Garden Railway Forum

LNR:121062 wrote:Sorry to be a bit off track, but that's a fabulous weathering and paint job. Are they "O" rings for coupling between wagons?
Grant.

ikcdab:121031 wrote:I have a lot of stock and from the beginning have used accucraft chopper couplings. They look prototypical, work well and I am very happy with them.

I have now ordered a set of binnie glyn valley granite wagons. It doesn't look as if the choppers would be appropriate or would fit. I don't have the kits yet but I guess the choppers would just be too big.

It looks as if the kits come with little hooks and wire loops as per the prototype.

So, to the question. Are the couplings supplied with the kit workable? If so,  how do I connect to other stock? A wire loop? Or should I look to replace with something else?

Thanks

Enginehouse:121088 wrote:

ikcdab:121031 wrote:I have a lot of stock and from the beginning have used accucraft chopper couplings. They look prototypical, work well and I am very happy with them.

I have now ordered a set of binnie glyn valley granite wagons. It doesn't look as if the choppers would be appropriate or would fit. I don't have the kits yet but I guess the choppers would just be too big.

It looks as if the kits come with little hooks and wire loops as per the prototype.

So, to the question. Are the couplings supplied with the kit workable? If so,  how do I connect to other stock? A wire loop? Or should I look to replace with something else?

Thanks

When you receive these kits you will immediately see that they are designed to couple and run in one particular direction only - as such each wagon has  completely different ends. I always use fixed length r/e magnetic couplings and so close coupling is extremely simple to fit and infinitely variable regardless of buffer beam design etc. Makes splitting rakes etc extremely easy and around curve reversing easy and with no climbing out problems.

ikcdab:121089 wrote: Hi Roy thats really helpful thanks. Which magnetic couplers do you use?

Enginehouse:121107 wrote:

ikcdab:121031 wrote: Hi Roy thats really helpful thanks. Which magnetic couplers do you use?

I make my own.  use 5mm diameter 3mm thick circular R/E magnets, a piece of brass tube and a thin sheet of brass for one end. Thus once soldered up I have an open ended cup that holds the magnet securely. A single length of brass rod links the cup and magnet to the split pin loop going through the buffer beam. I can make 10 in an hour once set up. My Binnie granite wagons run with the couplings below the buffer beams, but with the hooks on the top still in place but unused. As we effectively have a rigid but swivelling coupling the distance between wagons is fixed, both forward and backward. I like the "plop it on the track and push together"  auto coupling and the pull apart and pack away function, with no fiddling with chains, dropping and losing them, or having to bend bits to couple up some types of coupling on a curve etc. both my 45mm and 32mm stock all have mag couplings.