Model Railroading > MTH remote controllable Proto-Couplers

I have several of the MTH HO SD70Ace in UP Heritage paint that came with the remote controllable Proto-Couplers.

Is anyone actually keeping these on the locomotives and using them?

I got rid of the front ones, but kept the the rear (for now)

By coincidence I have a MTH ACe vid I'm just about to post!

I now have 13 MTH SD70ACe locos (3 more coming) and have removed the operating couplers on all and replaced them with Kadee #119 couplers with the top shelf cut off as per the prototype. I actually liked the remote couplers but when I tried to MU them with 2 locos on the front of a train and 2 on the rear, the couplers did not align well with the Kadee's on the adjacent cars. This was very evident when the train went up a helix. The train came uncoupled and overall was a huge mess. I have not had any problems with the Kadee's so I know I made the correct choice.

One interesting note, I had difficulty using MTH's coupler box so I tried the ones that come with the Kadee couplers and they worked flawlessly. Not a lot of difference in the look of the boxes either.

While the novelty and concept of the remote couplers is cool, they just aren't very practical and flat out don't work all that well unfortunately.

Rio Grande Fan
Denver, CO

I have 14 units and have replaced all the auto couplers with Kadee. I even use a short shank on the rear of the unit to keep the distance between units a little closer. I've seen the operating couplers work on the club layout when the units 1st started arriving. The uncoupling wasn't too bad but to couple to a car you had to ram the car pretty hard to get the coupler to close.
Stan

I was hoping to keep just the rear one, but on mine, the knuckles didn't move consistently on either side, so I bad-ordered them and put the ol' reliable Kadee #5's. I'm glad MTH designed the pocket to be easily replaceable and didn't force me to use the Proto-Couplers.

Thanks for all the replies.

I had just finished replacing all the couplers with Kadees on all five of my MTH SD70Ace when I posted the question.

When I first purchased the locomotives back in October, several guys at the club told me I should replace the couplers right away. I took the advice with a grain of salt because there seems to be quite a few MTH haters at the club...so I decided to give the couplers a fair try and see for myself.

Well, I had three recurring issues with the couplers that prompted me to finally replace them.

1) Too much speed and force required to close the couplers.

2) Excessive up and down play in the coupler height causes random uncoupling on changes of grade.

3) When backing, the pushing locomotive coupler tends to swing all the way to one side, the resulting side force derails the first car.

So how much extra did this drive up the price of the units? Mabey it's time the manufacturers stopped with all the gimmicks.

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

ALCO630 Wrote:
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> So how much extra did this drive up the price of
> the units? Mabey it's time the manufacturers
> stopped with all the gimmicks.

I'm not sure...but I can say that the units were priced pretty much the same as other brands that don't have the "gimmick" couplers.