Model Railway Forum

Finally,my Hornby GWR coaches arrived today

3 more still on pre order

Very nice, Hornby do like their long lead times

Not all of us.

The boxes have that new car smell,ahh,as with everbody else on the forum,i am starting again,so I will be posting some pictures of my layout over the weekend

Boxes start to be a real pain. I have some 200, and take some storing. Would not be so bad if standaed sizes, but with o gauge, oo, tt and n, not to mention sets, and larger loco boxes, it is a bit of a pain

It will be a pleasure to see this layout. US layouts generally have passenger service as a secondary theme, in Britain it is a primary theme.

That is usually the case Chops, but I don’t have a station and only own five coaches that rarely see the light of day.

The coaches came with the option of different couplers and buffers,would I be right in thinking,no buffers if run in a hst rake?

With Mk 3's which were mostly used with HST's the coaches used with HST's dont have buffers and the ones used to tow behind a seperate locomotive do have buffers.
I have to say that though I've seen HST's up close on many occasions in my line of work in the past, I've not actually visually noticed!
It is just that I remember the difference from buying the old Hornby coaches and the instructions with them.
I have worked Mk2's and helped with Mk1's and these have retractablw buffers. When a coach is coupled to another coach the buffers are pushed in and the buckeye coupling is raised. Where the coaches need to be coupled to a loco the buckeye is dropped and collars are placed over the buffers to keep them in the extended position. The screw link coupling is then used. This is tightened up and then slackened off three or four turns (If I remember correctly) so that the coaches would negotiate curves. It was all part of my duties as a train conductor. Changing the points and coupling up and uncoupling. We were only allowed to work them if we could lift the buckeyes on our own and we were not allowed the assistance of a buckeye tool. (We never were given those tools).
One of the most dangerous jobs I had was when working was to make sure the driver had turned the ETH off before I went under to uncouple the coach, as it was really a test of faith as it was only by word of mouth one had to know it had been turned off.