AJs used in NEM coupler pockets

[chris_mccarthy]

I’m sure that this question will commit me to the fiery furnace in some eyes, but here goes.

I am using the Hornby close coupler units upside down in their NEM pockets for near-permanently coupled rakes of coaches. I find these visually acceptable below corridor connections and a quick and simple method.

So far I have fitted them to the more recent Hornby coaches which have the Roko type fitting allowing for sharper radius curves. Very good they are, too! But at the outer ends of the fixed rakes I want to use AJ couplings.

I would really like to fit those AJs whilst retaining the NEM pockets in case I want to remarshall the sets and need to replace the AJs with a Hornby close coupler.

I’m wondering whether anyone had dreamed up a suitable adaptation of an AJ mounting which clicks into the NEM pocket! I notice that those pockets (at least on those coaches with the Roco fittings) offer a fair bit of vertical deflection, looking to me about the same as needed to pull down a normal AJ dropper.

So my addled brain perked up thinking that perhaps the totality of an AJ somehow fitted and retained into the pocket and a dropper capitalising on the pocket’s vertical springiness might, together, have some potential for meeting my needs.

It would be best if the whole coupling contraption could be jig built on the modelling bench and just clicked into the pocket. Am I getting too far ahead of practicality or has someone already found a solution to this?

Any help or signposting gratefully appreciated.

Chris McCarthy

[barhamd]

Looking at the NEM coupler pockets and tension lock couplings I've just pulled off a new Oxford Rail model I would suggest it is probably worth a try. I could see a way to remove the tension lock part of the coupling but keep the bit of plastic which fits into the NEM pocket. It should be possible to make an AJ hook that is attached to the old coupling part and allows it to be clipped into the NEM pocket. Getting enough deflection with a magnet in the vertical direction is probably the biggest issue, I'd suggest you might need to make an AJ where the wire goes back beyond the NEM pocket and then turns through 180 degrees back towards the fixing point in order to get sufficient flex.

Give it a go and see if it works!

David

[nigelcliffe]

An idea like David's above may work, but I think it will also need a "pulling post" fixed below the vehicle, where the AJ wire makes the 180 degree change of direction. Otherwise I suspect the wire will collapse with a modest train load as holding a guitar string straight in compression doesn't usually work !

The pulling post has to move with the swing of the NEM socket (otherwise another tangle will occur), and not get in the way of the bogie below.

I suspect attaching the AJ to the inboard end of a bogie is simpler.



- Nigel