I've recently bought some Dapol Gresley coaches, and I was wondering if anybody has used the knuckle type couplers that come in the box, the Dapol coaches don't seem to like being coupled to Farish coaches, and as I'm planning to run my coaches in fixed formations I'm not that bothered about using the Rapido couplings, and I'm assuming the knuckles give a closer couple?

Chris

Yes - one short, one long between coaches does the trick nicely and they stay coupled over all sorts of my dodgy track laying.

Dapol knuckle couplings are great for the connections between coaches.  I'm pretty sure you can even get away with two short couplings thanks to the close coupling mechanism on Gresley coaches.  Here are a couple of photos to show how the coupling distances compare with one short, one long and two short.

One short, one long:


Two short:


With the two short couplings the gangways practically touch.

I use the short shank Farish rapidos which give even closer coupling such that the gangways touch.

Cheers,
Alan

Cheers for that guys!
Is there an uncoupler for the Dapol knuckles? Doesn't matter if there's not of course...

Quote from: Wingman mothergoose on March 23, 2014, 07:42:32 PM
Cheers for that guys!
Is there an uncoupler for the Dapol knuckles? Doesn't matter if there's not of course...

No, the fixed knuckles are just that - fixed - you can only uncouple them with the big hand from the sky!

Cheers,
Alan

Quote from: Wingman mothergoose on March 23, 2014, 07:42:32 PM
Cheers for that guys!
Is there an uncoupler for the Dapol knuckles? Doesn't matter if there's not of course...

Use the provided knuckle couplers within a fixed rake and a rapido or 'easi-shunt' coupler on the end.

That's the plan! Although coupling them short to long stops them going round the sharper curves without derailing, so pretty much the only gain with having them coupled long coupling to long coupling is that they look like buckeye couplers and are less bulky than Rapido's...

Chris