28/04/2026 #closecoupling Well, that’s another trainload done! This was by far the longest and most difficult job I’ve done so far! Some of you may remember my post one year ago, where I fitted NEM pockets and Kadees to a couple of old Hornby MGR coal wagons, so that I could run the train with my Kadee fitted locos. I also experimented with some Hunt magnetic pivoting couplings, to see if they were worth doing on the whole train, as Kadees are much more expensive. So I got two packs of the intermediate length. As intended to fit, they are too long for me and do not close the large gap between wagons. So I cut the clip off, file a flat on one side and superglue them to the coupling mount after removing the old metal tension lock and filing the mounting flat. I position them to give me about a 2.5mm gap between buffers. Plenty for my curves. The Hunt couplings were a problem! As designed, the magnet clips onto the bar, but several of mine popped out during handling while filing and would not pop back in, just becoming loose. So an engineering solution was needed. I used a 0.45mm drill and drilled a hole through the magnet piece and the bar. I then fitted a pin made from 0.3mm wire, which proved successful after a few attempts. About half of the couplings had to be done, which is what made this job more difficult. The two packs did 20 wagons, but I have 25! So, with the two from last year, I put NEM pockets and Kadees on the other 3. The result reduced the gaps by so much, that I was able to add two more wagons to the train, to fit into the same length! I hope you can understand the process from the photos. @Rob York

Posted by Wagons Mike at 2026-04-28 19:59:28 UTC