great stuff

Hi Steve, great little modifications. looks and runs a treat...great sharing video...Tony.

Brilliant 👍👍

Hello please can you tell what make your grinder is? 👍👍

Another excellent video Steve. This will be my next project upgrading some old coaches with D couplings to Hunt couplings. Thanks for taking the time and effort to explain the process. Its certainly made my job a lot easier. Thanks buddy and just to say your layout looks superb.👍👍👍

PROTOTYPICAL GAPS BETWEEN ROLLING STOCK ! This is of course dependant on the minimum radius used on any layout. Decades ago I conducted comprehensive tests on vast quantities of Commercial "OO" rolling stock. Which revealed a minimum 5ft RADIUS is needed (10ft Diameter). Not something many modellers plan their layouts to incorporate !!! Wagons are generally the simplest items to modify, including the Hopper wagon type as seen in the programme. However this often requires "sprung buffers" to be fitted to vehicles first. Available from specialists such as "Wizard Models" (See their Website). Sprung buffers of course reduce the problem immediately, and allow vehicles to even negotiate curves below the 5ft Radius (which is primarily needed for Corridor Gangwayed coaches). A number of options for the actual coupling to be used include. Brass wire hook & eye type, simply bent from 1.5mm diameter brass wire, and glued to vehicle ends. A more rigid version allowing propelling movements more reliably, is of course thin brass strip, 0.5mm thick and 4mm wide. With a hole drilled in the brass strip it can be screwed to the underside of a plastic vehicle, with a small self tapping screw, such as the Fleischmann tiny track screws. Another more realistic option is of course the Kadee USA (British Buckeye type) coupling, available in a number of mounting formats. The No 5 type comes with its own pocket, so can be glued to the underside of vehicles. While Kadee items 17; 18; 19 & 20, provided the Buckeye coupling suited to use with NEM pockets. Where No 17 has the shortest shank & No 20 the longest shank. (Example: The No 19 type fits perfectly without any modifications, in Bachmann Mk1 coaches, closing the gap between corridor connections to within 1mm, and of course is the correct real life type of coupling BR used on such coaches !) Kadee couplings are of course designed to work with Kadee "split pole" uncoupling Magnets, fitted in OR under the track for automatic hands free uncoupling. The BR Buckeye type coupling was also used on a number of more modern wagons including the type demonstrated in the video. The four different shank lengths allow you to select the shortest that your layout can accommodate through whatever radius curves you have, down to around 2ft 6in !!!!

Ωραίος τρόπος σύζευξης των βαγονιών μπράβο από Ελλάδα κύριε. Πολύ ωραίο και χρήσιμο το βίντεο σας....

Hi Steve missed you at Stafford as i went on Sunday. Using the hunt couplings is a massive improvement. I did exactly the same on some old blood and custard coaches from triang/ hornby. They looked great as well. I donated them to a school modelling club. Great job mate atb Andy

Hi Steve, It does indeed make a difference to how they run so well done you are beginning to be the master at these conversions, me I am happy to mix and match mine and as I like "shunting" Hunts are no good but that is not to say I don't use them I do for the middle wagons at times and if like you & Lord Al like to run them back fast they have no equal. Glad your well and hope to see you at GETS on the Sunday. Cheers Robert.

Hello Steve Great to see you back on KZbin. Nice job modifying the couplings to be honest its a job i keep putting off lol. Cheers Deano

A variation of your hunt couplers were once popular in the U.S. back in the 50's and were known as baker couplers. They were made of metal and were much much smaller.

Hi Steve, nice modification those big D couplings are 💩 don’t know why Hornby still produce them it’s one reason and traction tyres that I stopped buying Hornby cheers Al

Looks great work. Very sold on the Hunt Couplings. Have got a Hornby Brighton Belle and replaced the couplings with Hunts and runs really well with the powered car pulling or pushing on the end to end section of my layout including 2nd radius curves.

Hi, great video of some upgrades to Hornby/Lima extremely old mouldings that pop up on a regular basis with those terrible couplings that adorn those wagons, isn’t it about time Hornby stop flogging their wagons with them on, nem pockets are the norm these day even Dapols cheapest wagons have nem pockets, they are a cost cutting short cut Hornby love, 40 years ago they were acceptable now they are just an eyesore, I’m glad there are lots of conversion to replace them now, I refuse to buy wagons with huge D style tension locks and the ones I did have are long gone, thanks for sharing.

Great video buddy, have been looking at these Hunt couplings and having watched your video have decided to give them a go. Brilliant step by step guide to modifying and fitting. Thank you for sharing your experience.👍👍👍

Fantastic mod there Steve. I honestly think magnets are the way to go, I’m slowly converting my stock on both gauges, just takes time. Even for shunting magnets can be used to couple and uncouple (Robert’s T S). Hopefully catch you at GETs.

Excellent result Steve. I like those wagons. Great runners and great in reverse, Thanks for sharing. ATB Stuart

U should try the accurascale magnet couplings

Hi Steve. Thanks for a very interesting video. I'm getting to the point where I need to decide what style of coupling to go for on my layout overall. It's a shunting layout and I have a lot of wagons that have many different styles of coupling that I will need to replace and will certainly take time and finance! How do you find the Hunts to use? I'll admit I was angling towards Kadee couplings and very few wagons will be run as a set. But I suppose I could use hunts as long as I don't mind the hand of God working every train! lol. You've definitely given me something to think about. Top work on the conversion too! Thanks again and hopefully I will see you at GETS again this year 😉 You can have one of MY cards this time 😄

I have seen the couplings you were using and wondered how you fit them! btw what size are the screws and thread size thanks

I have got to say: A Very Big Thank you, the conversion you showed on this video saved me quite a lot of money. THHIS CONVERSION WORKS: BRILLANTLY: AGAIN, A VERY BIG THANK YOU.

what resistor did you use because I would like to do a similar thing with my HST and my DELTIC . I only use DC though. I can't be doing DCC I'm just not interested in it that's my personal feelings anyway

Thanks, that is very useful for me. I will see if there are shorter couplings otherwise I don't see the advantage of doing this work.

