Hunt Coupling System

[LNERandBR]

It looks to me like these couplings will be perfect for fixed rakes on exhibition layouts.

 

No fiddly coupling and uncoupling when setting up and knocking down. Especially the latter when you just want stock off the layout as quickly as possible and without damage.

 

Very much looking forward to trying mine out when they arrive.

[newbryford]

Andy R is great at self-publicity for his own stuff - however, I'm still waiting for a video that he promised a few years ago about his own trackwork standards. (See one of the many AR versus the world threads................)

 

 

[newbryford]

Waits for a Hunt coupler to fit Dapol MRAs.........

[sharris]

12 hours ago, Andy Reichert said:

 

Sergent Couplers are absolutely scale auto couplers...

... if you're modelling US railways, maybe - they would look as wrong as any other type of automatic coupling on UK rolling stock of the 1930s. 

 

[Kelly]

On 18/02/2020 at 09:33, Ron Ron Ron said:

I wonder if these couplings could be moulded to represent various types of prototypical couplings, e.g. Dellner, Tightlock or even screw link, rather than just a plain bar?

 

 

 

.

 

It shouldn't be too difficult to make a 3D representation to go over the top of them to represent those and hide the roundness of them.

 

Trouble with UK stock, most was 3link/screw well past the 60s still. I've not seen a reliable 3link/screw that is automatic without needing the shunters pole to be employed.

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 minutes ago, Kelly said:

 

It shouldn't be too difficult to make a 3D representation to go over the top of them to represent those and hide the roundness of them.

 

Trouble with UK stock, most was 3link/screw well past the 60s still. I've not seen a reliable 3link/screw that is automatic without needing the shunters pole to be employed.

I wasn’t thinking of that sort of application.
Note, this type of coupling is not for use with stock that will be shunted, but for use in fixed formations.

 

[Dungrange]

12 hours ago, newbryford said:

Waits for a Hunt coupler to fit Dapol MRAs.........

 

Is this to fit between the wagons in each five wagons set to replace the stupid internal coupling that Dapol supply?  If so, I'll have some.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

2 hours ago, sharris said:

... if you're modelling US railways, maybe - they would look as wrong as any other type of automatic coupling on UK rolling stock of the 1930s. 

Wrong. The buckeye coupler entered UK service in the 1890s on Pullman cars, was adopted by the GNR and ECJS for coach stock, then the LNER and subsequently SR. On the basis that of RTR autocouplers it at least looks like a type of coupler actually used on the railway, it has to be the most authentic choice, surely?

[The Johnster]

3 hours ago, Kelly said:

. I've not seen a reliable 3link/screw that is automatic without needing the shunters pole to be employed.

Neither has the prototype...

 

46 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

3 hours ago, sharris said:

 

Wrong. The buckeye coupler entered UK service in the 1890s on Pullman cars, was adopted by the GNR and ECJS for coach stock, then the LNER and subsequently SR. On the basis that of RTR autocouplers it at least looks like a type of coupler actually used on the railway, it has to be the most authentic choice, surely?

Also used on BR mk1 gangwayed and mk2 stock.  For use on a model, the stock would need to have prototypically retractable buffers as well, and be capable of hinging down to reveal a conventional drawhook to couple to non-buckeye stock, so Sergent or Kaydees will not cut the mustard unless the entire layout's stock uses them, which is hardly the most authentic choice for the bulk of it on most layouts predating the 1980s, surely.  AFAIK no UK non gangwayed stock ever used buckeyes, and of course no flat ended design ever used them either.  Later use of buckeyes on freight stock dispensed with the buffers, a buckeye coupling acting in itself as a buffer.

 

Big 4 period and BR until the end of steam will need to couple LNER/SR stock to screw coupled stock for cross country trains and through coaches.  And of course the loco-train coupling has to be a screw to drawhook except for the very small number of east coast pacifics with buckeye fitted tenders, which of course had to be dropped revealing the hook so that they could haul screw fitted stock, of course.

[Andy Reichert]

14 hours ago, newbryford said:

Andy R is great at self-publicity for his own stuff - however, I'm still waiting for a video that he promised a few years ago about his own trackwork standards. (See one of the many AR versus the world threads................)

 

 

 

I have absolutely no connection with Sergent Engineering, financial or otherwise. I just recommend his couplers because I'm in awe of their incredibly clever design and and a happy customer.

 

Andy

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Wrong. The buckeye coupler entered UK service in the 1890s on Pullman cars, was adopted by the GNR and ECJS for coach stock, then the LNER and subsequently SR. On the basis that of RTR autocouplers it at least looks like a type of coupler actually used on the railway, it has to be the most authentic choice, surely?

Even the GWR & LMS dabbled but didn't convert.

[Il Grifone]

5 hours ago, melmerby said:

Even the GWR & LMS dabbled but didn't convert.

 

I don't know why! Perhaps it fell foul of rule 1 below 

 

This magnetic system has its advantages. Presumably the couplings are marked as to which way round?

 

I consider the number one priority is the ability to easily uncouple manually, which immediately lets out any kind of tension lock (unless single ended, which is a bit of a PITA ). The second is reliability, third is realism. My North American stock uses Kadees* (I would use Sergent, but I have too many Kadees now), my European H0 uses the Continental loop** (Lima style apart from the Italian stock, which uses the Rivarossi type) and British which has 3 link/screw if EM or the Peco/HD coupling if 00 - Coaches will probably end up with Kadee if appropriate).

