Sprat & Winkle Couplings

[smyles1]

Does anybody have any ideas about how to fit Sprat and Winkle 4mm couplings to bogie rolling stock such as coaches, parcels vans, bogie bolsters and TEA tank wagons? The presence of the bogie prevents fitting in my usual way with the hook below the headstock and there is no room for the counterbalance.

Thanks,

Mike

[Ben Alder]

A couple of photos -here- on my experiences with them. I found that you often have to cut away part of R-T-R bogies to get a fit, which can lead to problems, and the curves on my layout were a bit much for them, but should be OK on an end to end or with larger radius track.

Richard

[sparky]

If you use the low mounting method to fit the couplings with MSE baseplates then you can fit them to the top of the bogies as in the following sequence which shows a Bachmann bogie,the same idea can be used on Airfix versions as well.

The following text and photos have been taken from my Penhydd Blogs......................

 

One of the advantages of having 6ft radius curves is that the coaches can be close coupled without problems and in fact there is only 1mm clearance between the buffer faces.

The outer couplings are Spratt and Winkle, now I have heard many times that these are difficult to fit on bogie vehicles. This may be true when fitting them the old way with a slot cut into the buffer beam for the hook but if you use the lower mounting method the whole coupling can fit in the same place as the original Bachmann tension lock. In fact if you use the MSE mounting plates you will find that they are an exact fit between the bogie frames. It is just a simple matter of removing the coupling and preparing a flat area to glue the plate onto the bogie frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the paddle will fit where the old coupling pocket was.

Yes it looks rough but these pics. were taken before the whole lot was cleaned up, the coupling assembly is just a test unit. Those in use are cleaned up and blackened.........honest.

 

 

Here are the couplings fitted to the coach...........

 

Hope this idea helps,

 

Geoff

[smyles1]

Thank you both for the excellent photos. I now have a starting point for doing the work. I hadn't really thought about modifying the bogies but it is the obvious answer. Now why didn't I think of that!

Thanks,

Mike