Found a few vintage G-F wagons today with the very old style plastic coupling which pre-date the metal spring type.
The couplings have a plastic loop which I guess is the spring.
Anyways, a couple of the wagons are missing the couplings - any idea what to replace them with - i.e. what will fit as a replacement.
Guessing these are from 1970's or 1980's.

Ah the old "U-bend" couplings.    I'm not sure there is a direct replacement alternative out there.  Probably need to watch for scrapped Grafar wagons for sale on the cheap.

Otherwise maybe need to consider major surgery, cutting away the original coupling pocket and fitting replacement NEM pockets from Dapol, or Peco ELC pockets?

Maybe there's an opportunity for someone on this forum with access to a 3D printer and the necessary software to scan one in and reproduce some as I am sure that there are a fair number of people who would be interested in obtaining some for their older stock...

I am not in that area of expertise unfortunately but do have at lest one wagon with this type of coupling...

Just a thought...!

Quote from: ntpntpntp on September 02, 2021, 09:28:44 PM
Ah the old "U-bend" couplings.    I'm not sure there is a direct replacement alternative out there.  Probably need to watch for scrapped Grafar wagons for sale on the cheap.

Otherwise maybe need to consider major surgery, cutting away the original coupling pocket and fitting replacement NEM pockets from Dapol, or Peco ELC pockets?

On some of them, certainly some of my older coaches, there isn't a pocket at all. The coupling has an eye on the end which clip onto a peg on the bogie.

Not sure how successful fitting either the Dapol or Peco pockets would be - the plastic has a waxy look/feel so getting anything to stick to it could be tricky.

@chrism Yes that's correct.  Somewhere tucked away I have a small collection of old Grafar coach bogies from the 70s and early 80s.

I'm trying to remember whether those horrible "single undercut" couplings they tried for a while were made with the original eye-and-peg mount or only with T-shank springs?   All I can remember is those couplings were worse than the original "U-bend" type.

Quote from: ntpntpntp on September 10, 2021, 07:38:56 PM
Somewhere tucked away I have a small collection of old Grafar coach bogies from the 70s and early 80s.

I'm trying to remember whether those horrible "single undercut" couplings they tried for a while were made with the original eye-and-peg mount or only with T-shank springs? 

... and the answer is yes, the nasty "single undercut" style (as I call them) still had the eye-and-peg mount although it looks like the receptacle for the peg was enlarged a little.  I really don't know what Farish were thinking when they made those: no springiness at all, just a bit of vertical floppiness, and difficult for one coupling to slide up and over the other. Worse than the "U-bend" style in my experience.

Left to Right (newer to older):
T-shank and spring, "single undercut", "U-bend"