Accurascale to announce UK OO loco at Warley

[boxbrownie]

I'm pretty sure that there is a modified Kirby uncoupler which does allow delayed uncoupling but I can't remember where I've seen it!

It's shown in this video https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/495114552766816020/

Aha...clever, just uses a small piece of wire to restrict the raised hook falling down on the next vehicle....hmmm, might be a tricky to set up, but at least it works.

[allan]

...The best alternative is to "raise the bar", and fit full NEM 352 mechanisms which will allow true close coupling. As I've previously noted, non-British European manufacturers have been doing this since 1995. Have a look at some European models (Roco, Fleischmann or Brawa, for example), to see what a difference this makes - buffer to buffer running, but still able to negotiate absurdly tight curves and to remain compatible with existing model rolling stock...

No 'raising the bar' possible, Hornby have already gone this route since about 2004! Applies to their Brush type 2 (class 30/31) and EE type 4 (class 50) at least, and Hornby won themselves nothing but trouble with it. This in my opinion because the majority of OO customers persist with the fitted coupler which is the miniature tension lock, and this coupler not only fails to provided a re-centering action but typically tangles, and then derailments occur.

What I suspect is the most commonly used alternative RTR coupler in UK OO is the Kadee, and the swinging head of the no 17- 20 group with the NEM pocket fitting, can fail to provide enough recentering force, often resulting in extended gaps after coming off curves. (Height of irony, on the one Hornby loco where the NEM 352 mechanism would have been of greatest value, the HST, it wasn't employed: presumably because Hornby had no intention of reworking the matching mk3s with these mechanisms. Sigh.)

I feel this is one for Accurascale to think through for themselves. No OO manufacturer to date has embarked on the education programme that the HO manufacturers provided on 'how to get the best out of close coupling mechanisms'. Do Accurascale want to have a go? It will mean telling the customer base that the miniature tension lock isn't suitable. Hats off if they will, I am totally sold on close coupling for my coach sets where having the gangway faceplates in contact on straight track is a major improvement to appearance (I use the Roco coupler head within such trains, Kadees on the ends of sets).

Personally, with a Kadee in a fixed NEM pocket on the loco, coupled to a Kadee in an NEM 352 mechanism on the coach at the end of the set, the operation is good, but my absolute minimum radius on passenger lines is 30" so it's nowhere near a test for R2 operation. What's more as the situation requires, some of the Kadees used in this way are no 5s screwed on or melted into the coupler pockets, where eliminating the swinging head of the 17 to 20 type is advantageous. But I am a happy experimenter by nature...

I have very little experience with Hornby's attempt to employ NEM coupler mechanisms, but an awful lot of experience of real NEM mechanisms, and of Kadees. The Hornby experience I had was with a set of passenger cars: the coupler boxes were set too far back under the buffer beam to permit the use of NEM compatible couplers - so my interest waned very quickly. The decision to corrupt the NEM system cannot have been accidental, as it required Horby's "close couplers" to be made other than to NEM Norms.

[Bigmet]

This is all of a piece with the failure of both Bachmann and Hornby to provide any education when they first put NEM coupler pockets and the associated mechanisms onto their new OO introductions. And no other maker entering the UK market has bothered since. That's Accurascale's call to make, do they just run with the crowd or 'do different'.

The difficulty is I feel having to tell the purchaser 'those tension lock couplers you use are not going to perform well on this model'. Supplying a couple of the Roco pattern couplers with the loco might be a good move, because these have some presence in the UK market thanks to Hornby's clone, (overlong shank and all) a pair of which are packaged with their coaches. Thus prospective purchasers planning to operate the loco might have a few around.

[allan]

Well, I'm with Accurascale (you never would have guessed...) in that aiming at the bottom of the market is a guaranteed dead loss. In the absence of accepted standards, a huge problem in itself, the manufacturers that lead the way will adapt and adopt the set of standards (in this case, Norms) that is most appropriate: the rest will follow or fold.

[Boksonay]

Thanks for all the feedback so far, we hope to be able to share more details and CAD of the coupling system and how it should enabled prototypical close coupling if needed.