2mm couplings, options, choices and recommendations

[bcnPete]

After speaking with Peter Bossom this weekend at a small show, he favours B&B couplings to DG's and he said not only did him find them easier but the fret comes pre blackened.

 

Peter models in 3mm and all his layouts work effortlessly and are very enjoyable - am tempted to get out my sample packet of B&B and give them a whirl to see how they fair.

 

Not that I am unhappy with DG's...but I thought that was what he was using...until I asked him...

[Nigelcliffe]

 

Nigel have you made your coil etches available yet as I would like to try your dcc uncoupler?

 

I have hundreds of them, so drop me a line off list.

They are primarily aimed at the 4mm scale modeller, but some of the parts on the etch may be useful in 2mm adaptions.

 

Coils come from Plantraco Microflight in Canada; they sell "nano servo kit" which is a coil and two magnets. Its clearly not a proper "kit" as there are no instructions!

 

Nigel

[MarkAustin]

I've not used B & Bs, but I've been told that, because the loop is a flat etch, it is slightly more likely that the DG to stick in the up position

[bcnPete]

Does anyone know of a url/website that shows detailed picture of them? I did a search and found a number of references to them but the only photos were of stock said to be fitted with them but not clear enough to show detail of coupling.

Also if the loop is etched, how does one get a magnet to uncouple them, is it the same as the DG with an iron dropper soldered to loop, or is the loop etch of steel/iron perhaps?

 

Can't help with your detailed questions but have a look at this which includes a good step by step...

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/35118-n-gauge-bb-couplings-construction/#entry377457

 

HTH...

[Donw]

From what I can remember there was a bit of iron wire wrapped round to form the actuating arm. I seem to remember the DG's being available first and having seen them working on John Greenwood's and Nick Dearnley's layout adopted them. Wasn't one of the B's of B&B Denys Brownlee?

Don

[bcnPete]

Thank you that's very helpful.

Next thing is that reading through it says they come from N Gauge Soc. Is there any other source as I'm only in 2mm SA! And the reference to other sources is a bit vague. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Also does anyone have views on how they compare (performance and looks) with D&Gs?

 

Try this link...

 

http://philsworkbench.blogspot.com.es/2011/03/b-couplings.html

 

In terms of comparing with DG's, they look very similiar...as I mentioned above, I thought that 'Whatlington' was DG's until I asked. The owner Peter said he preferred them to DG's...and they come pre blackened.

 

I suspect its one of those things like Banks, Garages etc...we all have our favourites and we stick with them until we are unhappy despite what others may think.

 

Might be worth assembling a trial pack to compare with DG's?...

[justin1985]

I've experimented with both B&B and DG. To start off with, they are both truly inter-compatible, which is great. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

The B&Bs are pre-blackened, which is great, and don't require any soldering. They also seem to be made of a slightly thicker brass, making them a bit more robust (whereas I tend to put a fillet of solder inside some of the fold lines on the DGs to support them). The steel wire is coiled around a drill, then a suitable length threaded around the tab on the bottom of the "loop" part, and secured with glue - so that is dead easy. However, it can be a right pain in the wotsit to fit both the "loop" and "latch" sections into the body without the other one pinging off, or the body getting so bent out of shape it ends up catching etc.

 

The DGs, I would say, look notably finer once attached to stock. There might not be much difference in width between the wire and the etched loop of the B&B, but the wire is much easier to ignore in practice! The thinner brass does allow sharper folds than the thick brass on the B&Bs (which tends to form gentle curves not sharp folds) but can require a fillet of solder to prevent bits snapping after one or two adjustments. I find soldering the steel to the nickel-silver sections of the loop very tricky to produce a good joint. I've seen various jigs being used by others, but all my attempts to make a soldering jig using either thin ply, card etc. end up delaminating and\or burning away as inevitably, even with a small soldering iron bit, the thin wire means the iron will be in contact with the jig quite a lot! I wonder if there might be a case for getting a jig milled in tuffnol? Or even the back of some thin PCB material?

 

Ultimately I think the decision just is which you find easier to make!

[sixteen 12by 10s]

Just started to have a dabble with D&Gs and had noticed that there was some difficulty soldering on the droppers. I have come up with this simple jig, one slot is deep enough for the whole loop to go in sidewards, and the other just about 1mm. Seems to work

 

Gary

[sixteen 12by 10s]

Its made of " Tufnell" electrical insulation.

