OO gauge wagon hook advice

[Sweet pea]

I'm changing the stock hooks on my wagons to 3 link couplings. The original hooks on one of the wagons have snapped off when I tried to remove it. If I had know at the time I could of just added the links to them. Anyway do I carefully drill out where the original hook was.

Any advice will be great.

[steve1]

16 minutes ago, Kevin Johnson said:

I'm changing the stock hooks on my wagons to 3 link couplings. The original hooks on one of the wagons have snapped off when I tried to remove it. If I had know at the time I could of just added the links to them. Anyway do I carefully drill out where the original hook was.

Any advice will be great.

 

Yes. Drill and file a hole suitable for whichever brand of couplings you will be using.

 

steve

 

 

[brossard]

I did 00 for nearly 30 years and early on settled on Kadee for my couplings.

 

I now do 0 gauge and all my stock has prototype couplings.  I love it along with the near scale gauge (scales to 4'5").

 

My advice is take things slowly.  Convert two wagons with 3 links on one buffer beam each.

 

I also suggest you confirm that you can couple and decouple.  I use a homemade tool for mine.  It can be a faff but the look of proto couplings can't be beat.

 

Then, run the coupled wagons through your layout both pulling and propelling.  If you can propel the wagons through areas with your smallest radius curves and ess curves your proposal is feasible.

 

Prototype couplings work best if the hook is sprung along with the buffers.

 

John