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Dapol N Gauge HIA wagons, issue with coupling


Peter J
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I have been looking forward to getting these wagons since announced by Dapol a long time ago? (I couldn't remember, or find the date) I received 22 a few days ago, 16 green and 6 white, along with some other n gauge stock. I set up my Kato oval of track. Whilst I was running in two new G/F 56's locos I unboxed my 22 HIA's First impressions, the wagons have some weight to them and the livery is nicely applied one was missing a coupler at one end, it happens occasionally! Several of the wagons I noticed, the panels have not been glued into place as well as others, which is a shame and more noticeable on the white liveried ones. My main concern is that when I tried to run them in a train, I cannot get them to stay coupled together, Its escalated from being very frustrating to darn annoying. On closer inspection some of the couplers look to be angled up and some to be angled down. I have tried manually levelling them but they continue to uncouple at random points along the track, on curves and on the straight? The G/F 56 pulls them with some effort, I checked all the wheel sets ran free and got out the big guns, my CJM Class 60, this would have pulled 100+ without breaking a sweat but I still could not keep them coupled. It looks like the problem maybe to do with the two small springs at each end of the wagon, I believe they are supposed to centre the coupler. Quite a few of the springs on my wagons are not attached or have poor tension, hardly working to centre the coupler? I will look at each wagon in detail to establish exactly how may are affected and see if the ones with good springs stay coupled when run. I can then decide if I return the defective wagons for exchange, or send the whole lot back and not have HIA's, which would be a real shame. It is very frustrating and time consuming, I don't have a layout currently but do check and test out the things I buy just for this reason. I would like to know if anyone else is experiencing this problem and what they have done to resolve, please keep it constructive, I would welcome any suggestions for an easy fix. I look forward to reply’s Pete 

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Assuming (semi) permanently coupled rakes, especially if mixing manufacturers, I use a drop of canopy glue on the couplers. This dries clear and they can still be uncoupled if necessary. You could also replace the Rapido couplings with dummy knuckle couplers as I believe that the couplings sit in NEM sockets.

 

Regards,

 

John P

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Hi

I had the same problem until I weathered the wagons. I weathered the couplings as well with a little Matt acrylic paint and the uncoupling problem has gone. I think the paint must help the couplings to 'grab' each other.

cheers,

Ged.

 

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Hi @Peter J,

 

I have had exactly the same experience with the wagons, it's really disappointing.

 

I want to run a rake of 21 wagons, but I can't seem to run more than 6 or 7 without the coupling being unreliable. @gedlee's post is interesting, but we shouldn't really have to be doing things like this to get them running well out of the box. I've swapped the Rapido couplings on mine for the Dapol dummy knuckles to close the gaps between the wagons and these usually sort some of the traditional coupling issues out. However it looks to be the design at fault in this case, the NEM pocket drops down on a small angled arm and I think this deflects upwards under tension and the wagons just uncouple. If the wagons were lighter this might not happen, but even a small rake quickly seems to overwhelm the coupler arms. Dapol do seem to prefer using a kinematic coupler, but I wonder if these would have been better with a more traditional NEM pocket attached to the wagon bogies.

 

I posted an exploded view of the wagons on the N Gauge Forum, so you can see how they are put together here - https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=43805.msg588274#msg588274

 

Hope you get your issues sorted.

 

Cheers, Mark.

 

 

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I have had coupling issues on some Dapol coaches. The self centering mechanism sometimes has the coupler drop so I push it up or vice verse so the corresponding couplers are level. Unfortunately uncoupling happens especially on curves. Not an issue with GF. Takes the pleasure out of running certain Dapol coaches.

 

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