trucks and couplers, come with very detailed instructions on how to adjust and align their couplers on the car. They sell alignment gauges that help align the couplers. N scale couplers are pretty small, so any missalignment can result in uncoupling when running over all but near perfect track. Another hidden track problem that can easily cause uncoupling is any abrupt transitions from flat to inclined or declined track. Those transitions should have easements included just like horizontal transitions from straights to curves.


----------

