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With some 60 years of accumulating various stock, wagons, coaches and locomotives from a variety of manufacturers,  and having "standardised" on the tension lock coupling, I have also  looked at a previous post some 3 years ago on the subject. I wonder whether anyone has come up with any solution to the fact that all of the various coupling hooks seem to be able to drop off at some stage. Despite the fact that tension lock is regarded as a standard , it is in practice no such thing; as was pointed out in the previous posts on the subject, different manufacturers have different ideas as far as the size and shape of their various tension lock hooks. It is impractical to change every single hook on every single vehicle and I have tried various ways of refitting the hooks in a way that they will remain in place and do the work that they are supposed to do. This has included trying to solder a tiny washer onto the coupling hook (not very successful), or using a tiny drop of evostick, slightly more successful as it allows some upwards movement. Does anyone else have any solutions please?

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I gave up on the wretched things many years ago. The few that remain are Mainline, which have a spring to help them operate properly.

I use Peco Simplex (UK), Kadee (USA) or the Continental loop (Italian/Danish) depending on the stock. ( Even the last has many  variations, but most of my stock is Rivarossi (almost unique in it's 1:80 scale or Lima (different height to everybody else!). These two are kept apart.

Sorry not to be any help!

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On ‎21‎/‎08‎/‎2020 at 17:46, Claire RJ said:

... I wonder whether anyone has come up with any solution to the fact that all of the various coupling hooks seem to be able to drop off at some stage.

I can only report on my own experience. Having realised in 2002 that the miniature tension locks then available were not truly reliable if mixed with each other, I standardised on the Bachmann pattern, because only Bachmann were producing the wagons my project required and thus I was going to purchase a large number of them.

 

The wagons go on the layout and stay there, and loss of hook occurs very occasionally: the only event that causes this is if the fat controller causes a collision/derailment of some violence. I am satisfied with the reliability of this item.

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Probably not of much help to anybody now but when I was putting a wagon collection together in the 1990s I standardised on the small Airfix coupling, which I picked up in bulk anywhere I found them. Airfix and Dapol (mainly BR standard vent vans) were easy of course, but many Mainline wagons (e.g. 16-ton minerals) and Hornby Dublo steel opens and a 'Mica' van had underframes swapped with any cheap donor Airfix wagons I could find (which wasn't hard at the time) and the unwanted combinations sold on again. Unlike the original Mainline underframe the Airfix item was a neat piece of moulding with decent buffers and brake shoes in line with the wheels - Mainline eventually had to up their game. Some conversions such as Mainline bogie vehicles were not so simple but I always found a way! 

The hooks were steel (apart from some very early models which had brass hooks) so I could use a magnetic shunter's pole. For simplicity under exhibition conditions I removed the hooks from one end - this meant I could fix them rigidly where they didn't have integral moulded side spring 'whiskers', another great simplification. I was particularly pleased with a Hornby Dublo ICI white chemical tanker on the longer Airfix underframe, with soldered side bracing.

 

I talk about these in the past tense but I still have them all as they still look pretty good to me!

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Not everyone’s choice by a long shot but I have remained with tension locks for the initial reason of replacement cost.

Fortunately, my railway, an “end to end”, has a minimum radius of 48” at its tightest and can handle closely coupled vehicles without buffer locking. For this, Bachmann 36-061 Short Straight couplings are generally used with modification - see photo.

 

Still the same somewhat unsightly method if viewed end on, but this is more than compensated by the overall appearance of close coupled vehicles, especially passenger stock where the punters don’t have to train (urgh!) for the long jump to reach the next carriage.

0A416B45-7C65-47DF-8B60-28F620BC2E1E.jpeg

9B2EFA37-4A8D-49E9-9DC5-CFB5B6BEFFB0.jpeg

Edited by Right Away
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  • RMweb Gold

A bit off-topic I guess, but I 'try' to use 3 link couplings, as they were intended. I should add, for wagons only. Added to that, I have a selection of 'barrier' wagons, with a selection of Kadees & Bachmann couplers.  With a rake of wagons, I like how the motion when starting takes up the slack; first the leading wagon, then progressively down to the brake van. 

 

With the onset of air-braked stock, such things are banished to history. I think the last time I saw 'slack' was a rake of HAA's on Pontypridd up loop, where a 37 waited for a down Treherbert to pass. That would be about 1980-odd.

 

I make my own 3-links, using staples as a prime source material. Not only is it cheap & strong, but it continues to improve my hand-eye  co-ordination & motor skills. 

 

For coupling hooks, I suggest  Brassmasters.  ( A  satisfied customer).  Making a set of 3-links takes about 4-5 minutes per end, and for me, highly theraputic. A fret does a dozen wagons or so. 

 

A word of warning, however! If you are wont to go down this route, beware of offcuts! Trimming off a completed chain link may-might result in little bits of steel flying off into the ether. Like little needles, they lie in wait for the unwary, for humans & pets alike.  For this, I suggest any hand working is done inside a clear plastic bag to avoid the inevitable "Ouch! Bu66er! Expletives!" moment. 

 

Happy modelling,

Ian.

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6 hours ago, Right Away said:

...For this, Bachmann 36-061 Short Straight couplings are generally used with modification...

Same here, and likewise for reasons of parsimony: when it is hundreds of wagons, making the best of the coupler they came fitted with is common sense.

 

The appearance aspect I most enjoy is that if the peak of the  'bumper bar' face is in the same plane as the bufferheads, the SWB wagons buffer up when propelled and will open out to the loose coupled spacing of about 6" between buffer faces when pulled. This will work down to circa 24" radius if required.

 

(I would like an autocoupler system which allowed continuously braked vehicles to maintain bufferhead contact on the inside bufferheads on 36" rad curves and move to fully buffered up on straight track, without the trouble of sprung buffers; but no such animal is known to me.)

 

 

On topic! What's your take on the hooks remaining attached to the coupler?

Edited by 34theletterbetweenB&D
the OP's question
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well it made for some interesting reading but did not really solve my problem! I shall carry on with my solution of a tiny drop of evo stick carefully applied which does seem to work for a while and can be renewed over and over as necessary. I have just too many vehicles to make it practical to change them all to one style of coupling. Often the coaches run as sets in any case, on a loft layout of the size that we have which is designed mainly for the pleasure of running a really big layout, it would really not be worth all the time and effort to change the couplings that would be involved. Strangely my operators do not seem to be all that interested in shunting wagons (which we on our O gauge vintage layout Templeford find a most enjoyable experience), they seem to be quite happy just passing trains on down the line to the next station! 

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