Wow, wish I'd seen them for £25.

I've bought a few sets, I'm a bit wary of the couplings as they seem similar in design to the IOAs but have yet to run a rake to see. There seems to be a hefty spring attached to them which might stop them pulling forward and locking in long rakes.

There aren't any dummy knuckle couplings provided, just standard Rapido's. There are two fixed bars provided to couple the paired wagons and these hold the wagons apart at 9mm which matches the distance between coupled sets of 9mm using the Rapidos. Looking at pictures of real rakes the distance between paired wagons and coupled sets seems to be equal, so the effect will look prototypical.

I usually try to close couple wagons with the dummy knuckles, so may need to either shorten the bars or just replace them with more dummy knuckles. If I get a chance this weekend I'll report back how I get on.

Cheers, Mark.

Hi again,

If you aren't sure of the Freightliner you could always go with the GBRf versions...

https://flic.kr/p/YrCY3B

Cheers

Ben A.

other flow routes :

croft ( leicester ) via melton, peterborough , cambridge line and mountsorrel - luton plus willesden holding sidings to doncaster
maybe of use

You are all stars, many thanks, plenty of examples. I run both GBRF and Freightliner so will see what is out there, clearly 8 pairs needed.

good luck, any questions we are all here to help with knowledge

I've had a lot of trouble getting a rake to stay together, couplers coming undone completely randomly and a wheel set with a chunk of metal on the tyre. I'll get them sorted, but not too impressed so far!

Pete @ EGLM

hi pete

what you describe is what happens to my network rail wagons from them , they now reside in a siding while i decide what to do with them , i wanted to get a set of these new wagons but i wanted to see them first and yes they do look very nice but i wont go through the coupling situation again , if only farish would do spares i am thinking of swapping the bogies over for a farish version which might solve the problem , this is really annoying as i have a friend who has said the same and i warned him about the couplings, why dapol

nobby

Hi Nobby, I was running my Network Rail JNAs on a friends layout at the DEMU Exhibition (Stapleforth St Stephen) and a visitor asked me, how I'd got them to run, because he'd had problems as you describe.  I hadn't had any problems with them- but I'd loaded them with ballast when I got them, so I can only think it's the extra weight that stops the couplings flicking on bends.  I'll try some temporary ballast in the MJAs and report further.

Is it not the IOAs that have issues, rather than the JNAs? I've found my JNAs fine too, but have heard of lots of problems with IOAs.

the JNAs seem ok  the IOAs are terrible ,so much so i have put them in a siding really dont know what to do , my thoughts are to see if i could get some farish bogies and cut of the dapol couplings all together as the ones off the coal hoppers seem simliar but i shall see , i dont mind a bargain but when its like this i would rather pay more for a better product to be honest

For the ones that are uncoupling, is it the centre bar that comes apart or the Rapido couplers?

Ok, just tested mine out. It's the rapido couplers. Swapped the dapol couplers for farish and they seem okay.  Some of the wheels come out of the bogie very easily and my dapol 66 won't pull them, they keep uncoupling even on farish couplers. Not impressed dapol.

Answering the OP, they have been used on the Great Western mainline bringing Gypsum to Portbury Docks GBRF and taking stone eastwards in a Freightliner flow.
The GBRF ones were originally Freight Liner  wagons, some just had the Freightliner painted out, others had the panel with Freightliner on removed but still green and some were just plain blue.

Geoff

For the OP I can report that one of my favourite real railway websites has photos of empty Freightliner MJAs at Taunton in 2005. 

Possibly used to top up the virtual quarry at Fairwater Yard?

Quote from: Paulwhitt20 on August 07, 2018, 07:58:31 PM
For the ones that are uncoupling, is it the centre bar that comes apart or the Rapido couplers?

Ok, just tested mine out. It's the rapido couplers. Swapped the dapol couplers for farish and they seem okay.  Some of the wheels come out of the bogie very easily and my dapol 66 won't pull them, they keep uncoupling even on farish couplers. Not impressed dapol.

Given this and other comments I was wary when mine arrived yesterday, so thought this afternoon I would give them a try before taking them to the club this evening. Lo and behold, occasionally I could do a full circuit without a random uncoupling. I think I will have to resort to some blue tac in the couplings.

I had not had any trouble with either the JNA's or IOA's so was rather hopeful these would be ok. 

On some other wagons i had trouble with I replaced the rapido couplings with the "buck eye" couplings Dapol used to supply with all their wagons and this solved the problem. However Dapol stopped supplying them so cant do that here. I can only guess it is a dastadly plot to make us buy the magnetic couplings they sell.

The wagons themselves look really good and the rake of 8 pairs make good sight, if only they would stay coupled.

A level track, presumably? It does seem to be a problem.

Just wondering if added weight could solve it?