Fitting Dinghams to OO gauge stock

[Fettster42]

Looking to fit these to stock for my budding microlayout. 

Any advice or pitfalls to look out for?

Currently it's a Dapol B4, a MR/Bachmann USA tank and a mix of modern Dapol, Dapol kits and parkside kit rolling stock. 

TIA

[davknigh]

Make yourself a jig to get everything at the proper height. IIRC there’s been a few suggestions in these pages if you do a search. Depending on how tight your curves are you might have difficulty with wagons with a lot of overhang so long modern wagons and short vintage ones might cause some problems. Last item would be buffers, they need to be the minimum length stipulated for satisfactory shunting. Beyond that I’ve been using Dinghams for 20+ years with no regrets.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[Buhar]

There are modifications that can be made to widen the loop that helps with vehicles with a long overhang.

 

I don't know if the Gauge O Guild who now sell them supply the 4mm version and there is also a variation around from Pre-Grouping Wagons called iirc Flippems.

 

Alan

[Fettster42]

On 29/03/2024 at 20:08, Buhar said:

There are modifications that can be made to widen the loop that helps with vehicles with a long overhang.

 

I don't know if the Gauge O Guild who now sell them supply the 4mm version and there is also a variation around from Pre-Grouping Wagons called iirc Flippems.

 

Alan

I'm just doing a shunting layout nothing bigger than 0-6-0s and 10 foot wheelbase so hopefully overhangs are not a problem. 

 

Dad uses them on his O gauge which is the attraction. And he is guild member so can order me what I need 😉

[Buhar]

9 hours ago, Fettster42 said:

I'm just doing a shunting layout nothing bigger than 0-6-0s and 10 foot wheelbase so hopefully overhangs are not a problem. 

 

Dad uses them on his O gauge which is the attraction. And he is guild member so can order me what I need 😉

All good then. The only things to watch for are avoiding trying to couple on curves and, presuming electromagnets, the siting of those. Your Dad's experience should avoid real pitfalls.

 

I really like Dinghams but an assembly session drives me nuts.

 

Alan 

[Fettster42]

On 29/03/2024 at 13:30, davknigh said:

Make yourself a jig to get everything at the proper height. IIRC there’s been a few suggestions in these pages if you do a search. Depending on how tight your curves are you might have difficulty with wagons with a lot of overhang so long modern wagons and short vintage ones might cause some problems. Last item would be buffers, they need to be the minimum length stipulated for satisfactory shunting. Beyond that I’ve been using Dinghams for 20+ years with no regrets.

 

Cheers,

 

David

Have you fitted them to Dapol ready to run stock? I have a ventilated van from and it is solid behind the buffer beans. How would I do this?

[davknigh]

4 hours ago, Fettster42 said:

Have you fitted them to Dapol ready to run stock? I have a ventilated van from and it is solid behind the buffer beans. How would I do this?

 I would first remove the body  just to make sure there is no hollow space. I only have a couple of Dapol wagons and IIRC it was possible to mount Dinghams on them without going to extremes. A couple of .5mm holes one above the other and then clean out between with a broken jeweller’s saw blade usually does the trick. The main thing is to use the blade so it cuts on the pull stroke and is therefore under tension for cutting.

 

HTH

 

David