Fitting narrow tension lock couplings to the L&M 3rd class coaches

[81F]

Firstly I would like to thank What About The Bee for posting the photo of the underside of the coach which showed me that it would be possible before I bought the coaches.

In addition to the coach you will need the following:

• Peco Parkside PA34 Mounting Blocks For NEM Couplings
• Standard NEM pockets
• Narrow tension lock couplings with cranked arms (I used some spare Bachmann ones I had in the bit box)
• A needle file
• Polystyrene cement (I use methyl ethyl keytone aka MEK)

Method:

1. File a slot in the middle of the mounting block on the top which would be closes to the floor of the wagon when glued in place. (see below) This needs to be just deep enough so that mounting block will touch the underside of the coach floor without it rocking on a longitudinal spine that runs the length of the coach:
2. Next fit the pocket and glue to the underside of the coach so that the front face of the pocket is just level or around half a millimeter back from it (see coach on the right below). Note: it took several attempts to get the pockets to stick firmly in place
3. Once the glue has set insert the couplings. Since the pockets sit tight up under the buffer beams I had to use some spare Bachmann couplings with cranked arms (see photo of finished coach below;

Once fitted these coupling tie up reasonably well with the original Triang First class coaches which I had already fitted with the narrow "screw on" tension locks which I used to replace the original wide couplings.

I hope this will be useful to someone.

Regards

Steve