NEM Pockets just falling out...

[Rob W42]

Hi, new here, joining to share my disappointment a little.

Firstly to say that I am a staunch Hornby fan, partly because to an ex-pat Brit living in California for 30 years it represents somethung quintessentially English to me. 

The Wife bought my (slightly spoiled) 6 year old a fairly basic Bachmann set for Christmas and I was happily surprised to find that the 70th Anniversary Mallard that I had bought simply to sit on shelf with my old dinky toys worked perfectly. Come January and for various reasons we decamped temporarily to England and of course now find ourselves barricaded in a house for the foreseeable - me, wife, 6 year old, 4 year old...and the train set. Thank God for the train set!

Using my Sons as an excuse to justify it to my Wife I have raided ebay for various Deltic, Intercity 125, Eurostar, etc. and also some Thomas trains for the 4 year old, and since the latter were price inflated and so apparently poorly made in comparison I decided to pay similar amounts for non-Thomas kit that I assumed would be better constructed.

I understand it's heresy that 4 and 6 year olds are anywhere near this stuff, but please keep in mind this is lockdown - we're in a rented house in London and it's about all they have to play with. The ends justify the means.

First purchase: something for the locos to pull - 4 brand new Intercity carriages, and my introduction to NEM Pockets. O! M! G!

They literally just fall out as the train is moving. More than 2 carriages "weight" (which is feather weight) will simply pull out of their socket/pocket those that haven't already fallen out under their own weight. When I first took them out of the boxes 3 had actually fallen out in transit!

The carriage that came with the 30(?) year old Intercity 125 set from eBay is far superior in every possibly way. (I originally wrote "similar carriage" but that is a doing a diservice to the old one).

It pleased me no end that my (yes, spoiled) 6 year old has become a Hornby fanatic in recent weeks, and he was so excited to get something actually "new" rather than from eBay, but he's now in tears with frustration he can barely pull a carriage round a full lap. It's embarrassing.

So, back to ebay to get a large supply of spare NEM pockets and some older rolling stock.

How did it get this bad??? So disappointing.

 

[Chrissaf]

Just so that we are perfectly clear on the issue.

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With reference to the image below. Do you mean that the 'Swallow Tail' falls out of the NEM pocket OR do you mean that the 'Dove Tail' drops out of the triangular recess on the chassis. Note not all NEM pockets have the 'Dove Tail' fitting. Some NEM pockets are part of the bogie.

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If it is the 'Swallow Tail' these do not normally easily come out. You have to push them in hard enough to hear or feel a definite click. If the tail is not pushed in far enough to lock into the NEM pocket, then it will fall out with minimal pressure applied.

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The 'Dove Tail' on the other hand is just a friction fit and some do loosen. A small dab of PVA glue usually fixes that. PVA glue bonds can be easily broken when used on plastic, thus a PVA glued fix is not permanent. They also need to be fitted the correct way round as the mating surfaces are angled.

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[ellocoloco]

Hi Rob W42

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

As I understand from your post the dove tail at the rear of the couplings is not 'tight' enough so that when under load they pull free from the NEM pockets on the rolling stock. 

 

Its new NEM couplings you need rather than NEM pockets from Ebay and these might be tighter. If any of the other items you bought on Ebay has a NEM coupling, you could try that on your IC coaches and verify its the coupling rather than the pocket that is at fault.

 

Is the Bachmann set your 6 year old got for Christmas US or UK outline? If US, then you could also get NEM US style couplings (Kadee) so the kiddies - and you - can run both American and British trains, OO and HO aside!

 

(Edit: I see form Chrissaf's post I have confused Dove tail and Swallow tail! And forgotten that not all NEM pockets are on Kinematic mounts.)

[Rob W42]

Hi all, thanks.On the Intercity carriages it's the dovetail that's the problem, it's a fundementally loose fit on all of the carriages. I could understand it if I was trying to combine couplings and carriages from different manufacturers, but that's not the case.

 

I did think of gluing them but the problem there is my 4 year old, who is a little heavy handed when disconnecting. These couplings have very little strength in the vertical axis, I actually broke one myself by dropping a small loco from about 6 inches (that one has a much tigher fit!). If I glue the dovetails on the carriages and he breaks one I have bigger problems. 

 

Really my only way forward here is to glue the couplings on the carriages and keep him away from them, and get a supply of spares for those he breaks on other stock with tighter fittin dovetails.