Hi Steve, great videos, you had me hooked on my second visit. I have just inherited a collection of Lima locos from my dad, they have never been ran and I have been in two minds whether to convert them to dcc for my layout or just display them. Your modernisation of these old locos is extremely interesting, no doubt I’ll be firing all sort of questions your way in the not too distant future. Your videos are very well done and I’m enjoying the content. Cheers Ross

Brilliant - I’ve seen many a Dogs Breakfast but that one looked Tasty😉 You Explained and Demonstrated that, Almost well enough for me to understand, I shall watch it A couple more times before I have a go. Many thanks Steve 👍🏻

Another great video. I never get tired of watching you at work, mainly because you demonstrate how easy some of the jobs we might shy away from can be done. Thanks again.

Steve great result, I haven’t seen any of your vids for quite some time hope I haven’t missed any. Will check I’m still subd and notifications are on. 👍

Hi IV got dcc and the most important place to have droppers is all around the points on peco insulated I have you need good contact on switch blades area

Very interesting experiment..! How well it will work in the long term is probably the question though, it might be very successful in the long term, fitting the bus-wire and the droppers might help in any problem areas of your layout. Trying to turn a DC layout into DCC layout isn't the easiest of tasks..! I Hope it works out for you, and that you can achieve the running qualities you seek from your layout, get well soon too..! Will we ever have an end to covid..! Get well soon Steve.

Very interesting . I’ve long been waiting to see how someone could run DCC on an otherwise DC layout . I’ve been collecting locos since 1965 , so you can imagine there’s a fair few by now . I can’t go DCC as some of these locos pretty old , but I do still run them . I do fancy an occasional sound loco though . What I’d really like to see is how some of these Bachmann sound fitted locos run on DC . However what you’ve done gives food for thought . Does your HM7000 Deltic go on DC and aren’t you frightened that you might get DC and DCC mixed up Causing problems to locos . Great video , the first I’ve seen attempting this . Hope you get over Covid soon !

Hi Steve, DCC is simple to start with but it can get complicated if you go in to deep with block detection and things like that I’ve got a separate DC line and the rest is DCC witch I run multiple loco’s on the Hornby clips just gives you continuous power on the points cheers Al

Hi Steve. Sorry about the covid buddy. Mines dc only still can't get dcc round my technophobe head. Your layout is bigger than mine and I love the different levels. Get rid of that horrible bug mucker. Still got your photo by the way. .... Pete....

Excellent result Steve, Dcc has it's benefits indeed, Multi train running especially, i only have a few droppers as my top lines are separate. And a couple on the bottom, And as Robert says the clips are great, i have them on all points. But a great result, Hope you feel better soon. ATB to you.Stuart

Hi Steve, I ran my loft layout with not many feeds and it did work although the small locos 0-4-0 & 0-6-0 would struggle on the hornby points but to make the whole layout live it needed the hornby clips in them when I did the conversion to iTrains you had to have each block with its own feed and doing that did make a huge diffence to there running and thats why I will do a dropper on every bit of track and the points on the end to end so it will be interesting to see how you get on with Dcc on yours. What dcc controller have you got to run this. I hope you will soon shake of the covid but well done for doing this video when suffering from it. Cheers Robert.

Greetings Steve🌟⭐👍wow you making nice upgrades🎉

Excellent job on the deltic fella ..! The lights actually give the loco some much needed character. Nicely done..!

Nice job steve, seems to run well, those old style lima pallet vans are ok i`ve a few of the original runs from Lima

Hi Steve, A super video I always think putting lights in to these type of budget locos raises the game a lot so well done for showing us. The layout is looking super also you have done a great job on that as well. Cheers Robert.

Great job Steve, certainly has made this loco so much better, with sound too. Bargain!

Brilliant 👏

Where did you source the couplings and wheels?

Nice job mate, that was really well explained. Steven.

Hi, Your Channel came up today, very interesting and great Videos on how too, especially these Coupling Ones, I've loads of Old Stock I'd like to change over to these Couplings, these look just like the Container wagon Couplings id like to replace, Thanks for Sharing,

Really enjoying your videos. I have a lot of old locos and you are inspiring me to do more with them!

I found that drilling the rivets out works if you use a 5mm drill or bigger and just remove the top of the rivet instead of drilling through.. Like you say they can vary in how tight they are.

Hi Steve, another biker modeller here. My passions can be summed up by the £M's, motorcycles, music and model railways!. I tend to buy any new stuff(when I can afford it!) from Barry at Widnes model centre. Great shop and would highly recommend it. I've now subbed.

Excellent job Steve, i have the same 92, So will give this a go.ATB to you.Stuart

Nicejob steve, Never done any Locos just damaged rolling stock so far.

Hi Steve, Old locos are out there and want to give service for as long as possible so well done for showing that in the coupling department at least they can be upgraded easily and cheaply and seeing them run it is hard to see that they are not a lot newer than they are so well done keep up the good work and the layout is looking great and working well also. Cheers Robert.

Great Tutorial - Awesome Test Run with That Superb Hymek and Smooth Rolling Coach rake. Great Job 👏🏻