historians- wierd couplers

[u18b]

I'm familiar with this early Arnold loco.

But I've never seen those couplers before.

Anybody know anything about them?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ARNOLD-RAPIDO-200-UNION-PACIFIC-UP-130-DIESEL-N-SCALE-STREAMLINER-/261484137781?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3ce1ab4d35

[ljudice]

Looks like an HO scale "Kup-EZE" - but I was not aware they came in N-scale....

[Snark45]

So this is the style of coupler that appeared on the very early Lone Star "Trebel-o-Lectric" line of 9 mm gauge trains. I don't know what (if anything) they are known as...

Harry

[C855B]

I our youthful ignorance we called them loop-hooks. A friend had a few.

[spookshow]

So this is the style of coupler that appeared on the very early Lone Star "Trebel-o-Lectric" line of 9 mm gauge trains. I don't know what (if anything) they are known as...

Harry

Sort of, although not exactly the same.



Cheers,
-Mark

[strummer]

They look to me like HP Products TT scale couplers. I actually dabbled in that scale very briefly in the mid 70's, and all my HP stuff had those couplers...

Mark in Oregon

[u18b]

I was only familiar with three couplers on this loco.

The original was the sideways V coupler.
The second was a Rapido with a spike on it so that cars with the old V couplers could couple to it.
The third was a typical Rapido that we all know and love (hate) without the spike.

I've never seen this one before.

It is sort of similar to the Lone Star coupler, but not the same.

I wonder if this might somehow predate the V coupler??

[spookshow]

My guess is that they're not the original couplers. But that's just speculation on my part.

Cheers,
-Mark

[Nato]

           They are not the original coupler's, my locomotive which was painted NH that I repainted to UP had the V couplers. What this locomotive has been retrofitted with are Mantua HO Hook & Loop couplers which I had to use on my Teenage HO layout because Kadee HO Couplers would not work on my sharp curves when applied even to shorty Globe/ Athearn passenger cars, so my passenger cars received these except for one end of my RPO which had a moveable dummy coupler that hand coupled to the dummy couplers on my Athearn /Revell UP F-7 diesels. My freight cars used the good old XF2 coupler except for a conversion car with a dummy at one end if I ran the UP diesels. If I ran the Athearn Rio Grande  (rubber band drive) F-7 A-B locos they had XF2 couplers. My Mantua Kit Built 2-8-2 had a dummy coupler on the tender and my Brass SP 4-6-2 later brush painted flat black by me (ECCH !) also had a dummy coupler. To repeat  in closing those are Mantua HO Hook  Loop couplers.

[spookshow]

Upon further review, they look like a hack to me. The front one doesn't even match the back one (note the height of the "hooks" relative to the "loops").



Maybe some intrepid soul wanted to use it to pull some Lone Star cars?

Cheers,
-Mark

[FrankCampagna]

The Rapido "Baldwin" I owned came with Rapido couplers. They were fixed to the trucks, not box mounted, as I recall.

[tom mann]

Wow, that all sucks.

[wazzou]

Cheers,
-Mark

I like how it looks like they used a variety of Legos for the tooling on the sides of that thing.

[spookshow]

The original was the sideways V coupler.
The second was a Rapido with a spike on it so that cars with the old V couplers could couple to it.
The third was a typical Rapido that we all know and love (hate) without the spike.

First -



Second -



Third -



I stand by my assessment that this eBay thing is not stock.

Cheers,
-Mark

[spookshow]

I like how it looks like they used a variety of Legos for the tooling on the sides of that thing.

Meh, these weren't much more than kid's toys back in the early 60's. Applying Railwire "standards" to them at this point in history seems a bit silly to me 

Cheers,
-Mark