West Hill Wagon Works

[mevaman1]

Over the weekend at the Great Electric Train Show we (Redruth MRC) fitted Hunt couplings to a number of rakes of stone wagons on Hoopers Aggregates.  The couplings performed faultlessly and easily managed the weight of our fully loaded trains.

 

Usually at the end of a show we are picking up a number of Dapol coupling hooks which have come off during operation.  This weekend we ditched that palaver.  
 

Furthermore we had fewer coupling related derailments.

 

We had great service from the West Hill Wagon Works team and really enjoyed chatting to them on their stand.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Andrew (Hoopers Aggregates operator)

[brossard]

I couldn't agree more.  A mate of mine has been working on getting his coach rakes fitted with Hunts.  From what I can see they are a game changer, with the ability to close couple and without that annoying back and forth slop that you get from Kadees.

 

I would suggest you change the title to something more specific.  I think the current title is a bit obscure and may be passed over by others.

 

John

Edited October 4, 2021 by brossard

[JohnC]

Had a great chat with Chris at GETS and He was so helpful. I had Kadee couplings on a lot of my stock and found them useless on my layout which now has a helix at each end. Have fitted a lot of stock with Hunt couplings now and all have run faultlessly. Latest are the short swivel couplings fitted to my Accurascale PCA rake and excellent.

No connection with company but a delighted customer and impressed how the variation of products are growing!

[Tim Dubya]

Can these be uncoupled remotely or is it the big hand from the sky?

 

I intend to do lots of shunting and was wondering if this is feasible with these. 

 

Cheers

[Dungrange]

23 minutes ago, Tim Dubya said:

Can these be uncoupled remotely or is it the big hand from the sky?

 

I intend to do lots of shunting and was wondering if this is feasible with these. 

 

They are intended for fixed rakes, so I'd say they are not suitable for shunting - stick to Kadee for shunting.

[Mallard60022]

On 13/10/2021 at 12:12, Tim Dubya said:

Can these be uncoupled remotely or is it the big hand from the sky?

 

I intend to do lots of shunting and was wondering if this is feasible with these. 

 

Cheers

Not generally Tim.  However if you were 'oiking' a few coaches off the back of a stationary train (like wot I dun) in a regular way (say the 2 coaches for a branch) and it was always the same ones involved....then Hunts at the 'break' would be great; no HOG or long stick or ugly thing between the rails.

Otherwise I am starting to use these for fixed rakes of wagons at the moment. Not sure about fixed Coach rakes, of which I have few) as the Gangway Bellows hide the NEMs!

They are clever, versatile and I think I'll be using many, some being 'adapted' for purpose.

Phil

[Going2theDogs]

Hi All,

This post is with regard to West Hill Wagon Works although not directly related to the earlier posts concerning their superb magnetic couplings.

I had ordered some items to add some additional detail to various scenes on my layout. These included Newspaper stands, detailed parking meter, welder bottle trolley & some ‘Stop’ boards, 

After an hour or so of preparing, priming & painting they have all turned out well (IMHO).

‘Under the microscope’ this enlarged image can be quite brutal but once these items have been installed on the layout & with normal viewing distances of a few feet, they all look superb.

Well recommended.

Edited November 22, 2021 by CB Rail

[Going2theDogs]

Hi All,

Thought I would attach some images showing some of these items once positioned on my model railway.

Enjoy.

[steve1]

I ordered a set of the company’s rail stops recently. When they arrived, in a padded envelope, half of them were broken.

 

After contacting WHW, I was had an apology by email and was then sent TWO replacement sets in a cardboard box.

 

Excellent customer service I think.

 

steve

 

 

[Padishar Creel]

Hallo,

usual disclaimer, I have no connection to the company other than being a satisfied customer.

 

West Hill Wagon Works now produce Elite Couplings for the Farish Voyager, which gets rid of the 'Poole Era Style' gap between the cars. Packs of 8, so enough for 2 sets with a couple of spares.

 

es grüßt

pc 

[Mallard60022]

The range of Couplings is excellent. I find them especially useful for Kit build ballast wagons like Walruses as you can weight them nicely.  I say this as plastic kits are really lightweight and the couplings need a tad of 'weight' to work with.

I have used several types but the new 'same' pole ones are brilliant.

I know several folk that have started using them on Coach Rakes and find them excellent.

NO connection (see what I did there?) etc.

Phil

 

[Mike Harvey]

On 15/06/2022 at 17:30, Padishar Creel said:

Hallo,

usual disclaimer, I have no connection to the company other than being a satisfied customer.

 

West Hill Wagon Works now produce Elite Couplings for the Farish Voyager, which gets rid of the 'Poole Era Style' gap between the cars. Packs of 8, so enough for 2 sets with a couple of spares.

 

es grüßt

pc 

 

The big plus point of the new couplers for the Farish Voyager is that the cars can be coupled on the track rather than having to assemble the whole unit on its side or roof before rolling the snake on to the rails. The originally supplied bar coupler was always fiddly to fit.

