robertcurtis

For anyone who's interested, I went with these Oilite bronze bearing bushes: they're 75p each if you buy 10, then cheaper as the quantity increases. They work pretty well with 3mm silver steel rod.

Thank you. I normally (in my day job) work with plastics rather than metals - so now I see a suitable free-running clearance on a hole for a 3mm axle is actually +30/-0 microns rather than my initial conclusion of 200 microns(!) Thus 3mm industrial bearings are for 3 mm axles 😄

Thank you both for the suggestions - perhaps I was confused about how the ID of the bearing is described. If I go to an industrial bearing manufacturer, typically there is a drawing specifying what the ID is. Model shops/suppliers I'm guessing describe the bearings as being 1/8 inch when they mean 'with suitable clearance for a 1/8" axle'? I had imagined that a true 1/8" ID bearing would give a good free running clearance for a 3mm axle, of approx. 0.2 mm across the diameter.

Where can I source brass axle bearings of 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) internal diameter, to fit with a 3mm axle? Garden railway suppliers have top-hat bearings or simple brass bushes for £1 each - are there better sources? So I've found these: Phoenix models 1/8 axle bearings @ 50p each Ettinger PCB spacers @ 13p each Any other suggestions?

It wasn’t described as broken, but I had spotted the missing coupling beforehand. So I am culpable

That would be amazing if you could, I’ll send you a direct message.

I bought a second-hand job lot of Graham Farish wagons recently that included a tank wagon with a missing or broken coupling, thinking it would be easy to fix. However both the coupling and the pocket it sits in are missing - the latter I don’t think is available as a spare part. Any advice on how I could fix this would be much appreciated.