 

* Some still has X2f, but their days are numbered. (These work OK, but the spring is usually far too strong. It needs to be just sufficient to keep the coupler head in position.)

** It's what it came with - OK for criteria 1 & 2, fails on 3

[BusDriverMan]

21 hours ago, The Johnster said:

AFAIK no UK non gangwayed stock ever used buckeyes, and of course no flat ended design ever used them either. 

Various non-gangwayed EMUs and DEMUs used drophead buckeyes, same as corridor Mk1s - all the EPBs, HAPs, 3H etc.

[The Johnster]

Yes, I’d forgotten that.  The buckeyes were at the outer ends of the sets, and IIRC the couplings within the sets were close coupled bar types.  

[Re6/6]

Deleted.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Re6/6

[Titan]

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Yes, I’d forgotten that.  The buckeyes were at the outer ends of the sets, and IIRC the couplings within the sets were close coupled bar types.  

AC non gangwayed emus used buckeye couplers throughout, not just at the ends. 

[90rob]

...reminds me of the ingenious use of neodymium magnets here:

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by 90rob

[Tiddles47]

Has anyone tried these on Oxford Rail Mk3's yet? If so how close do they get and which version would I need? 

[Butler Henderson]

Any one tried them in fixed rakes on a layout otherwise using Kadees ? Curious to know whether they interact with the Kadee magnets.

[Steadfast]

On 18/02/2020 at 17:07, Westhillwagonworks said:

We are working on more coupling types already for older types of stock and N Gauge versions to be released soon!

N gauge ones sound excellent. Dapol HST is crying out for something like this

 

Jo

[Sir TophamHatt]

On 18/02/2020 at 15:46, Georgeconna said:

The influencer's have certainly Influenced, popped up on my you tube feed also.

And the problem has now been a delay as they're OOS.

 

I still haven't received mine, which is slightly annoying.

 

If they are OOS, I haven't been emailed. I would assume if something isn't available, I wouldn't have been able to order it. As I completed the order, it's reasonable to assume they had some ready to dispatch.

 

Not the best first impressions 

[d00m]

Slightly off topic, with SR non corridor emus (eg 2EPB, etc), didn't they have a single central buffer between the two driving motor cars?  If I am right, does anyone think that these could be adapted to represent the single buffer? Just an idea.

[LNERandBR]

Message on the website in big red letters states they will be posted in 9-10 days due to high demand. I ordered 10 days ago and they arrived today.

 

Have fitted them to my HST but not run it yet. It's the older non NEM type but despite this fitting was very very simple. Unclip top off coupling mount, remove existing coupling, place new coupling into position and clip back together. 

 

First impressions are the gap between each coach is certainly reduced from the tension locks. However, there is still a gap that your 4mm passenger would think twice about crossing. That said, I doubt you could close this up anymore without some form of sliding mechanism to open the gap on the corners as per Bachmann coaches. Certainly some form of paper gangway between the coaches will improve things further.

 

I'm looking forward to testing them on the club layout.

[LNERandBR]

So this evening I've been able to run my HST with it's new Hunt Couplings and overall I'm very happy.

 

Yes, the gap between the coaches is still a little wider then I'd like but it had no issues negotiating any of the club layout's curves and pointwork. This including a Peco double slip when both pulling or propelling the coaches. I was most impressed with the propelling, previously I'd been reluctant to do this with the tension locks and had poor experiences when I did. However, there were no issues when propelling with the Hunt Couplings.

 

The only problem I did have was some of the magnets coming adrift from a couple of the couplings. Thus, part of the train would be left behind whilst the rest carried on with a magnet stuck to the back coupler.  This mainly happened if someone accidentally knocked the train as it was passing, usually as they were adjusting their own stock and the HST came past as they were doing so. Therefore it seemed the weakest point was the glue holding the magnet rather than the attraction of the magnets themselves.

 

If that happens, a spot of glue solved the issue but be sure to put the magnet back in the correct way around!

 

Despite that, I'm still very happy with the purchase and will be getting a second pack for my other HST. I've also got a pack of the close NEM couplings to try on a set of Hornby Mk2E's.

[Sir TophamHatt]

Mine arrived the other day too.

 

First impressions weren't that great (mine seemed to have some sort of deposit over it).

However, very minor really (more on this later). 

 

Now on to testing!

 

Realised that my HST has NEM pockets so the set I chose (non-NEM) wouldn't fit. A closer look and they've included a pair of NEM couplers - such a good touch with this. Very impressed they have thought about that sort of thing.

 

Fitted the HST NEM version and it came straight out the pocket again.

 

Fitted the coaches (non-NEM pocket) and they worked as expected.

 

Back to the HST and a quick email to support who said I should leave them out to cure, where they should harden a bit better (meaning the deposit would disappear too). 

 

While slight hassle, the advantage of having stock that I can just lift away without faffing with hooks far outweighs the nevagtives.

 

The website will be one under my "Model Railway" favourites that I'm bound to buy from again.

 

Good on them!