#closecoupling (19/04/2025) I’m having a lot of fun sorting all the couplings out on my stock at the moment. The next train I tackled was the Railfreght Distribution international ferry train we had running on Runswick Leamside. It was the longest train on the layout, but to use on my layout I have split it up. The five Heljan Cargowaggon bogie vans and the Revolution Trains/Kernow Cargowaggon twin van (new) are now running with my two Revolution Trains holdall bogie vans in the Norsk Hydro train. That was done last year. Most of the vehicles on the RfD train are Roco two axle vans, twin vans and tanks, with kinematic couplings, so these all have Roco close couplings fitted. I like these, as they make a solid coupling and there are no height issues like with Kadees, plus the buffers are in contact most of the time. There are some Electrotren two axle and bogie vans which don’t have kinematic couplings. They have old style solid continental couplings with large gaps between each wagon. I decided that I would try and fit Roco close couplings throughout the rake, with a Kadee at each end for coupling to locos. But my first job was to close couple my new twin vans. These come with a long connecting bar which gives a very unrealistic large gap between each twin. See the first photo. The bars have a square cross section, so I use a brass tube to make up new connecting bar, to give the correct gap between twins. The brass tube is cut to 5mm for the Roco twins and 7.5mm for the Revolution twin van. The original plastic bar is cut 2.5mm from each end and the pieces inserted into the brass tube which is superglued to form a shorter bar, which are finished off by painting black. In photo two you can see the original bars top right, the brass cuts bottom right, how they fit together top left, a 7.5mm bar middle left and a 5mm bar bottom left. The third photo shows the Roco van with the correct gap and the 4th and 5th photos show the Revolution twin van with the correct gap. My next post will tackle the Electrotren vans.

Posted by Wagons Mike at 2025-04-19 21:09:24 UTC