After I finished up my last post I thought it’d be cool to put in a coupling to see things coming together so I installed one, thought it was pretty cool and then thought it be even cooler to put one of the W-irons in place to get an even better view of things coming together. It was at this point I noticed something:
I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure the axle is supposed to line up with the center of the leaf spring. Looks like my easiest solution at this point is to cut about 3mm off the coupling bar, drill a new hole for the retainer pin and shorten the spring. In the mean time I’ve discovered it makes a decent little pin ball machine if you pull on the coupling and it slips out of your grip (take a guess how I found that out)
Matt's Railroad Blog 