RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 11, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 11, 2011 I paint the operating side of the rails white where the magnet is hidden under the tracks. The viewers cannot see these. Obviously only works where operating is done from the opposite side to the viewers on an exhibition layout. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 11, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 11, 2011 I paint the operating side of the rails white where the magnet is hidden under the tracks. The viewers cannot see these. Obviously only works where operating is done from the opposite side to the viewers on an exhibition layout. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 I asked in a model shop about them the other day, and was handed a pack of Bachmann E-Zmate mk2 N gauge couplers to look at and told that they were a customer order so weren't for sale, but if I was interested they would be happy to order some for me. anyone know about them? they look to be similar to the Dapol offering, no idea if they fit into NEM pockets or not. are they compatible? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngusDe Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Best stay away from the 2mm association threads, some of them are on three links, my brother included Jings, must have a very steady hand and 20/20 vision for that? An idle thought I have from time to time is, has anyone ever had working screw link couplings in any of the smaller gauges? Having seen working point rodding and working (ie properly tensioned etc) cantenary I'm beginning to think there must be someone out there, despite what I'd assumed to be the physics of the lightweight rolling stock etc. Totally OT, but hopefully you'll forgive me, lol! Angus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 I may have found a use for those little wooden tubs that Camenbert is sold in. I've not put a gauge on it, but the wood is pretty thin, and might well end up as fake sleeper segments on the top of an uncoupling magnet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NZmodeller Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 I may have found a use for those little wooden tubs that Camenbert is sold in. I've not put a gauge on it, but the wood is pretty thin, and might well end up as fake sleeper segments on the top of an uncoupling magnet. Hi Everyone, Real camembert is illusive in NZ so that's not an option - however... If one is very careful it is possible to slice through the sleepers on Peco code 55 rail using the bottom of the rails as a guide. Everything below rail level disappears and the central part of the sleepers remain, with chairs and very thin ties which can slide into the slot in the bottom of the rails. The resulting sleepers are between .5 and .7mm thick and if you are lucky, undamaged and perfectly spaced. There is a Utube on the Dapol facebook site of the magnets in operation on a layout with Peco setrack (rail height 4.1mm), as Peco code 55 is 3.2 mm high it would therefore follow that the magnets could be recessed with code 55 at least .9mm into the baseboard and still work perfectly well. At this point in time I have no idea how thick the magnets are but from the photos they appear to be about 2mm, Hopefiully this would be sufficient to accomodate the magnets and the sleeper wafers and still maintain the code 55 sleeper height of 1.7mm Petet Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave flint Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Just wondering if Dapol will fit these to all their stock - loco's, wagons and coaches ? If so, will we see an increase in price to reflect their addition (thinks yes) ? As you'd probably only use these on say the outer coaches/wagons of a set, If you buy a decent rake, you could take off the "inter wagon" couplers and swap them for rapido's off other stock, thus reducing the need to buy seperate items and getting a float of the Dapol ones, enough for just the "outers"? I suspect I'm wrong somewhere, please feel free to correct/poke fun at Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Just wondering if Dapol will fit these to all their stock - loco's, wagons and coaches ? If so, will we see an increase in price to reflect their addition (thinks yes) ? I recall Dapol mentioning that they plan to include these on their locos in future (not sure which one will be the first to get it). They will also include a standard rapido for those who prefer it in much the same way that they currently include dummy knuckles with many of their items. I am not sure if this statement also applies to wagons/coaches or not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 (edited) Jings, must have a very steady hand and 20/20 vision for that? An idle thought I have from time to time is, has anyone ever had working screw link couplings in any of the smaller gauges? Having seen working point rodding and working (ie properly tensioned etc) cantenary I'm beginning to think there must be someone out there, despite what I'd assumed to be the physics of the lightweight rolling stock etc. Totally OT, but hopefully you'll forgive me, lol! Angus Exactoscale do 4mm ones but I don't remember ever seeing working screw couplings any smaller than that. Edited December 12, 2011 by Natalie Graham Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
QRModeller Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Best stay away from the 2mm association threads, some of them are on three links, my brother included I wonder how many of them cheat and use the ones made by Mathieson (no connection) Matt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted December 13, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2011 (edited) I wonder how many of them cheat and use the ones made by Mathieson (no connection) Matt. I didn't. They are a real pain (3 links not the Mathiesons ones) Edited December 13, 2011 by Kris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium steam-driven boy Posted December 14, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 14, 2011 Hi, Exactoscale do 4mm ones but I don't remember ever seeing working screw couplings any smaller than that. Close enough? Regards, Gerry. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold bcnPete Posted December 14, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 14, 2011 Close enough? I do really like this form of coupling...but for me...that hovering magnet is the same as 'the big hand appearing'...wonder whether it could be made to work from beneath? