Hello all,
Beginning a small layout of The Pennsylvania RR set in PA & NJ in the 1930s and early 40s and I am looking to incorporate some British style rolling stock from that era.  Given the scale difference between 1:160 N scale and British N Gauge.  Would a number of those wagons look silly being pulled by a 1:160 scale loco? I'm talking about the scale being off, please discount the fact that a British goods train bound for Liverpool is being pulled through Eastern Pennsylvania by a locomotive that has PENNSYLVANIA stamped on side of it.
I'm looking for suggestions as to rolling stock manufacturers and the types of knuckle couplers that easily replace the ones provided on the British style rolling stock.
Thanks!

If you are thinking Microtrains/KaDee then you've got a task on your hands.
Newer models have NEM pockets holding a standard Arnold Rapido coupling and these can easily be replaced with dummy knuckles from Dapol, or EasiShunts from Dapol which are similar to Microtrains.
I would suggest running the UK rolling stock in fixed rakes so that you only have to modify wagons/carriages at the end of the rakes.
Older stock can also be modified but that involves surgery to the coupling housings.

Regards,

John P

I agree with john regarding coupling compatibility.

Scale-wise, remember that although your American stock  is to the smaller scale, British stock is built to a smaller loading gauge than America so running 1:148 stock behind your loco is unlikely to "overpower it" in terms of height etc.

Something like this, perhaps...



Sorry that the 'Ten Wheeler' is 'Uncle Pete' rather than the 'Standard Railroad of the World'.  As John and Nick suggest, the easiest approach is a single vehicle with a Buck-Eye coupling on one end and an 'Arnold-style' on the other.

In the case of this gondola, it was for a different reason.  Another of my UP locomotives is rather old and has an 'Arnold-style' coupling fitted.  I arranged a couple of freight cars as converter vehicles to allow the old locomotive to couple on to any freight train.  For the photograph, I turned the gondola round so it allows the 1590, a 'Buck-Eye'-fitted locomotive, to pull a train of British wagons with 'Arnold-style' couplings.

Perhaps you could do something similar.

Best wishes.

John

Hey that little train looks great!  Thanks for sharing the photo. It does make sense to simply swap out one coupler and run the rest of the cars as is.  In just 3 replies I have a great place to start and am convinced that it's not an idiotic idea.
I had been thinking of MT couplers so that info on Dapol is great.  They have some great looking stuff and I had never even heard of them.
Thanks all!

Chad.