Coombe Barton Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 At ExpoEM North last weekend I got talking to Chris Lamacraft, he of the EM gauge Hemyock layout. I noticed that he has Alex Jackson hooks with three link droppers with the lowest loop magnetic. On enquiring he helpfully showed me that he'd combined the pivot plate of a Sprat and Winkle coupling with the hook/release device of the AJ. The result was that the appearance was improved as you had links but lost the bar of the Sprat and Winkle, and lost the necessity to have multiple reverses to give delayed action uncoupling. Now I have a large supply of S&W stuff of the old style (before delayed action) so I can experiment. As far as it goes the coupling/uncoupling geometry is the same as the AJ. Apparently is it sensitive to centering, so I'll look at the stuff that John Darch (killybegs of this parish) showed me from his Clinkerford layout. Question is - has anyone else done this? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Cram Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Not using the sprat and winkle fittings but by using a piece of tube and a wire bent to pass through and then soldered to a mounting plate I and the group have used this method for the last 25 years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mark Forrest Posted September 24, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 24, 2012 I've been looking into pivotting AJs for some of the stock I'm building for Black Country Blues, using the Palatine Models pivot/hinge plates. Using the Spratt & Winkle parts sounds interesting and I'll include this in my experiments. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Mark I looked because I saw 3-link couplings being used as the dropper/attractor for the magnet, rather than the paperclip over the wheel arrangement. It looked so much better. Blackening the AJ part would be another improvement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony W Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 John Just a word of caution if using a magnetic bottom link. You will need to ensure that the magnet used is of sufficient strength to 'grab' the link, which inevitably will have a small surface area. Using 3-link couplings to act as the dropper is not really recommended for AJ Couplings for this reason. However, did Chris tell you what he was using as he has obviously got it to work OK? Also, I wouldn't try blackening too many coupling hooks at once as you will probably find blackening them actually makes them more visible from most viewing angles! Regards Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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