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oreamnos Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 but for me...that hovering magnet is the same as 'the big hand appearing' Funny. That was exactly my thought. The whole point of the new Dapol coupling is that it eliminates the giant hand from the sky. Matt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted December 15, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 15, 2011 Some one has posted a couple of films of these in use. The films aren't fantastic but do show them working. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold bcnPete Posted December 15, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 15, 2011 Some one has posted a couple of films of these in use. The films aren't fantastic but do show them working. There's nothing beats hands free uncoupling...but that slow speed control needs some working on... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Aquick experiment on a couple of scrap pieces of Peco track a few nights back indicate that hiding it will be a delicate job. The magnet is about as deep as a Peco sleeper, so there's not a lot of height on top to play with. My plan is to use thin strips of stained wood. and paint between them with a textured paint. The wood from a Camenbert cheese pack looks about right - it shouldn't be any thicker than the head of a rail pin.. Fitting it to Code 55 will be easy. The rails are well embedded into the sleepers, so cutting along the inside of the lenghwise plastic that holds the rail base gives a snug fit and leaves the rails well supported. Code 80 may be trickier. It's easy to strip the rail fastenings off the rail, and leave the rail and the outer ends of the sl;eepers floating in mid air. Care will need to be taken here unlesss the rail is already well fastened down and probably ballasted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeharvey22 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Whilst waiting for the bulk packs to be delivered I bought a single pair of Easi-shunt couplers. I tried them out on a pair of Minitrix SNCF bogie grain wagons using a length of Atlas track with a pre-installed magnet intended for Microtrains couplers. The whole uncoupling sequence seems to work very well, and after pre-uncoupling a wagon I managed to propel it at low speed round a figure of 8 without it re-coupling. The loco was a Minitrix SNCF 67400 diesel and control was using a venerable H&M Safety Minor! Recoupling was possible on a 263mm radius curve some of the time, and 100% of the time on a 430mm curve. In the middle of a train of 11 vehicles the couplers held tight on a 228mm curve on a rising 1 in 50 gradient. The train did not overturn either! Before trying them I was a bit concerned about two issues. By its nature the magnetic knuckle coupler requires some horizontal stability but it worked fine with the sprung close couplers on the Minitrix wagons. Secondly some of the photos I had seen made it look like the Dapol couplers were overlong so I have compared them with the standard Minitrix Rapido and they are more or less the same length. Closer coupling is possible with the Fleischmann Profi or Dapol's own non working buckeyes (one short, one long). So my concerns were dispelled completely. I think that Dapol are on to a winner here, but I still would not mind a slightly shorter version. Mike 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oreamnos Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 (edited) The video of the Warship confirms a concern that I wrote about in my first post on this topic on 7/12 - the coupling shanks are too short. Did anyone else notice that the Warship's buffers had been removed? The Farish Warship and Dapol's own Class 26 have buffers that protrude quite a way and while I am just "eyeballing" things from the video (as my couplers haven't yet arrived), I am not confident that these couplers are long enough to give the buffers enough clearance on first or second (9" and 10-3/8") radius curves, and that's a problem if you don't want to remove the buffers. Would someone who has fitted the the Dapol couplers to a Warship or Class 26 please test this and post whether or not my concern is correct? I know that the trend has been for closer coupling, but at somepoint practically has to win out. If my concern is correct about buffer interference I hope Dapol will manufacture it's new couplers with longer shanks in future. Microtrains has short, medium, and long shank versions of its couplers as does Bachmann. So I hope Dapol will follow suit. Matt Edited December 15, 2011 by oreamnos Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Hmm, we seem to have a post saying they should be shorter, closely followed by one saying they should be longer! I guess as most other couplings, even the Rapido, are available in a range of lengths then the new one needs this too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Having looked on Dapol's website today I'm under the impression that they will be offering them in different lengths in time Perhaps get the standard one out, bit of trouble shooting and then release close and long options. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Hi, Close enough? Regards, Gerry. But does the screw work to tighten the coupler, which was the original question? Neat couplers though, except for the magnet. Perhaps it could be disguised as the gondola of a model airship hovering overhead Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveArkley Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Have to say I'm disappointed with these. MY eagerly awaited first pair arrived yesterday with the spring completely missing on one, and half way out on the other. Consequently they won't couple, never mind uncouple. I'm thinking that if the couplings can't survive the packaging intact then they may not be robust enough for daily use! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 16, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 16, 2011 Are there any spare springs with them? The springs do come out on Kadee couplers occasionally and are often loose in the pack but they do come with spare springs. I am awaiting delivery of my first pair of Dapol couplers so we shall see. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DapolDave Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Have to say I'm disappointed with these. MY eagerly awaited first pair arrived yesterday with the spring completely missing on one, and half way out on the other. Consequently they won't couple, never mind uncouple. I'm thinking that if the couplings can't survive the packaging intact then they may not be robust enough for daily use! hi Dave, can you please return these directly to me at Dapol as i am anxious to see if there might be a miss mold on yours i can sort out form happening on others? i will of course replace them for you. cheers Dave 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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