Lima PGA wagon couplings

[rusty116]

Hi,
I have 25+ Lima PGA wagons in the grey/blue Yeoman livery, the make good load for the Lima class 59. But the couplings and distance between the wagons is far from ideal. Has anyone come up with a conversion to allow these to couple closer and look better than the chunky tension lock couplings ?

Regards

Rusty.

[Mountain Goat]

I have not done anything with those but Sprat & Winkle come to mind as a possibility as they can negotiate down to 1st radius curves, and one could have the cross buffer bar and a tension lock at the outer ends if necessary.
I make my own couplings for 7mm narrow gauge but they are a bit big for 00. Actually to be honest they are large for 7mm scale, but I don't mind as they really look the part.

I do find that in general, couplings in the smaller scales are a bit of an eyesore, and my experiments with couplings have noted that in general, if one wants to negotiate sharp curves one either has wide coupling loops (If a hook and loop style coupling is used, e.g. tension lock), or one goes narrow but one needs more of a gap between vehicles.

My design is what I call a "Reverse" hook and loop type of coupling, which is similar in operation to the classic European H0 style couplings (Also similar to 009, H0e etc) but the loop part is made so it can drop down when not in use. I make the hook part which doubles up as the centrally mounted buffers from drawing pins. While it is not quite what you are looking for, the principles maybe adapted?

In general, there are three main designs in common use and most of the others are varients of these designs. Hook and loop (Where the hook part moves either up or down to go over or under a fixed loop ), loop and hook (Hook and loop reversed... The hook is in a fixed position. 3 link and screw link are in this catagory), and the vertical cup type (Think Hornby Dublo (Peco), Kadee etc). There are others but those are the common types seen.

It is worth looking into the possibilities as you may find a commercially suitable product that will satisfy your needs, or even better (Or just as good), an easy to replicate home made design. A few years ago I looked into the various types for my 7mm narrow gauge set up, and it was quite an enjoyable exercize.

I realize that I may not be directly answering your question, but I thought I would share my thoughts.