Accurail HO 1020 Accumate Proto Couplers Kit with Draft Gear Boxes and Screws (2 Pair)

Pushing to the final frontiers of railroad model detailing, ACCURAIL has developed the first HO scale magnetic coupler that is a correctly scaled and proportioned representation of the prototype. Previous offerings in this field have suffered from poor appearance due to incorrect proportions; the width and length of the coupler are more than one third oversize, while the height is actually undersize, in an attempt to reduce the overall bulk of the coupler. Because of the increase in length, model cars coupled in a train have more than the correct amount of space between cars. In addition, the standard mounting box that has been in use for these couplers for over forty years is wider than a correctly scaled replica of the car center sill, making the detailing of this important area of the model impossible. The PROTO HO ACCUMATE is correctly sized, and is shaped to model the appearance of the actual AAR type E coupler. The length of the coupler, when mounted in its own draft gear box, is designed to provide the scale striker to coupler pulling face distance. The draft gear box itself is detailed to represent the prototype sills, draft lugs, and coupler yoke. This box is long enough to extend all the way to the body bolster on a model of a typical car, but can be cut shorter if need be. In this shortened form, the PROTO HO ACCUMATE is adaptable to HOn3.

Although the PROTO HO ACCUMATE features a reduced profile, this profile is designed to mate with the standard couplers used in HO scale. While the width of the coupler shank has been decreased to fit the narrow draft gear, a corresponding increase has been made in the depth of each half-shank, so the resulting shanks have 95% of the cross section, and therefore strength, of the standard ACCUMATE.

One of the potential drawbacks of a non-standard draft gear box is the difficulty of retrofitting existing equipment, and this, too, has been addressed. The new scale width draft gear is narrow enough to fit entirely in-between the sides of the standard coupler box molded into the floor of most kits today, and the PROTO HO draft gear box can be installed on the existing surface while still maintaining the correct coupler height. Even the location of the new mounting screw holes has been considered, and was carefully placed to miss any existing holes.

No tiny springs or small metal stampings to lose or destroy
No tiny feathers of plastic to deform when cars are left in a compressed configuration
They can be easily uncoupled manually with the use of an ingenious device known as the SWITCHMAN. The special shape on the end of this little gem is inserted between the knuckles, given a twist, and voila! the cars come uncoupled. Try that with the other couplers in the field and you're sure to be frustrated
The ease of operation makes this coupler infinitely easier to use than the current train-set coupler (X2F) which is almost impossible to uncouple
Made of tough 21st century resins, not pot-metal