Evenin' All:

Another newbie question...

I have a handful of coaches and a Minitrix Warship and they all get along fine with coupling.

The key point is that if shunted together, even at at a pretty slow speed - they couple nicely. 

The other day I got my first wagon as a present from my daughter. Farish ventilated wagon. Brand new. When I approach it with anything at all, it just runs playfully away down the track (does not couple).   

I realize this can be due to (1) the lightness of the wagon and (2) the willingness of its coupler to couple and indeed (3) the willingness of the coupler of the other loco or rolling stock to couple.

Of course one thinks "perhaps I need to add weights...?" but... bless my soul, that means that I have something new which needs to be modified in order to work...?   

Is it just back luck on my part or is this just... the way it is...?  :'(

Many thanks for any input.

- Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Have you tried turning the wagon round to use the other coupling?
I would imagine you have done, have you checked the height of the two couplings involved?

Perhaps if you could take some pictures of the problem they may help get you a solution 

cheers John.

My first thought was the lightness of one of those vans, especially if it's on it's own. Have you tried shunting other rolling stock up to it by hand and observing what goes on? Get several more wagons in a rake to add weight and solve the problem 

I tend to find Rapido to Rapido coupling quite reliable when shunting up to a stationary bit of rolling stock, but NEM to NEM or NEM to Rapido coupling poorer.

Bearing in mind the need to stay totally serious on this.

This happens with most of my wagons at some time or another. Is the coupling pointing in the right direction - or slightly to the left or right?  Is the coupling not flexing up and down so just hits the attempted mating coupling head on - and won't ride up or down over it?

This is going to happen every day with RTR wagons and standard couplings.

Try adding weight to your wagons. For open wagons a load of some kind helps (I use ten commandments loads a lot, they look good and weigh quite a bit), for box vans a lump of Bluetack or similar placed inside can help. For very free wheeling stock add a small piece of foam (pan scourer or similar) between the wagon floor and one axle.

Cheers
Dave

Quote from: ParkeNd on February 24, 2014, 07:06:50 PM
Bearing in mind the need to stay totally serious on this.

Absolutely. This topic is on the brink of going completely off the rails with tomfoolery.

I have added some 'brakes' to my wagons so they have a little resistance and don't run QUITE so easily = just add a small piece of foam under one axle. You can experiment with the size of the piece of foam to achieve the right amount of resistance. I found it works extremely well for me - although I have replaced all my horrible rapido couplings with Dapol easi-shunt ones . . .

I may occasionally have been known to resort to the finger of God...

It's amazing how the springs in Rapido couplers can conspire to catapult a wagon at a remarkable speed...

Sorry, but none of these answers is correct. it is like any other youngster, it lacks commitment. Bill.

Quote from: ozzie Bill. on February 25, 2014, 05:06:51 AM
Sorry, but none of these answers is correct. it is like any other youngster, it lacks commitment. Bill.

Bill

I resemble that remark.  My children committed themselves into making me a very old grump man at an early age.

Kind regards

Geoff

 

Firstly - thanks for all the feedback - this august body constitutes a truly remarkable resource. Getting replies is one thing, but getting them so quickly is exceptional.

Well...

...here are my findings and answers and thoughts...

- I thought about weights and so I put 1 ounce of lead on top of the wagon. Yes - I know that is not where it goes and that the centre of gravity would be nothing like it would if it were inside the wagon, but I could not see how to get the roof off and did not want to damage my lovely pristine first wagon. Anyway, it made no difference. Still just shoved off when approached by another coupling. 

- I have taken photos of the couplings and hopefully that will help. It appears that the couplers of both ends of both the Warship and Lima (I think) coaches are perhaps a few molecules lower than the Farish couplers (at both ends), but where do we go from here? If I adjust something to lower the Farish coupler (how such a minute adjustment could be made and permanently made I cannot imagine) then this potentially makes it dissimilar from the next identical wagon I buy to extend the goods rake at Preston End  (or whatever I call the layout). Or... do I try to adjust the older Warship on the basis that being older, it is unlike the modern standard? Better to change 1 loco than 50 wagons...? If so - I hope the coaches still couple... 

- Thanks for the tip about the sponge on the axles to slow it down - sounds like very precise work! 

- I've heard about alternative systems but was disappointed when around about 1994 I tried out some American products which although otherwise excellent    included some stock with the Kadee coupling system. You certainly could couple nicely and then uncouple over the magnet between the tracks, but if the train was running at a scale speed below say 15 mph there was a fighting chance that some of the wagons would uncouple all by themselves as they went over the magnet. To me this is one of the very worst possible side effects to have to deal with. It's one thing to worry about couplers when you are trying to couple or uncouple stock - one can almost expect a certain amount of fiddling in the fiddle yard as it were  - but uncoupling when you are just driving a train? Please... no....!  :'(    I know that one can dig deeper into the pocket and buy electromagnets, but... this is starting to get serious...! 

- If I put the van on the end of a coach and then approach the van with the Warship - it couples fine. It seems the coach produces more oomph than an ounce of lead. This is fine, but regrettable that coupling cannot be done on a single wagon... 

- Regarding the left/right alignment of the couplers - I hope the pictures will help, but they look pretty reasonable to me.

- Of course - to be methodical - I can't wait to simply get another identical wagon and try to get the two of them coupled. If they do not, I am puzzled. For does that not mean that rolling stock is being made that simply does not function as one might expect? Or is the expectation that they will couple without extra... adjustments, or weights, or sponges, or replacing the couplings, or adding extra wagons... unreasonable?

Here are the pictures...

I have ten Dapol 6-wheel milk tanks and every single one of them will run away when trying to couple to a single wagon or even a pair them coupled together. Just a fact of life I'm afraid If they made the wagons heavier to counteract this then they'd get complaints that a long rake of them is too heavy to be pulled by an N gauge loco

Only remedy is to use one of the methods above - personally I've gone for the foam 'brake' on the axle


Paul

Quote from: Sprintex on February 25, 2014, 09:39:58 AM
I have ten Dapol 6-wheel milk tanks and every single one of them will run away when trying to couple to a single wagon or even a pair them coupled together. Just a fact of life I'm afraid If they made the wagons heavier to counteract this then they'd get complaints that a long rake of them is too heavy to be pulled by an N gauge loco

Only remedy is to use one of the methods above - personally I've gone for the foam 'brake' on the axle


Paul

I can imagine that this is the reality of the situation    - heavier would seem to make sense, but then you have to have shorter rakes of rolling stock. Do you glue the foam or... what...?

Thanks Paul!

I have many wagons that won't couple even if you put a fingertip into each of them and ram them together. Even physically lifting one or the other and trying to thread one coupling onto the other won't work.

Life is just like that. We have to learn to live with it. They are toys. This isn't really the LMS or the GWR.