Kadee
Kadee Quality Products Co. is a model railroad manufacturer. They are best known for their couplers, but also produce rolling stock and accessories. Kadee and Micro-Trains are two separate companies. Kadee Quality Products was established in the 1960s by brothers Keith and Dale Edwards. They named their company using their own initials, K and D. They are identical twins and were very close for many years. They were both toolmakers and capable engineers. Their claim to fame and financial success came when they developed and patented their HO knuckle coupler which became the de facto standard in the hobby. In the early 1990s, the Edwards brothers had a serious falling out and parted ways. Dale took Kadee which is based in White City, Oregon. Kadee manufacturers HO scale freight cars, trucks, and couplers. The coupler line covers HO and larger scales, but not N scale. Dale has been in poor health for a number of years. The business is in the capable hands of his son-in-law, Alan Vezzani. When the brothers split, Keith established Micro-Trains Line in Talent, Oregon, about 30 miles from White City. From the beginning, M-T specialized in N scale, expanding later to include Nn3 and Z scale. Micro-Trains N scale trucks and couplers are also somewhat of a standard. Micro-Trains Line N scale cars are popular as collectibles as well as for model railroad operation. There are some similarities in the business model of Kadee and M-T in that they each do their own design, tooling, production, packaging, and marketing in-house. Both companies have a reputation for producing very high quality products. The estranged brothers are in their 80's now (2011).