 

The base set was US spec, the black EZ Track. It's not worthy of the trains now being run on it and the 18R 30 curves are really too tight for anything with a front bogie, but it's surprisingly sturdy and has thus far mostly survived 4 months on a wooden floor being repeatedy kicked and vacuumed. I add track incrementally when The Wife goes out and it's now covering an area 5m x 1.5m in the living room.

 

The desparately slow original US spec Amtrak Diesel hasn't been touched since we relaised we could run "proper" Hornby trains on it...

[Rog RJ]

Rather than gluing them in you could try packing them with some small pieces of thin paper such as newsprint, kitchen towel or similar.  Place the paper between the socket and the coupling as you push the two together.

 

Btw, I would use PVA or Pritt stick if you decide to glue them together.  The glue is easy to break apart when used on plastic, or wet it with water to soften it.

[atom3624]

Not meaning to sound patronising - it happened to me for a day or so ...

 

The dovetail is chamfered, at least normally.

If it's upside down, there's really little purchase and it falls off - happened to me on my Class 08 shunter until I realised.

I did hold it in place with black tak until I understood what a silly boy I'd been, and turned it upside down - never fell out again!

 

Perhaps ....

 

Al.

[96RAF]

Ditto Atom

I have inverted some of my looser falling out ones and pressed them in hard with a flat screwdriver blade. It does of course mean you have to re-invert the swallow tail hooked bit to get the connection the right way up again.

[ColinB]

Yes, I have had them fall out, I did find one that was a tight fit. Even when you have managed to get them to stay in I find that quite often the coupling actually uncouples its self just travelling along, the old Triang ones weren't very elegant but at least they worked. On my Bachmann coaches I got so fed up with them becoming detached, I bought the special carriage connectors. The trouble is on some steam locos you need to remove the NEM coupling to get to the screw that holds the tender body on, so glueing is not a real option. I must admit I didn't realise there was a way to fit them, but I have had them fall out of new models so obviously even fitted the right way round they still fall out.

[mjb1961]

Tacky Wax !!

[Ard Lochan]

It is worth mentioning that when fitting the dovetail first remove the coupling from the tail, With the coupling in the tail it is more difficult to seat the tail properly. I had one coach that the tail would persistently faul out, Cured with a Bostic glue dot, Regards, Ard.

[Rob W42]

Horray! Finally my 24 hour access is unlocked and I can reply with some "Thank You's!"

 

Happily I have been putting them in the right way up, although doing it upsaide down is just the kid of thing I would do.

 

Funny, until I just received in the mail the spares I ordered I hadn't actually realised the couplings were actually 2 pieces. 

 

I bought some PVA glue and will glue the carriage couplings in place and keep the 4 year old at bay, and I have now have ample spares to replace any that he breaks on his own trains that have tighter fitting NEM pockets.

Grateful thanks for the help,

Best,

Rob.

[81F]

 I have had a few of these sockets drop on certain wagons that just keeps happening. On one I forced a Bachmann socket into place and found that worked on one of the wagons but not another identical one. So I have resorted to using PVA. However I have diluted the glue with water to about the tickness of single cream and applied a very small drop using a cocktail stick.

 

The idea being that it can be "soaked" out more easily if I need to replace the socket (not that I would recommend imersiong a model entirely in water just applying a large drop on the dovetail).

[KimDurose]

Take the class 08 from "not this manufacturer" as a prime example of NEM stupidity.You have to remove the NEM pockets to remove the body from the chassis. Yep, this then creates a loose coupling that falls on the track at every oppurtunity. Who'd have thought that a loose and free-hanging object would fall out if not supported underneath? Don't even get me started on the pocket heights............ :)

[Chrissaf]

Please don't accuse me of 'teaching grandmother to suck eggs', but I take it that you are aware that the triangular part of the NEM pocket is slightly chamfered and meant to be inserted one way round. If fitted the other way round it does indeed become loose and constantly falls out.

 

In 8 years I am yet to have a NEM pocket fall off. In fact if I want to remove one I have to use a small screwdriver to lever it out.

 

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[ColinB]

I hate to say it Chrissaf, but you must have been very lucky. On my Stanier Duchess, no matter how I put the Dovetail in, it eventually falls out. It may be that on that model perhaps the fitting is worn, I did buy the loco secondhand. I did find that one particular make seemed to have bigger dovetails.