double heading

[old muddler]

don't know if this is right section 1st time on here, any whay here goes.

I am 76 years old with my 1st lay out. I bought hornbys mixed freight train set,and liked what i saw.  After a lot of reading, I decided to have a 9ft x 11ft shed built,and realy go for broke.  I have built the layout around the walls, with a trap door in front of the shed doors.

I have just set two engines up for double heading, now realised can't do this, as there are no couplings, on the front of the engines.  can i fit couplings to the front of the engines , these are Hornby rail road, flying scotsman 4472, richard 2, 6021, black 5, 45116.

looking forward to "speaking" to some of you.

stay safe, Eric .

[walkingthedog]

Are they new locos, if so the front coupling may well be in the accessory bag.

[atom3624]

There may be a NEM pocket which permits fitting a coupling even if they're not supplied.

If possible - look on the boxes they came in - what is the 'R' number.

If they included the service / maintenance sheets, this should indicate if you can fit front couplings.

 

There have been several different types of 'tension lock' couplings produced over the years. Those which clip into the square box 'NEM pocket' are the easiest to fit / remove.

Others will be similar, but different, normally slightly larger and may screw onto the front bogies to permit coupling for double heading.

 

One consideration is to see that the locomotives you want to double head are moving at a similar speed for the same power setting, else one will take more load / strain than the other.

 

Al.

 

PS  Welcome to the forum.

[Chrissaf]

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[NWR-Gordon-4]

old muddler, welcome to the Hornby Forum.  😀

 

As for Flying Scotsman, a lot of the Hornby RailRoad locomotives do not come with front couplings.

 

Richard II locomotive has to be the Hornby standard range model, as I can't remember ever seeing that as an RailRoad release. I have found R3370TTS, an Digital TTS (Twin Track Sound) Richard II locomotive, via Google search. I assume this is the locomotive you have Eric (old muddler)?

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

[Howbi]

There should be spare couplings in the box of the Mixed Freight set, but you can easily 'borrow' couplings from other locos not in use at the time..........HB

[old muddler]

t

Thank's for replying to my post. Yes all engines are new, some have couplings in the box, some don't should have looked.

Thanks Al, forum looks interesting.

GNR-gordon-4 youare right richard 11 is standard range.

Both engines in mixed freight have couplings front and rear fitted

old muddler.

[NWR-Gordon-4]

Thank you, old muddler.  😀

 

Realistically, locomotives that focus on passenger trains, do not really need a front coupling hook. It's in the way of enjoying the look of the locomotive and is rarely or never needed. Best if manufactuers leave it off the front and keep it fitted at the rear of the tender, as standard.

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

[96RAF]

Complete twoddle Jacob.

Every steam engine I have ever seen has had a hook at both ends, so in the abscence of a turntable they could run a train tender first.

[NWR-Gordon-4]

I am talking about model railway locomotives, Rob, not the real life locomotives. I have two locomotives without front couplings. They are not misisng either, as both were bought brand new, by myself.

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

[LCDR]

The old Hornby Dublo 4-6-2 models (Sir Nigel Gresley / Silver King, and Duchess of Athol / Duchess of Montrose) did not have an automatic coupling at the front and no facility to attach one. They did have a crude representation of a link coupling fixed into a hook but this was really only for show and could not easily be used to couple to a train. 

 

On the real railway of course steam locomotives did / do have proper couplings at both ends. In practice when steam was in daily use on British Railways, large locomotives were rarely coupled to a train to run tender first and every effort was made to turn them round to run chimney first on every occasion.  For this reason all major terminal stations had a turntable, or were close to a triangular layout where the locos could be turned. All locomotive sheds also had a turntable. 

 

However double heading did happen and in the Harrow and Wealdstone crash in  October 1952 Jubilee class 45637 "Windward Isles" was coupled to ex Turbomotive 46202 "Princess Anne" hauling the 7:55am Euston to Liverpool and ran into the wreckage of a previous collision between 46242 "City of Glasgow" hauling a sleeping car train from Perth to London and a local train in the platform, with terrible consequences. Both the locomotives on the Liverpool train were so badly damaged they were scrapped. 

 

Double heading was also a common occurence on the "Night Ferry" especially in winter to provide sufficient steam heat to the heavy continental sleeping cars from Dover to Victoria. It was also a good way to transfer locomotives between depots to save a timetable path.

 

On heritage railways where turntables are uncommon tender first running with large locomotives has become the norm, but this to my mind looks daft. However I guess we are stuck with it!

[Jimbo1707820979]

I see that Triple Heading was frequent on U.S. railways, especially for heavy goods trains, bearing in mind the sometimes extreme geography.   Was it used at all on U.K. railways ?     (I find it useful to ensure enough power when hauling a Hornby Cleaning wagon around the layout).

[LCDR]

Triple heading was rare but occured at two places in the UK. 

 

1) Folkestone Harbour branch.

Trains were hauled and pushed by up to four locomotives from Folkestone Harbour to Folkestone Junction where the main line loco took it forward toi London Victoria. Gradient 1 in 30

 

2) Lickey Incline, 

Trains were assisted up the incline by either 0-10-0  "Big Bertha"  58100, or up to three Fowler 3F 0-6-0T from Bromsgrove.