It has been a long time since my last post. I was all fired up to produce a diorama for my club’s exhibition in November but then my spinal disc popped for the forth time. This caused me great pain and severely reduced my mobility, so progress was halted and didn’t restart.

I have now purchased a small shunting layout on eBay which should be arriving soon. I have also purchased an 08 shunter with DCC sound, a DCC controller (I have one buried somewhere in storage) and some 50’s wagons preferably weathered.

I was impressed when shunting the yard on the club’s Hinton Parva layout how much Kadee couplings enhanced the enjoyment. When building wagons 30 years ago in my teens only 3 link couplings would do, but my eyesight is not what it was. The Kadees, although representing US practice, are quite popular on UK layouts. I would be interested on any thoughts on the subject.

There has been a series of articles in Hornby Magazine Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan about fitting Kadees to UK outline RTR stock.

It seems many modern UK RTR rolling stock have the supplied couplings in NEM sockets which can be replaced with Kadees. They are, however, very sensitive to their height above the rails, for which a height gauge is available. In my research it seems that the NEM socket in British RTR stock varies in height.

I will post a few pictures of the layout when it arrives.