In this video, we take a look at Hornby's magnetic couplings which they released earlier this year. We review them by testing them out and find out whether they're any good or not. Facebook: / class47peter Instagram: / class47peter
I've fitted 17mm couplings to all of my Hornby Maunsell stock. Almost no gap between vehicles and they work absolutely fine on 3rd radius curves and will even negotiate 2nd radius points at a push.
I've got both 17 and 20 mm version of these couplings. I've got to say I think these are a really good product. They've made it a lot easier to put locos and wagons and coaches on to my layout. Above all they've made them run brilliantly. I would go for as to say that they are better than what West Hill Wagon Works offer. I've found them more durable and the magnets are stronger. I have both Hornby and West Hills offerings I would say Hornby's shade them.
I appreciate this video Peter. Nice to see a choice in magnetic couplers being available. I tend to cover BR 1980's and 1990's stuff as I will be doing more OO gauge over the coming months. I find the hunts couplers fragile although I will try and get the Hornby Buckeye couplers for my trains. I do plan to review retro train sets from Hornby at one train set per month and I will be reviewing an Intercity Class 47 as well from Bachmann. All coming on my channel soon enough as I recently did the Accurascale Class 92 model or 92003 and I love the detail. I look forward to the next video mate. Peter.
I have mixed feeling about magnetic couplings and have had both positive and negative experiences with them, positive experience so far is with my accurascale mk5 Transpennine express coaches and the magnetic couplings on those are excellent, I like the realistic appearance and the close coupling that those couplings give, also they are excellent for when I am pushing the mk5s with my 68 at the rear, negative experience of magnetic couplings for me is when I bought a rake of hornby mk3 coaches pre owned which had the hunt couplings fitted to them, these were not very good at all from my experience, they were held into the coupling pockets with blu tack which was really messy when I finally decided to take them out and when I was removing them to reinstall the new couplings that hornby supply with their mk3 coaches like you said in the video the are very brittle so they ended up breaking the parts that clip into the pocket so now I have a load of couplings that are pretty much useless to me unless I decided to glue them into a fixed rake I have, to be honest my personal preference is still the tensions locks at the moment but one of my favourite alternative couplings to use is the bachmann close coupling that you get with their mk1 coaches, I use that with fixed rakes and with my 68 and mk5s and that one works excellently, excellent video here of these new hornby couplings peter.
Cheers David, yes, Hunt Couplings are brittle, have had issues on occasions with magnets coming out and having to glue them back in again, that a side they are still useful as are Hornby's offering. Hunts may have more variety in types, but the Hornby ones are still good
Thank you. Will definitely recommend them. The range may not be as large as that of Hunt Couplings and Hornbys are only for NEMs. But Hornby's magnetic couplings are still just as reliable as Hunts
I see from your video you may be using the early Hunt round couplings which may not matter which way you insert them into NEM pocket. I using the latter square couplings and on the top of each coupling there is a mark to should way which way to insert them. I find that with the mark facing the bottom of the coach, as per Hunt instruction, they will deflect the Hornby pipe coupling with the pipes face down toward the track. You would have to reverse the Hornby coupling to face the pipes upwards which will fowl the buffers on the coach when on corners or points. I could turn the Hunt upside down and then they would work. But find that the Hunt work well for me and find that the Hornby ones are dearer than hunt you get 10 pairs in a pack and Hornby only offer 8 per pack.
I can see that there might be issues with Hunts elites coupling to Hornby's, but not many of my locos have the elites. They are mostly using the earlier Hunts with roubd magnets and are fine for my operations. Hunts may have more variety but the Hornby ones are still good though, though depending on pocket height, they'll have to be turned to face upwards, but they're still reliable. Perhaps would be nice if there were a little more supplied in the pack. But had enough to do my rake of Teaks
Based on reliability, overall look and size (variety) of range available ill stick to Hunt Couplings from West Hill Wagon Works. Not sayimg the hornby ones are bad but they're just not as useful or reliable as the West Hill range.
