Product Review: Sergent Engineering Couplers

I recently started the conversion to Sergent Engineering couplers. I spent most of my free time this weekend installing them, so I thought I would do a review about them today.

Sergent Engineering makes HO scale couplers that look and function exactly like their 1:1 scale counterparts. Unlike NMRA knuckle couplers, the Sergent couplers are detailed enough to be available in several types of couplers. The most common is type E, available with or without shelves. Type F couplers are available, however type H couplers are not. James has figured out how to make these using Sergents parts. If this all seems too technical, I will put a list of references at the bottom of this post. I have also uploaded photos to a Facebook album, viewable here.

The Sergents couplers have a long list of advantages, which include their looks and their operations. They look amazing, and are completely accurate. They are die-cast metal, so they are quite strong. They are exactly to scale. They are available in all the common coupler types, so it is easy to model railroad equipment with the proper couplers and everything. They work very much like the real couplers, with the locking knuckle and everything. They have very little slack as compared to standard knuckle couplers.

These couplers do have their share of disadvantages, the biggest one being price. These couplers are not cheap. The economical way to do it is to buy the coupler kits instead of the preassembled couplers. The kits are quite a bit cheaper, but still more than a pack of Kadees. However, you then have to assemble the tiny couplers. There is the main casting, the knuckle, the ball bearing, and the bottom piece. The bottom piece gets glued on, but be careful not to gum up the knuckle with the glue. This will cause the coupler to be glued shut and rendered useless. The other big disadvantage is that they are not Kadee compatible. Since most people use Kadees on their model railroads, it is not a bad idea to have a few "transition" cars, with a Kadee coupler on one end and a Sargent on the other end, in case you ever bring some of your rolling stock to a friend's layout or a club layout.

Assembling the couplers can be challenging at first, but once you get a system set up it goes pretty quickly. Luckily, Sergent Engineering has an assembly jig available. I bought two jigs. I assemble one coupler, glue it together, and let it sit in the jig while I assemble another coupler. I use a fast drying cyanoacrylade adhesive (CA), which is good for bonding metal. By the time I get the second coupler glued together, the first one is dry, and I can use the jig for the next coupler. This makes the process go quickly and I can have a small collection of couplers ready for installation in a short amount of time.

The next step is to break in the couplers. Since they are more intricate than standard knuckle couplers, they need to be lubricated and tested. I keep a mechanical pencil nearby and use it to put graphite on both sides of the knuckle, as well as the inside mating surface. I do this to two couplers, turn them upside-down so they don't lock, and mate and unmate them over and over again. I then turn them over so they do lock, and rub them up and down in each other, first pushing them together, and then pulling them apart. This makes sure I get the graphite on all the moving parts, and it also makes sure the CA holds well and the coupler will not break apart while on a train. I have had a few couplers break apart during the break-in process, but most stay in one piece. The few that failed go back to the workbench for reassembly. Soaking the coupler in acetone will neutralize the CA without damaging the metal parts and make it easy to disassemble the coupler and start over.

I started my collection with standard type E couplers. I bought the 144-pack, which are all kits, but by far the cheapest cost-per-coupler. It should get me through most of my type E rolling stock. Then I can focus on the less common couplers, such as shelf couplers for hopper and tank cars. They are a little more expensive. James' collection is a little further along, with several kinds of type E's on his rolling stock as well as type F's on his passenger locomotives and kitbashed type H's on his Empire Builder consist. While I only have type E's so far for my collection, I have seen and played with most of the other kinds available.

Anyways, the references I promised.

Sergent Engineering-the manufacturer of these amazing couplers.

Prototype Information: Couplers-A past blog post written by James.

Couplers-Another past blog post written by James, more focused on model couplers.

Kadee-Manufacturer of model knuckle couplers.