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guspaul

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  1. Pullman coaches
    Finally Hornby Pullman Coupling Fault Corrected.

    I know from experience and other's that the Hornby Pullmans can cause massive difficulties regarding derailing. So-much-so I know some have given up on them completely.

    IF you have never had a problem, move on, nothing for you here. I was as pleased as punch to get the top-of-the-range Hornby lit Pullmans. A set of three. I added the NC bar and the Observation Car. The latter, and the Bar having the later deep cupped bogies to facilitate close coupling but still permit usage on second radius curves. A modification to cure the earlier coupling problem Hornby left us with on thousands of earlier 'fully-detailed' Pullmans.

    Initially I felt the answer was simply to get some lubrication into the sliding area of the coupling. More luck than judgement, I made a few rotations so thought I'd cured the derailing. NOT SO. Two choices jumped out at me. 1. Sell em and let someone else have the problem: or 2. See if I could TRULY get them running properly. I decided on 2. My head itched badly so with a good ol scratch and a mod that has 100% cured the problem I'd like to share it. I KNOW many have given up on the early 'slide and hide' type couplings. So what causes the derailing?

    Simply put: the coupling slides, as it is designed to do so, but can get stuck. The slide facility goes well past the edge of the curve. A quick flick and it gets wedged between bogie and coach body. This equals a quick and nasty derail as the bogie has no way of righting itself coming out of a curve. You can actually look down and see the coupling stuck to the left or right. Generally though it is enough of a problem to literally throw the coach down sideways, and pull out the coupling from the securing screw. The problem is the over-shoot of the sliding coupling. It actually needs not go past the edge where the curve meets flat. On the later coaches a much deeper half circle is there with limited travel of the coupling. Instant cure.

    I wondered if using my Dremel to smooth the hard edge would cure it. It lessened the problem to be fair but it did not eliminate it. In the end I felt the only option worth trying was restrict the amount of travel the coupling makes across the bogie. I made some small plastic blocks from an old OO fence. I glued them in place as can be seen. I've painted them black but for this have left them cream colour so you can see where they are. They really are tiny blocks. I had my doubts: I felt no matter what I tried these Pullmans had been sent from hell to try my patience. SOOOOOOO. This afternoon between 14.30 and 16.25 I had the Deltic DP1 Sound off, tugging five coaches. Three old style lit Pullmans, the Bar and the Obs Car. That is on an eighty foot loop through second radius curves. The blocks stop the coupling leaving the half circle in the bogie, which is actually the maximum the bogie will physically swivel to. the coupling now rolls within the curved area of the bogie and will not travel past the edge. I used small plastic blocks which are glued in place. I could not see any other way of limiting coupling travel other than a full strip down. This way all you need to do is unscrew the coupling, fit the blocks, and refit said coupling. For almost two hours at varying speeds, and for the very first time, the Pullmans did not derail. In the accompanying images you can see where arrowed what happens to the coupling and where it can get stuck.

    a.jpg

    b.jpg

    c.jpg

    d.jpg

    e.jpg


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