When I started my 009 project 'The Old Quarry Line' the idea was that it would be largely RTR based to take advantage of the new products coming from Peco, Minitraine and Bachmann. This had been diluted by the chance winning of some Meridian Models kits courtesy of Narrow Planet and then the need for a brake van, which I converted from a Dundas kit. Both of these had received the Peco style coupling but I was becoming a little unhappy with these on such small items of stock. Also, I wasn't too happy with the Bachmann couplers poking out of my WD open wagon.
As I was ordering a few pieces from Narrow Planet, including a cast brass brake handle for the brake van, I added a pack of Greenwich couplers with NEM pocket fittings to the order, and a pack of magnets. An hour or two of bending brass later both the WD and van were fitted with couplings and ready for testing.
I reconfigured my test board from the 6" curve experiments to include a point and two sidings to test the couplers and magnets. Satisfied I then curved the diverging line to 4.5" radius to mimic the 009 layout. I had feared the couplers wouldn't uncouple but the bogie mounted coupler on the WD open tracks very well and the brakevan isn't too bad (and they work equally well the other way around).
Pushed back over the magnet into the curve they re-couple as well as expected (especially with my slightly ham-fisted assembly!)
What I haven't really been able to do yet is test them fully around the circuit, I have a feeling there might be an issue with the loops but that could be resolved by going to a single loop per vehicle, we shall see...
Although I have stuck rigidly to MicroTrains couplers in O9 they do have issues with coupling on gentle curves let alone anything this tight, so I'm keeping an eye on this experiment from that perspective too as part of any future layout planning. Although the Greenwich couples are more time-consuming to assemble they are just about as fiddly as MicroTrains!
Colin