 

Gary

[locoworks]

however, they will be easier to fit to ready to run stock.

 

still trying to figure out how to fit DG's to my stock without making it impossible to revert to 'standard' at a later date...

 

with coaches ( the older farish ones i converted ) i spun the bogies and removed the coupler and spring and then fitted the DG coupling to what was the non coupling end of the bogie. with loco's as the box is in 2 halves by design it is just a matter of making the coupling the correct shape to fit the box.

[locoworks]

with regards to fitting couplings to coaching stock / bogie waggons do you attach the DG to the underside of the coache's buffer beam, or somehow to the bogie?

 

depends on you curve radii, buffer beam mounted needs gentle curves

[autocoupler942]

If removing pre-glued couplings drill a tapping size hole first (careful not to puncture an open wagon floor!). Attach an ID tag so the coupling goes back to the right vehicle if you are doing a mass dunking exercise. Open up the hole in the coupling plate to clearance size (when I do new ones I actually make the clearance hole a slot for adjustment). Clean off old glue residue, tap the underframe hole and re-affix the blackened unit. Of course, just a hole and an alignment pin might do to save different size holes and tapping!

 

While the unit is off it might be opportune to up date the loop. I devised my own all-in-one phosphor bronze loops years ago with a short length of soft iron wire (wound round a No 80 drill shank to make a "hose") held in a pin-chuck and threaded onto the pre-curved tail. The iron winding is friction gripped by the curvature of the tail but a spot of cyano ensures. I did an article on all this way back when but can't recall whether for 2mm Mag or for Loading Gauge. I'll check it out!

 

More recently I have experimented with shorter loops made in brass and then hardened by squeezing in a vise. I also shorten the latches so they don't project beyond the buffing bar and kiss the next vehicle's latch. I examined the etch layout design and conclude a draughting error has arisen when the latch location was moved some years ago.

[autocoupler942]

I've now found my article in The 2mm Magazine. Feb 1992 pg 16.

On the subject of magnetism of more recent all steel loops - does occasionally changing the polarity of DC feed to the magnet have any "cleaning" effect. I've no idea - never any good at O level physics except playing with a magnet under filings on a sheet of paper!

ps - I'm still waiting for someone to show me how to add photos/scans/attachments here.

[Donw]

Try more reply options. Which gives you an option to attach files either the basic uploader - one file at a time or a multi file uploader ( it seems to toggle between them). If your files are too big use the image editor on the entry page load them then save and you can adjust the file size by the quality slide bar.

 

Don

 

[autocoupler942]

DG loops.docThanks Donw and I hope this scan comes through.

[2mmMark]

I use AC for my uncoupling electromagnets.  This avoids any tendency for the droppers to build up residual magnetism. DGs only need a short burst of magnetism so the issue of residual magnetism isn't a problem in practice. Suitable transformers for electromagnets need to be quite robust, the Phil Kerr designed electromagnets are effectively a dead short across the winding, hence the wording on them "for intermittent use only".   Likewise, robust buttons for activation are advisable. The very small 6mm diameter ones are not reliable long term.

 

However, I think I now prefer sliding permanent magnets. As the originator of the sliding magnets described in the Beginners Guide, I can confirm they work very well through 6 to 9mm of plywood baseboard.  Better in fact, as having them closer means steel axles are also strongly attracted by the magnet. Neodymium magnets are powerful!

 

I still have some of Denys' mouldings for his early couplings. These were of neccessity made in a home built injection mouding machine. Possibly, if made with engineering plastics on a commercial basis with very accurate moulds, they may well be viable.

 

I use Microtrains for my American N equipment but do not bother with magnetic uncoupling. A simple twist with a "Rix" uncoupling pick does the job.

 

Standard DGs have an advantage in that they can be made to look a lot small visually yet still work very well. I use this technique for my 2mm narrow gauge stock. Something I picked up from Paul Styles when he did some 2mm NG work a few years ago.

 

Mark

[JohnBS]

Mark,

What is a "Rix" uncoupling pick?

John

[2mmMark]

John, one of these:

http://www.rixproducts.com/rix_pick_uncoupling_tool.htm

 

I got mine at a show from a stand selling US models. I suspect at least one of the specialist US retailers would have them.

