Here we are again, thought it was about time I produced another missive, on the goings on in Sproston.

The last month has mostly been spent lying flat on my back under the baseboard...no, no alcoholic drink was involved in the making of this blog!!

I have been busy retro-fitting my entire stock with B.K pattern couplings, using those available from P.H. DESIGNS (amounting to 112 individual couplings), for Bachmann, Hornby, Dapol and Lima rolling stock.

This seemed like a good idea at the time -, and it does work, however there are reliability issues arising now from the use of the brass frets, and problems involving the free movement of the new coupling hooks with their staples attached,so I will explain further.

The replacement hooks appear to be of slightly thinner section material than the originals and are supplied on a brass fret, when fitted this allows a certain amount of 'lateral slop' on the coupling pivot bar, this also combines with the slightly oversize coupling mounting hook - which I have found needs to be closed up slighty using pliers on the Bachmann and Hornby and Lima items.... or the coupling hook will simply fall of its pivot mounting - usually when the vehicle is manhandled in any way!!!

The finish I obtained on these hooks ( I etched them black ) is also not as smooth as the original factory fitted ones, which doesn't help matters,(friction?) and the Hornby ones seem to 'overtravel' when positioned over the magnet, resulting in them occassionaly fouling pointwork and derailing.

The Bachmann ones generally are the best, but some of them seem to hang low and foul points, probably down to the original NEM pockets being set lower on a few wagons, - due to the design of the PH coupling there is more "ironwork" low down to foul on things.

The Lima replacements required some modification, in the form of fitting double metal staple bars, and removal of the dropper bar and part of the hook bar - to reduce weight and alter the centre of balance to enable them to work at all. I originally thought this was down to having insufficient magnetic power - but then the other designs of P.H.coupler worked fine over the same magnets

Reliability is an issue at the moment - some work fine, others will not lift, or will not drop, or both, much fettling is needed I suspect.

With regards to the under - board magnets, I have now installed them at 15 locations on the layout, this translates into 45 magnets, bought cheaply from China via "Ebay"- I have found that the recommended ones are unavailable from "Screwfix" anywhere in East Anglia!!

(I have used them in threes to give enough "oomph"to the uncoupler). This I hope should give sufficient flexibility to shunting, and uncoupling of stock.- we shall see,- adjustments to position may be required....

Locating said magnets accurately under the track was fun, and involved much guesswork, measuring, trial and error and a lot of expletives!!

Lying underneath the board trying to visualize the location of the track and pointwork that is above is a strangely disorientating experience....

(With hindsight this was a job that should have been attempted at the tracklaying stage- when there was less to decapitate above the board level...)

Anyway, they are all done for now, so its "teething troubles" time, and if all else fails, I suppose I could always revert to plan B, and use the original Bachmann couplings in everything/converting all the others to the same and then fitting the staples the original B.K way ( as per the thread here on RMWEB)...

Comments, suggestions and criticism welcome.

Regards

SIGTECH (Steve).