Are wheeldiameter same both of the railwaycarriage...?

What i know,says that it must been 11 mm:s wheeldiametres in all products factory to follow after NMRA:s rules inside of HO models...!

See after if i have wrong or right...

Goofy

Hmmm...

0,5 mm is not enough and so big difference...!

The nemcoupling pocket is either wrong at Marklins or Brawas.

Can you try by change couplingpocket anyone of those models to same pocket...?

Goofy

Hi Goofy,
I will check coupler shanks on my various Marklin models, to see if one might be the same length and shape as the Brawa. I may be able to replace it.
The shank on the M 41352/62 is too long for the Brawa.

regards
Kimball

The coupler pocket height is spcified in NEM 362.

Check this link: http://www.miba.de/morop/nem362-d.pdf

Kimball,

Looking at the picture, I would think adding a pocket under the original one will bring the coupling too low, it will touch the pukos on switches. Even glueing a coupler directly under the pocket will probably be too low.

I have the same problem with a lot of coaches produced by Roco, Rivarossi and Lima.
This happen only using the marklin short coupler, so I've changed it with the Fleischmann model.
Obviously you can leave the original Brawa that is compatible with marklin.

I have found that not using close couplers works but of course does not look as good. On some coaches the buffers are adjustable.
Brawa coaches are nice congrats.

David

Before spoling your lovely coach why not put a marklin wheelset on the coach, might make enough difference.
regards

I have a seven unit set of these Brawa beauties and that's exactly the solution I use.

I have modified the coupling using a 5mm x 5mm (internal) brass box sleeve.
It is made by K&S metals in Chicago, and should be available at most hobby shops. #154 7/32 square brass hollow.

Firstly I removed the complete coupler shank from the Brawa model. I had to dismantle the car, by prising off the under-floor.
I cut out the bottom of the Brawa box, and repositioned the cut-out piece at the top of the box. I also had to shave the outside of the box sides by about 1/10mm.

This diagram shows how I cut the box to size, then fitted it over the existing Brawa coupler box.


The picture shows the end result. The Brawa coach is to the left, a standard Marklin coach to the right. The coupler no longer fouls the Brawa buffers. I am not particularly happy about this modification,
firstly, it took me over 2 hours,
secondly, I have to get a new set of coupler shanks to restore to original if necessary. I have ordered a set from Brawa.

And in that regard, reading back over some of the replies, Alberto mentions the original Brawa coupler. Yes this is still in the box, and I had not thought of using it. I will try that when I restore an original Brawa coupler shank.


regards
Kimball

Welcome here, Paul.

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum, and thanks for you thoughts on this rather vexing question. And for the comprehensive explanation of the problem.
I agree, butchering the Brawa car is really not the answer.
And yes you are probably right about the R4 curves, which unfortunately for many Marklin users is not that practical.

After all that, I believe my final solution will be:
Purchase replacement buffers, and Dremel off the bottom half. Easy to restore original buffers when required, but retain the M* close coupling for running.

regards
Kimball

One thing that puzzles me - why do Brawa et al not provide close coupling in the box? If they just made the standard HO hook and loop couplers shorter they'd still work with everything else (like Marklin's do).

Hi Paul. The problem about Roco universal couplings, for what I know, is that they aren't produced anymore, and it seems that they won't in the future, because of patent or some legal stuff.
Pietro

I've a number of BRAWA models too.

They're very nice, very fragile and a bit expensive despite Made in China!

My cars (usually Württemberger and early SBB era) are an almost perfect fit to my other Märklin cars. My special favorites are the KWStB Kgl. Post car and the baggage car with milk cans, shown on the next pics.





Due to the rather long coupling distance with the original BRAWA couplings I've changed all of them to the Märklin short coupling - no problems so far!

Following is a picture with (most of) the couplings discussed here. From left to right:

- ROCO short coupling (not compatible with any other coupling. A quite "popular" issue can be seen here too - the plastic extension bends easily outward which means the coupling will not work anymore.
- ROCO universal coupling, height adjustable. Good to use with the new Märklin Schienenbus (if you want to pull some goods waggons).
- ROCO universal coupling. Compatible with standard NEM362 couplings and Märklin short coupling. Due to the open coupling bow it will have problems when driving with a (typical Märklin shunting) loco with just a hook; it will simply uncouple in curves. As mentioned, they are currently not available due to patent issues. However, according to some rumors ROCO will come up soon or has already delivered a new "universal coupling Made by Modellbahn GmbH".
- Standard coupling (ROCO shape)
- Standard coupling (Märklin shape)
- Standard coupling (BRAWA shape)
- Märklin short coupling. Compatible with standard NEM362 couplings and ROCO universal coupling (amongst others).
- Märklin/RTS electric conductive coupling. Compatible with standard NEM362 couplings and somewhat compatible/useable with Märklin short coupling. Not compatible with ROCO universal coupling.



In order to have the Märklin/RTS electric conductive coupling work seamless with the Märklin short coupling just cut out a small part from the coupling section as shown by the blue arrow in the next (just enlarged) pic. This will eliminate the barrier for the brass contact extension.



I've numerous ROCO, etc. cars. Their issue is the buffer height as mentioned by Pietro. Usually I overcome this in different ways: try to use the ROCO universal coupling at those cars, mount a Märklin short coupling w/o the metal coupling bow, remove the buffers (looks really ugly!) or shape them a bit.

Hope this info helped some more about couplings; although it doesn't really address the coupling height issue as reported in the entry posting.