New Bmann functioning coupler (with a big ?)

[Mark5]

saw this posted on tb, not getting my hopes up but interesting:

New N Scale Couplings

Graham Farish are pleased to announce that after considerable development a new working buckeye coupling will be available for use with US and UK N Scale models. The magnetically operated coupling allows prototypical operation when uncoupling e.g. shunting rolling stock and is another first for the UK market. The coupling will be available as part of next year's range of new items when Graham Farish celebrate 40 years of manufacturing in N Scale.

http://www.bachmann.co.uk

Mark

[SirTainly]

Interesting. Makes sense though with most modern protoype UK wagons now using buckeyes.

[wcfn100]

It's not a post until there are pictures. 






Jason

[Mark5]

D'oh! Yeah! How about them shanks!

[SkipGear]

Looks like a McHenry copy....and those cars sure look like the Jackson Sharpe excursion cars.

[H Lee]

Looks like a McHenry copy....

First thing that came to my mind also.

[bbussey]

Looks like a McHenry copy....and those cars sure look like the Jackson Sharpe excursion cars.

Not to me it doesn't.  I looks like the thumb pivots on the uncoupling pin rather than a spring or at the pivot post.  It will be interesting to see these in person to see how they compare in size to the various currently available operating knuckle couplers.

[wm3798]

Isn't UK N scale along the lines of Japan's?  (1:150 or so?)  that would give them some leeway to have a plump coupler...

Can't be any worse than the current Bachmann dummy blob coupler...

Lee

[SkipGear]

Looks like a McHenry copy....and those cars sure look like the Jackson Sharpe excursion cars.

Not to me it doesn't.  I looks like the thumb pivots on the uncoupling pin rather than a spring or at the pivot post.  It will be interesting to see these in person to see how they compare in size to the various currently available operating knuckle couplers.

I'll say it again, it looks like a McHenry copy. The only difference is they are using a plastic spring molded into the knuckle instead of a seprate spring as the McHenry. The McHenry also pivots at the uncoupling pin. They are a scaled down version of Bachmann's HO EZmate couplers which also uses a plastic spring molded into the knuckle. The HO EZmate II couplers use a spring, just like a Kadee HO or McHenry N scale coupler. I understand that McHenry tried the plastic spring and gave up saying that they couldn't get consistant tension and durability from the plastic. The HO EZmates suffer from the same problem.

[SirTainly]

Isn't UK N scale along the lines of Japan's?  (1:150 or so?)  that would give them some leeway to have a plump coupler...

Can't be any worse than the current Bachmann dummy blob coupler...

Lee

It's 1/148, but given the prototypes tend to be smaller an oversize coupler would stand out even more.

[Walkercolt]

If you don't run long trains, aren't the MT Z body-mounts what people shout for? At some point, "scale" couplers in 1/160th become an engineering exercise. What materials are available that are strong enough, can be made easily and cheap enough to be viable in the marketplace? There aren't very many. Maybe the B-mann coupler will "go". It doesn't look bad, should be priced low, and the N-TRAKer's will find out how strong it is. I still have stash of the non-operating InterMoutain couplers that twisted right into a "T-shank" pocket. Great for "unit trains".