There's probably enough detail in the photo at the link above to make one. The business end is simply a flat triangle about 15-20 thou thick.

 

Mark.

[StuartM]

I used the all in one loop method on my DG's as posted here:

http://www.minimumgauge.info/viewtopic.php?t=3318

I use a jig to set the height, make up 1 end of l delay latch and one of just the loop, without the latch, and got about 90% reliability first time out under exhibition conditions. I have fixed rakes of wagons and usually run them a fixed way round so don't need all loops. I wasn't very impressed with the look of production offerings which are probably ok for US or continental stock, I am sure they work very well but just a bit clunky to me.

None of my nickel plated steel beading wire, as fine as I could get, has become magnetised yet! If it does then I suppose I will replace the loops.

Nigel have you made your coil etches available yet as I would like to try your dcc uncoupler?

Thanks for the tutorial which is much more helpful than the instructions that came with the couplings.

 

Many thanks

Stuart

Edited March 13, 2013 by StuartM

[Richard Battersby]

On 13/03/2013 at 15:37, StuartM said:

Thanks for the tutorial which is much more helpful than the instructions that came with the couplings.

 

Many thanks

Stuart

 

My apologies for bringing up this old thread. I'm doing some DG Coupling research having restarted my failed attempts to get going with 2mm and I found this thread very useful. The provided link here didn't work so I did a bit a bit of digging and managed to find it. It was certainly worth it, I'm sure it'll be really useful. Hopefully it'll be useful for others too.

 

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO ASSEMBLING D.G. COUPLINGS

[chrisveitch]

18 hours ago, Richard Battersby said:

 

My apologies for bringing up this old thread. I'm doing some DG Coupling research having restarted my failed attempts to get going with 2mm and I found this thread very useful. The provided link here didn't work so I did a bit a bit of digging and managed to find it. It was certainly worth it, I'm sure it'll be really useful. Hopefully it'll be useful for others too.

 

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO ASSEMBLING D.G. COUPLINGS

Thanks for that, Richard - I'm in much the same boat in that I'm trying to make progress in 2mm after years (i.e. decades) of false starts and am at the point where I'm assembling couplings, mainly for Farish stock. 

 

The Gnatterbox article is interesting in that it recommends soft ferrous wire for a one-part loop and dropper which I've not seen suggested before. It seems to simplify things considerably but I can't believe that no-one in the Association has thought of this previously - does anyone have experience of this, and does it (as I suspect) create loops which are too easily damaged?

[Argos]

Hi Chris, I am currently in the process of swapping my small amount of stock over to DGs.

 

I am using thin ferrous florists wire a large quantity was bought off eBay for 75p including postage.

 

I've assembled a few couplings and the wire loop seems robust. I've not tried them in anger yet though.

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Argos

[Yorkshire Square]

I would use as hard a wire as you feel comfortable with. Don't forget the linked article is using O Gauge variants of these couplers which are about the size of a small wagon...  Soft wire will be more robust in the larger scales.

 

I also note that he doesn't seem to bend back the lugs on his buffing plate. I'm sure that's in the instructions and I'd definitely always do it.

[Izzy]

I tried using soft iron wire as a one piece loop/dropper a while back. They were used with both electro-magnets (seep) and power magnets (moved in/out of position), and eventually the loops became magnetised so they just stuck together when trying to couple up instead of sliding easily over each other. So I went back to using the PB wire in the packs for the loops/droppers with soft iron wire wound around the dropper bit and soldered in place. I suppose if if you use one ended loops, as many do, then this wouldn’t be an issue.

 

Izzy

[Nigelcliffe]

Various people have used a one-piece wire, rather than adding the separate dropper to it.   I've built a few with thin guitar string (somewhere around 9, 10 or 11 gauge).     As Izzy says, the problem is they become magnetised, particularly if electromagnets are run off DC (rather than AC) supply, and if they are all wired the same way round.   

 

Many years ago, there was a note about fixing the steel arm using a small bend in it so it ran along the side of the phos-bronze loop, and soldering the two parallel wires together - a much simpler and stronger joint than a butt-join at the corner.   

Or there is the approach Izzy mentions of a one-piece PB loop and dropper, with a bit of soft iron wire near the dropper tip.  This has a risk of making the dropper tail too heavy, so don't put too much wire (or too much solder) onto it!