Coombe Barton Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 I haven't seen any obvious ones for sale. The buffer body is angled at the base, the head oval but the shank quite thick. I was thinking of making heads up from brass sheet filed to shape and soldered to a bit of brass rod, drilling out the existing body and springing from behind the buffer beam with a bti of phosphor bronze strip. Or has anyone any better ideas before I commit surgery? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 I'll be interested to see what replies you get here, John, as this is something I'd like to do at some point. So far, I'd got as far as thinking that I might add larger brass heads to some Gibson steel wagon or coach buffers and fit them into drilled holes with the concentric springs. Another possibility is that David Geen lists some unsprung autocoach buffers which might be modified by the usual method of cutting off the heads, drilling and inserting sprung heads. However, neither of these methods would retain the rather obvious square shank of the original. Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted January 23, 2010 Author Share Posted January 23, 2010 However, neither of these methods would retain the rather obvious square shank of the original. That's the problem with making the hole in the first place But the hole only has to be square for the first couple of millimetres or so - just to allow compression. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 ...But the hole only has to be square for the first couple of millimetres or so - just to allow compression. I've made representations of self-contained buffers before by drilling the body to around 2mm and adding a small piece of tubing to the heads. Perhaps something like this could be done by adding a short length of rectangular tube, or filing some round tube to represent the exposed part of the rectangular shank. Even so, the end of the body on these is rather narrow and a round hole might still be noticeable. There's also the problem of preventing the oval head from rotating... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Years ago, Dart Castings produced a set of square shanked sprung buffers for coaches. Are these still in production? I think I might still have an unopened set somewhere in the maelstrom of my spares boxes..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Yes, they do a square shank coach buffer, but the body of the autocoach buffer is longer and the base is angled to match the faces of the buffer beam, e.g. this one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Yes, they do a square shank coach buffer, but the body of the autocoach buffer is longer and the base is angled to match the faces of the buffer beam, e.g. this one. ..... The buffer body is angled at the base, the head oval but the shank quite thick.... But that's what he wanted, no? An angled base. Which would only leave the problem of shortening the body and shank. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted January 23, 2010 Author Share Posted January 23, 2010 The Dart Casting moulding are too short. Autocoach buffers are long as they have to protect the bowed end overhang. I've just been playing with the Airfix metal inserts. The choice of seeing how they work on my layout without springing is begining to look good. As I'm using Alex jackson couplings buffers do play a part, and as they have at times to be pushed over the reverse curve of the engine release crossover (B6 turnouts) I thought that springing the buffers would give better running. My prototype adaptation used two autocoaches for some services of the day, so the coupling/buffing gear has to do some work. If I do decide to spring I'll have to fettle buffers and drill out, but in-shank springing is not really on given the softness of the plastic from which they're moulded. Now just to devise a method of drilling them out strictly at right angles. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted January 23, 2010 Author Share Posted January 23, 2010 Previous posting duplicated Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 It may indeed be possible to combine the Dart Castings innards with the Airfix plastic moulded body, but I don't think it would be easy to use the Dart body. You would also lose the benefit of the (presumably) square/rectangular hole in the Dart body. Still, it might be worth a try. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 This method, which I have not tried yet, is expensive. David Geen sells cast brass coach buffers with oval heads and rectangular shanks. The heads/shanks would slide in the Airfix buffers and be sprung somehow. So if anyone has tried this and found snags, speak now! Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Prism Posted January 25, 2010 Share Posted January 25, 2010 I think all the autocoaches had rectangular shanks. I took some measurements at Didcot last year, but I can't find them now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted January 25, 2010 Share Posted January 25, 2010 Certainly all those in preservation have rectangular shanks. Someone - possibly Didcot - had some castings made after a shunting accident on the South Devon which fractured a buffer. Whether all auto trailers always had rectangular shanks is a good question. It is not always possible to tell from photos and I've spent hours looking in the John Lewis books for illumination! Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo Posted January 25, 2010 Share Posted January 25, 2010 You're right about photos, Chris. Most picture of the buffers are either insufficiently clear, or the head obscures the shank. As far as I can see, a similar pattern of buffer is used all the way back to the early steam railmotors (except No 1 which had a flat front), but whether they always had rectangular shanks... Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium cctransuk Posted January 25, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 25, 2010 I haven't seen any obvious ones for sale. The buffer body is angled at the base, the head oval but the shank quite thick. I was thinking of making heads up from brass sheet filed to shape and soldered to a bit of brass rod, drilling out the existing body and springing from behind the buffer beam with a bti of phosphor bronze strip. Or has anyone any better ideas before I commit surgery? 247 Developments do autocoach buffers in whitemetal at ??1 for a set of four. Could you not cut off the heads / shanks; drill the body; square up the drilled hole with a length of fine-toothed piercing saw blade held in a pin vice; solder the cast buffer heads to some suitable square brass / nickel silver strip for the shanks; and apply the springing with phosphor bronze strip behind the bufferbeams? Just a thought! Regards, John Isherwood. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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