F & B Ashbury Coaches - the Movie!

[philipy]

I was beginning to wonder if today would ever come, but here we are after almost 2 years, a F & B Manning Wardle 0-4-2 hauling it's train of the F & B's original four Ashbury coaches.

[ge_rik]

What an elegant looking train, Philip. Well worth the time and effort taken.

Rik

[LNR]

Picture perfect. The build, the paint job, the figures, even the curtains. A truly inspiring work of art Philip, and well worth the time it took.
Congratulations, now you can sit back with a smile from ear to ear and enjoy running it.
Grant.

[philipy]

Thanks chaps.

I must admit that the couplings are a major nightmare. I did my best to make them as prototypically close as possible, and Durley did warn me some while back that based on his similar experience it could be problematic... he was right! To get them to couple I have to derail one vehicle to move it over a few mm to get enough slack and then wiggle it back onto the track - not good! Plus, it makes any kind of shunting impossible. The other drawback is that the 'hook on a chain' is only on one end of each vehicle.
I need to come up with some sort of practical mod to improve 'couple ability'

On the subject of shunting, although the loco and coaches will reverse quite happily, since the loco is effectively an 0-4-0, there is a huge rear overhang and it buffer locks with the single central buffers. The only way round it that I can think of is to add a wider face to the loco's rear buffer?