Coupling height on Hornby 50

"Adrian" wrote

Life the lower part of the screw coupling and place it over its hook. This is how it's generally done on the prototype and will keep it out of the way of the way of the Hornby coupling.

Use a piece of thin card or cartridge paper in the coupler slot to pack the coupling up very slightly.

These measures have produced a totally reliable cure on my 50.

John.

Thanks John. Yes I did that, but I wasn't sure if it was still contributing to the uncoupling problem.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean - from memory, I can't see how packing could do anything but move the coupling down... I'll have a go tonight and report back.

Thanks

Adrian

"Adrian" wrote

Looking at the loco from the front and with it in the *normal* position (i.e. wheels down, roof up) pack underneath the coupler legs and the bottom of the coupler pocket (not the triangular pocket mount). This raises the coupler slightly in its pocket.

John.

Of course one shouldn't have to make these adjustments. I find the new Hornby couplings are crap. I've gone the Kadee route.

"MartinS" wrote

I couldn't agree more about the need to make adjustments. :-(

John.

Thanks. Didn't get chance last night...maybe tonight...

Adrian

"Andrew Sollis CVMRD" wrote

My 50 runs superbly at all but the slowest speeds when it is slightly hesitant and jerky. I can only put this down to the traction tyres interfering with current collection.

The loco is certainly powerful. A friend had one pulling around 20 Bachmann Mk1s, but that's way above what the prototype would have been asked to do. I reckon without the tyres it would still pull a prototypical load, and gain from improved current collection.

John.

Is anyone producing a drop-in wheelset to get rid of the tyres??

Adrian

Have a look here :

A friend has just invested in one of these models and finds the coupling height 5mm too high for a NEM kadee. Has anyone else experienced this problem, and if so what was your solution. Our current thinking is to screw the coupling directly to the base of the coupling box, this however requires cutting an apature in the buffer beam.

Hornby! Buy a spare bogie, about 11 pounds I understand, you will get the two wheelsets you need and a set of spare gears as well. Keith. Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

"Keith Norgrove" wrote

Each bogies has two axles, with one set of wheels on each, with traction tyres, which suggests you'd need two bogies to provide enough traction tyre-free axles to replace the ones with traction tyres.

It might of course be possible just to replace the traction tyre fitted wheel from each axle with those from your spare bogie, but I know a couple of people have tried this without success.

John.

"Adrian" wrote

It is worthy of note that they are not dissimilar to the Bachmann wagon wheels which are connected by a plastic sleeve to allow the wheels to expand for wider gauges... Although the Class 50 wheels don't expand, with a spare set, you can remove the traction tyred (is that correct?) wheel for a smooth wheel.

My Ark Royal managed 17 coaches on a test run, and I am very very impressed and happy with this new loco.... Roll on a Class 58 !

Andy

You can use an overset or underset Kadee 20, 30 or 40 series to reduce or add 3/64" (about 1.2mm) to the height of the coupler vis-a-vis the mounting box. This may or may not help. NEM Kadees are all underset.

Even in Canada, it's hard to find a hobby shop with a full range of Kadees. I get my NEMs from a European import retailer.

That's really very simple as each axle is, actually, two stub axles pushed into the plastic gear, there is no problem at all replacing the wheels individually. One spare bogie will replace all the rubber tyres. And I speak from personal experience not from knowing people. Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

He exaggerates, the NEM mount KD in the 44 comes out at 12mm above rail which is the correct NMRA height for 00 (3 scale feet) and the same as most of the Bachmann wagons. I use this setting which looks good and works well so I'm happy about it. The NMRA height for H0 (3 H0 scale feet) is 10.5 mm, just 1.5mm lower not 5mm. And overset or underset couplers don't come with NEM shanks. Go with the 12mm height. Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

"Keith Norgrove" wrote

Thanks Keith, that's useful information.

My *knowing people* comment related to two of my customers who had tried this, but claimed it was difficult to secure the wheels firmly on the axles.

John.

Wonder what they did, I had all 12x of my wheels out to fit them with P4 tyres, there's a couple of pics on my website. You don't take the wheels off the axle, which would need a good press tool, but pull the stub axles out of the gears. They are firm enough to pull out and push back several times and you should have no need to do it more than once. And there's always 'loctite' in the unlikely event of one not gripping.

Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

So which Kadee did you use then ?.