More N scale coupling investigation…

In July, at the start of this latest North American ‘distraction’, I experimented with various couplings. Trying all the ‘main stream’ examples wasn’t a cheap experiment and ended largely frustrated…The Microtrains 1015 (now very difficult to source in the UK, but hopefully Atlas will ensure these parts become available once more) won out, but its appearance is far from perfect. I found that generally all types struggled to reliably couple one car - not enough resistance to allow the coupling spring to be opened.I have been playing with my latest models and have managed to get much better results, with some combinations hitting Kadee levels of reliability when coupling - however there is still some variability between ready to run with models pre-fitted with 1015.Stripping down this Prairie Shadows model, designed and manufactured I believe by Rapido, was interesting. The model is sold as being fitted with a genuine 1015, and that seems to be the case - but the spring is…