Close couplings

[muggins]

Each of my Gresley suburban carriages came with the pair of alternative coupling in a sealed bag, wherein was also contained four strips of 0.5mm thick dark green plastic each 44mm long and 2mm wide. What is one supposed to do with those?

[Mountain]

Are they coupling bars that fit into nem pockets to make them into permanent rakes?

[muggins]

Are they coupling bars that fit into nem pockets to make them into permanent rakes?

With a cross-section of 2mm x 0.5mm?

[Mountain]

Are they coupling bars that fit into nem pockets to make them into permanent rakes?

With a cross-section of 2mm x 0.5mm?

Ah. Probably not! I wasn't paying attention.

[Bigmet]

These are supplied as material from which to make roof mounted destination boards, where such things are appropriate. Not much used on LNER non-gangwayed, many of which had no roofclips to mount them.

[muggins]

These are supplied as material from which to make roof mounted destination boards, where such things are appropriate ...

Thank you, sir. How utterly typical of Hornby to leave it to the customer to guess their purpose.

[Bigmet]

Neither Hornby or Bachmann have ever to my knowledge explained how the close coupling systems on their vehicles work either. If you know how the European HO firms brief their potential purchasers, the contrast is very stark...

[Bufferstop]

Supplying them in green doesn't give much of a clue either!