Replacing or Improving PECO "ELC" Couplings

[NeMo]

I built some TPM hoppers over the last few days (pretty much snatching an hour here, a half hour there whenever time allows around my newborn baby). While the TPM part of the kit is fine, the PECO chassis uses their ELC couplings which I find infuriating. They uncouple too easily.

Any ideas on substitutions or fixes?

Cheers, NeMo

[Caz]

I'm using Dapol EasiShunts on some of my Peco wagons as I want auto uncoupling although I have retained some of the Peco ELC coupling mid rake.   Must admit, I've never had a problem with the ELC's uncoupling unintentionally, is your track level?

[NeMo]

I'm using Dapol EasiShunts on some of my Peco wagons as I want auto uncoupling although I have retained some of the Peco ELC coupling mid rake.

Was it difficult installing the EasiShunts onto the Peco chassis?

Must admit, I've never had a problem with the ELC's uncoupling unintentionally, is your track level?

Probably not! 
To be fair, it's Kato Unitrack, glued onto plywood, so while there may be a slight gradient here and there, there aren't any obvious kinks that affect other couplings.

Cheers, NeMo

[Newportnobby]

Several folks have complained about random de-coupling on Peco wagons and it can take a lot of shuffling of the rake to improve the situation My brake vans always seem to come adrift which is a bit of a bummer if you don't notice until you see a loco pulling mineral wagons but pushing a brake van
DavieB of this parish has suggested using 'Tacky Wax' on the couplings but I've not tried this yet.

[Caz]

I'm using Dapol EasiShunts on some of my Peco wagons as I want auto uncoupling although I have retained some of the Peco ELC coupling mid rake.

Was it difficult installing the EasiShunts onto the Peco chassis?

Cheers, NeMo

Cut off the Peco box and then using a Dremel with a grinding disc or wheel you have to remove some of the underside of thechassis where the NEM conversion box has to fit to get the coupling at the right height.  Peco wagons seem to have less clearance between the underside of the chassis and the top of track compared to Farish & Dapol wagons which makes the grinding away necessary.  I originally had B&B's fitted at each end of my rakes of wagons that also needed the grinding down although the NEM conversion box needs a little more.

In case anyone is wondering why I've gone from B&B's to EasiShunt, to make B&B's (and similar type couplings) easy to uncouple you need to make the coupling handed, hook on one end and loop on the other wagon, as my layout is an out and back things like guards vans get turned around and make handing of the coupling impossible, the loco or guards van needs a full coupling which don't release easily.  Easishunts overcome this problem and although delayed uncoupling is unreliable normal uncoupling works perfectly.

[steve836]

Several folks have complained about random de-coupling on Peco wagons and it can take a lot of shuffling of the rake to improve the situation My brake vans always seem to come adrift which is a bit of a bummer if you don't notice until you see a loco pulling mineral wagons but pushing a brake van

I recon your "bobby " needs a form1

[NeMo]

Problem solved! It's not the couplings -- it's the wheels. The flanges are very deep and going across the frogs on Kato (#4) points causes them to lift up a bit, and that rocks the wagon, disturbing the coupling enough for (sometimes) the wagon to uncouple.

Replaced the wheels with Farish "coach" wheels from some HAA hoppers (which I assume would be broadly similar to the wheels on HEA hoppers) and the wagons seem to stay coupled! Only problem was that the wheels were a bit tight in the axle boxes on the wagons, but pushing the plastic axle boxes inwards while spinning the metal wheels seemed to 'carve' out a looser bearing, and all was well.

Off to Hattons to buy a pack of replacement Farish coach wheels now!

Cheers, NeMo

[EtchedPixels]

Off to Hattons to buy a pack of replacement Farish coach wheels now!

Cheers, NeMo

You may want to hold fire. HAA should I believe be 3'6 wheels so 7mm. Farish coach wheel packs are I believe 6.2mm. Just checking the book now and it seems that HEAs unlike HAAs are 3' wheels.

Alan

[NeMo]

You may want to hold fire. HAA should I believe be 3'6 wheels so 7mm. Farish coach wheel packs are I believe 6.2mm. Just checking the book now and it seems that HEAs unlike HAAs are 3' wheels.

Thanks!

So, according to Hattons, there's 3 types of wheels on offer: 3 hole disc wagon wheels, spoked wagon wheels and coach wheels. The 3 hole disc wagon wheels are the ones on short wheelbase wagons like the 12-ton mineral wagon aren't they? So they're surely too small?

Cheers, NeMo

[EtchedPixels]

HEAs were disc braked so would be solid wheels. The coach wheels they provide are only right for later coaches (B4 bogies etc). That means they are I think correct for the HEA but not the HAAs.

I'm not sure what wheels they put on their HAA (I know the Peco ones are wrong) but for the HAA you want 7mm wheels, and two of the wheels (one on each axle, one each side of the wagon) have disc brakes which can be modelled nicely with the spare discs from the Dapol Mark 3 coaches (the Hurst ones they supply)

Roughly speaking older fast moving vehicles had 3'6 wheels because that means they rotate somewhat slower which is important for bearing wear etc. Modern bearings are much better and smaller wheels mean less unsprung load on the track so newer higher speed vehicles have 3' wheels, or these days many even smaller.

Alan

[NeMo]

HEAs were disc braked so would be solid wheels. The coach wheels they provide are only right for later coaches (B4 bogies etc). That means they are I think correct for the HEA but not the HAAs.

Thanks for all this extra info.

Now, if I've got this right: The wheels taken from the HAA wagons are right for HEAs even though they are wrong for the original HAAs they came from. But if I get some Dapol Mk3 coach wheels, pop them into the HAAs, that should be about right?

Do any third party companies make authentic wheel sets of kit builders?

Cheers, NeMo