I noticed two of your cars have current conducting couplers which I have on my 4428 Reinewald set. They always seem to have problems because the little spring pops out and then the chassis is too stiff to make the bends. However the rest of my couplers work ok except when the old and new style join together which then I have to fiddle around to join them but they of themselves do not cause derailments. Check if the springs are attached (I admit couches are a pain to take apart) good luck - Fred

Agree with Dale. Use all Marklin and I find everything works. As soon as I have a Brawa coach there is a coupler problem. As said check the track and turnouts and inclines. Also sliders for lighting on coaches can cause problems.

Thanks for the good replies - all useful info. I agree that 4% is a bit steep - it's actually a little less than that but the trouble I've been experiencing comes mainly from the wagons detaching from the locomotive or derailments as the trains go downhill around curves. Thinking about it more carefully, the wagons are pushed together more as they go down an incline, and when going around a curve the couplers can get hung up on the buffers. I tried slowing the trains down at certain curves and this seems to have solved the problems. I'm not exactly sure why with certain locomotives, the wagons detach, but I can probably figure this out. And, the wagons with close couplers do better - I have fewer problems.

But your answers about using only Marklin couplers surprised me. While I do have all Marklin wagons and wheels and couplers, I see a fair amount of variation in coupler height - some droop down, others don't, and they often don't couple easily. I have wagons from way back as well as brand new, and I wouldn't be surprised if over the years some of the couplers have become mis-aligned, but there still seems to be a fair amount of variation in coupler height with newer wagons. Maybe I should be replacing some of the older Marklin couplers with newer Marklin versions?

At any rate, I appreciate your responses. Slowing things down has solved he main problems.

Cheers, John

Hi John. Glad you got on top of your problem. An easy fix as well. I have the occasional problem myself but not often. At the moment, I am running a very old V60 with older wagons and the modern but dastardly awfully Hobby named wagons. To get up my 3% incline I have to have the 280 tranny set just above 1/2 throttle, to stop the loco struggling, then on the flat its speed increases a lot, then a lot more going down the other side. Normally no problems but one day i noticed the last wagon had ended up at the front of the engine. [ that was one of the "hobby" wagons ] That what happens when you get busy controlling other engine on other areas of the layout.

Dereck

ps check all your older stock on a coupling gauge. Not sure its any use with the latest stuff as you cant adjust them like you can on the older stuff.t

One thing I have found is not to start or end an incline on a curve. Mainly just a matter or trail and error to get the right coupler for the right coach.

This is all good advice, and I went ahead and purchased some 7203 and 7205 to replace existing couplers. Many of my cars are from the 1990's and/or used from eBay, so the couplers have become damaged here and there.

The advice about not starting inclines/declines on curves is right on. Unfortunately for my layout, that's what I do, so I've taken care to make it a very gradual transition and also to go slowly, and this is one spot where surprisingly I do not have coupler problems. Also the advice of trial and error to get the right coupler for the right car is right on as well - I'm slowing seeing that, for example, I best not have a long freight car as the first car in a consist, and so forth. The passenger trains with current-conducting couplers are okay and I don't change anything except maybe the locomotive, and it looks like maybe I will need to do the same with the freight trains - perhaps the new couplers will help a lot, though.

Thank you all for the help - this has all been very useful advice for me.

4428 Reinewald set? What mysterious set is it? I found for Märklin # 4428 this wagon and no set:

https://www.lokmuseum.de...ine&Seite=4&SID=

I hope you enjoy a good cup of Ovomaltine.

Try 4228 Rheingold

https://www.maerklin.de/...ts/details/article/4228/

Per.

I think these two articles are a very helpful reference for couplers.

http://blog.mailez.de/eb...-couplers-for-h0-models/

http://blog.reynaulds.co...model-railroad-couplers/

Jabez

Hi John

What I have noticed over the years re derailments links to:
- vertical angle between adjacent rails . You mention grades of 4% which is OK (close to recommended maximum) the vertical angles of track must be as small as possible. Ideally it is best to curve rails vertically so that there is no angle but a smooth curve (Difficult to do with M track)
- no combination of curve / Counter-curve combined with grade change
- no non horizontal switches
Vertical interference is especially significant with Relex couplers you are using

I hope this helps

Cheers

Jean

Hi Jean,

To make sure I understand you, when you say "vertical angle" are you talking about avoiding one rail being higher than the other, in other words, avoiding canting the track? I do have one set of curves that is slightly canted mainly because of a Marklin article advising to do so, however the article was probably talking about curves not necessarily on an incline.

I appreciate your response as well as the other responses. Slowly, I am correcting the problems and derailments on the layout, greatly reducing my frustration and increasing my pleasure.

Hi -

They worked for me but I had to click directly on the URLs. Here they are without the "..." in the URLs, you need to put "http://" at the front:

blog.reynaulds.com/index.php/ho-scale-model-railroad-couplers

blog.mailez.de/eblog/2014/06/22/close-couplers-for-h0-models

These were both well-worth reading, in my opinion.

Thanks, I copied the URLs from @johnpatrickwack into my browser and oh wonder it is functioning. But your links are still dead. Welcome to the new digital world. In prior years we said: "many ways leading to Rome." And it is only important to achieve the goal.

Thank you for the explanation Jean and it makes a lot of sense - I ended up using some ramps made by Woodland Scenics and they did take this into account.

My coupler problems were mostly solved by ordered replacement close couplers from Marklin. I did order some from Roco but haven't played with them yet. But replacing what I could replace with new close couplers has made a huge difference - well worth the money.

Thank you again for the help!

Glad to hear this. Two notes I didn't see mentioned, or only briefly mentioned:

- train length: if you are running seriously long trains the issues are only amplified, and (really) long (really) heavy trains start pulling couplers out of their NEM sockets. Or just plain trains with a lot of drag. (older lighting kits + a pickup shoe on each car as an example)

- Adjustments. Marklin makes a coupler height adjustment tool for the earlier style couplers. (pre NEM socket). This will also be a big help for any older rolling stock...