Typical... Just like buses, nothing for ages, then two Q&A's come along at once....🤣😂🤣 Been sorting through my rollingstock and decided to set up a legendary class 47/7 push pull rake, as seen running between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street in the 1980's. Rake consists of 47 709 "The Lord Provost" (Lima body on a Hornby TTS chassis), 5 x Oxford Rail "Scotrail" Mk3's and a Bachmann "Scotrail" DBSO. Thing is, the tension lock couplings on the Oxford Rail Mk3's aren't brilliant.... Already had one "dislocate" in the coach, requiring the coach to be dismantled to fix it....! The tension lock couplings are OK when in extension (i.e. the class 47 "pulling" from the front of the rake), HOWEVER, not so good in compression (i.e. the class 47 "pushing" from the rear of the rake) - that's when the coupling dislocated causing a catastrophic derailment.... Lastly, there is too much play between the tension lock couplings, meaning the rake has about 40mm "play" between the coaches, class 47 and DBSO. I'm thinking West Hill Wagon Works "Hunt" couplings might work, or possibly some sort of rigid coupling into the NEM sockets, although, that might be too fiddly...! Cheers, Ross. 👍

Posted by East Coast DCC at 2025-03-04 20:20:12 UTC