Our N scale club has a meetup every month in the local makerspace, and there’s a table just inside the entrance where people leave interesting junk to share. Mostly it’s an assortment of broken consumer electronics, old hand tools, outdated reference manuals, and other technological flotsam. Before one recent meeting, we were tipped off that a sizable pile of train-related things had been dropped off. We set upon it like hungry vultures, naturally, as soon as we arrived. It was the dregs of an HO-scale railroader’s hoard. No trains or track, but plenty of useful, or semi-useful items. Somebody came away with a tote full of scenery material. A few people divvied up the electronics parts and power supplies. There were even a few hand tools.

I got the tub of Kadee couplers.

Let me take a moment to sing the praises of the Kadee Magne-Matic Number 5 coupler. How long has this thing been around? Sixty years now? Seventy? It drops right into the draft-gear box of just about every HO scale freight car produced in my lifetime. It mates up readily with a similarly-equipped car, and uncouples instantly at the presence of a properly-positioned magnet between the rails. I’ve been dabbling with HO scale for a few years now, and these things still amaze me. Better still, they amaze spectators at every show I take the Windlenook layout to. All this for less than three bucks per car, full retail, at today’s inflated prices.

The only thing that could make Number 5 couplers better is to get a big gob of them for free, which is exactly what happened. Inside the tub, there were several regular packs of them, the manilla envelopes. There was a “super pack.” There was an “ultra pack.” There were packages with some other, more specialized Kadee couplers, numerous packages of coupler-related accessories, and even some wheelsets. Full retail prices for everything probably added up to the price of a decent new engine.

I’ve been putting Kadees on my recent HO purchases as they come in, so I don’t have a big backlog of cars in need of coupler upgrades. I handed a few of the packages out to friends who could use them, and dip into the remaining supply on an as-needed basis.

I hear much hand-wringing about how much things cost in this hobby. You know, the ol’ “can you believe the new Lionel set retails for $X,000? That’s insane!” schtick. What is less talked about is how much you can pick up for free, if you know where to look. All over the hobby, there are guys downsizing, selling off, and upgrading their collections. They’re happy to give things away for the simple assurance that they’re going to a good home. I am spending more on the hobby these days than I used to, but even if I couldn’t, I could still get my hands on enough material to do interesting things.