Close Coupled Bullieds Using Symoba Close Coupler NEM Pockets & Hornby Roco style couplings

Bachmann Bullied Coaches A useful if not unavoidable default item of rolling stock on any late Southern Railway or BR (S) layout for the steam era of late 1940’s to the late 1960’s. I think it fair to say that the model is now a little dated when compared to the Hornby Maunsell or Bachmann BR Mk 1 carriages widely available. Perhaps the most dated feature is the lack of close coupling of these carriages, hence this series of slides showing in very basic terms how to install a close coupling system.

Symoba Couplings Recently imported from Germany by DCC Supplies are the new Symoba close coupling system items. At the heart of the system is a miniature mechanism that extends a post when pushed off the default centre position to the left or right. Unlike other systems that have been in place for a while as an after market addition, this system is very small in size, with a base that measures only 11mm x 12mm.

Symoba Couplings Added to the posts are various types of NEM coupling pockets, allowing you to use the coupling of your choice. I elected to use Hornby’s Roco style of coupling that are supplied with some of their rolling stock as an alternative to the traditional Tension Lock coupling used extensively in the UK. Shown below are the short, offset and long pockets that will perhaps be the most popular for the 00 modeller.

The Surgery Unfortunately surgery is unavoidable when instilling the system on the Bullied carriages due to the close proximity of the carriage floor to the bogie wheels. Start by removing the bogie retaining screws, and then lifting the bogies from the boss.

Bogie Surgery The moulded on tension lock couplings will have to be removed to make way for the Symoba unit’s. I removed mine with a pair of side cutters.

Surgery tools This has to be the decision of the surgeon, however I used a cheap B&Q copy of a Dremel tool with a flexible drive. I used a burr or rotary file for the following stage of surgery.

Removal of bogie frame material Most of the remaining cross member of the bogie chassis has to be removed (unless you want to settle for a gap between the carriages). Excess material removed

Remove the body from the floor. The body is secured to the carriage floor by 6 lugs, pull the sides of the body outwards at the base to extract the floor. In other words unclip the body from the floor.

Savage surgery! If you are using a similar tool to mine you will need to change the tool bit to a miniature circular saw.

Cutting the carriage floor. Depending on the type of coupling you are going to use, you need to try to get the centre of a coupling head level with the furthest extremity of the body, in this case the corridor connection. If like me you use the Hornby Roco style of coupler, measure 17mm from the end of the chassis floor, this will place the coupler in the desired position. Be aware of the two moulding lines that run along the length of the floor and cut between the two lines as shown.

Floor Surgery The Symoba coupling mechanism is 11mm long so place a further cut 11mm from the first cut towards the end of the floor. Again between the two moulding lines, as shown.

Final cuts. The next two cuts are obvious, but cut 1-2mm inside the moulding lines between the first two cuts, as shown.

Tidy up the cuts. Using a scalpel tidy up the sawn out square hole until you have a 12mm wide by 11mm long oblong hole. It is very important that the square post of the mechanism is central to the longitudinal axis of the floor, so proceed carefully and keep checking the mechanism to the hole until it just fits in position. Glue it place, I used the excellent Deluxe materials Plastic Magic, but an epoxy resin would be an alternative.

Mechanism in position. Glue both sides of the floor, if you (like me on one occasion!) have made a hole a little on the large side you can either fill with epoxy resin or use some of the plastic shavings and dissolve them in place with Plastic Magic.

Rebuild the carriage Replace the floor in the coach body and reattach the bogie or bogies if you have done both ends (you might elect to only do one end of a carriage at the end of a rake of carriages?). I used the short NEM pockets to attach to the posts of the mechanisms.

Setting the pocket height Using the Symoba pocket height setting guage position the pocket onto the post. I found that invariably (+/- 0.5mm) that the position of the underside of the pocket is 4mm up from the bottom of the post. However you should check the position with the height gauge and the measure once in position, remember this measurement! You have to remove the pocket and clip in the Hornby Roco coupler, and then reposition the pocket and coupler to your remembered position. If you use the offset or long pockets you can just place the coupling head into the pocket without removal, however you would have to move the mechanism nearer to the bogie pivot boss, and perform extra surgery on the bogies as a consequence.

The 4mm from the bottom of the post…. .. to the underside of the pocket

The Symoba height gauge Placed on the rails….

The height gauge in use

The finished effect… I run a mixed Bullied/ Maunsell set and a mixed Bullied /BR Mk 1 set, and am extremely pleased to say that the modified Bullieds run just as smoothly as the Hornby Maunsells or the Bachmann BR Mk 1’s.