[neal]

Picked the last one of these up from GETS yesterday, blown away by the detail of this one shot 3D print:

 

 

 

Neal

 

[47007stratford]

i have sent 4 emails to west hill wagon works and still no repsonse to any of them, which is disappointing to say the least. Are they still around as nothing on this forum for a while either?

[Roy Langridge]

4 hours ago, 47007stratford said:

i have sent 4 emails to west hill wagon works and still no repsonse to any of them, which is disappointing to say the least. Are they still around as nothing on this forum for a while either?

Last bought from them two weeks ago, all good then. When did you first email? It is Easter holidays still and maybe they are having some time off?

 

Roy
 

 

[47007stratford]

1 hour ago, Roy Langridge said:

Last bought from them two weeks ago, all good then. When did you first email? It is Easter holidays still and maybe they are having some time off?

 

Roy
 

 

Hi Roy

i emailed the before Easter regarding issues over trying to fit the couplings to my yeoman wagons and they do not have a fitting guide for these

Bob

[Peter749]

I was disappointed by the BR Tail Lamps Kit -

I ordered two of these and the carrying handles are completely broken off in one pack and 2 of the 6 broken off in the other.

 

The picture does not help as it shows the lamps with the Crystals glued in place.

What you get is not what is shown in the picture.

 

Need to look for some ready made

 

Peter

Edited April 18, 2023 by Peter749

[steve1]

1 hour ago, Peter749 said:

I was disappointed by the BR Tail Lamps Kit -

I ordered two of these and the carrying handles are completely broken off in one pack and 2 of the 6 broken off in the other.

 

The picture does not help as it shows the lamps with the Crystals glued in place.

What you get is not what is shown in the picture.

 

Need to look for some ready made

 

Peter

 

I too had some parts turn up broken from WHWW a while ago.

 

However, a polite email to them from me lead to a complete replacement of the article and an apology.

 

Perhaps you might consider this approach too?

 

steve

[Peter749]

6 hours ago, steve1 said:

 

I too had some parts turn up broken from WHWW a while ago.

 

However, a polite email to them from me lead to a complete replacement of the article and an apology.

 

Perhaps you might consider this approach too?

 

steve

I did think of that

Because my eyesight is not the best and the requirement to glue the small red crystals to the lamps has put me off getting them replaced

 

I have ordered some of the Springside Tail Lamps from Buffers Model Railways

I don't have to paint them :)

 

Peter

[The Evil Bus Driver]

I bought a pack of NEM ones at Warley and some for Airfix style coiplings on Ebay so I've been experimenting with various coaches. The Hunts give great close coupling on my Hachette rake, oddly enough.  I'll be trying them out on the club test track soon. 

[Gray69]

I haven't been that impressed by the service from West Hill Wagon Works. I purchased a few packs of couplings from them on eBay and a number of them broke when fitting them. When I contacted them I got a reply asking what had broken. I replied telling them and that is the last I heard. All other communication has gone unanswered.

[darrel]

Just seen they have some new products bufferbeam detailing for locos and coaches which look fantastic and very reasonable prices

[Dominion]

I took delivery of 4 new packs today in Canada, ordered 9 days ago so very swift to here.

 

I have been experimenting with different couplings for my Bachmann Thompson set.

I posted this on the Thompson coach thread but thought it may be helpful here too.

 

I have found that a new length of Hunt Elite "extra close" work very nicely. These are recently introduced I think.  They are shorter than "close" but longer than "ultra close". I had previously found that 2 of the Hornby buckeye magnetic couplings looked very nicely close coupled but were slightly too close for reliable running through my fiddle yard curves. (30 inch minimum but often not with transition curves in the fiddle yard).

 

Also this latest batch of couplings from West Hill Wagon works seem to fit more easily in the NEM pockets and pop out more easily if you want to change them. Some of earlier ones I have were a bit tight in the pockets. This recent delivery seem more refined in the printing. The surface is smoother, and there is a better defined gap between the tails making compression of the tails for insertion or removal easier.

 

Back to the Thompsons, I was previously using close on one end and ultra close at the other end. Although all these elites work magnetically either way around, my use of different lengths meant I had to keep the coaches in the same orientation to match the coupling gaps one close one ultra close. (Same issue as using one Roco and one Hornby-Roco in fixed rakes).   However these extra close ones are half way between close and ultra close in length so they achieve the same result but make it easier to change orientation of the vehicles, or allow a particular brake to go on either end etc. 

 

I am very pleased with them.

Tom

[Bucoops]

It looks like West Hill and DCC Concepts are linked now = not sure of the details but the latest email from DCC Concepts includes their products and this banner:

 

[DCCconcepts]

2 hours ago, Bucoops said:

It looks like West Hill and DCC Concepts are linked now = not sure of the details but the latest email from DCC Concepts includes their products and this banner:

 

 

DCCconcepts are working in collaboration with West Hill Wagon Works to create a range of products which are complimentary to the Legacy Skyline Lighting range.

The range is available here: 

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product-category/specialised-model-accessories/west-hill-wagon-works-partnership-products/

 

Best Regards,

The DCCconcepts Team