I recently volunteered to upgrade our local museum’s train layout (HO scale). When I started to look over the rolling stock that was on the layout, I noticed that they had little rubber bands looped over the couplers to keep the consist connected even if the coupler failed.
Does anyone know what kind of rubber bands were used? I thought they might be rubber bands used on dental braces but not sure.
I used to used “Braces Bands” to hold my snap track together when I was a little kid, might be a good bet.
.
What scale is this layout?
.
-Kevin
.
HO Scale
This doesn’t answer your question, but if you track is in good shape and you use Kadee couplers, the coupling won’t fail.
Since you’re upgrading the layout, perhaps fixing their trackwork would be useful. And/or installing Kadees.
Ed
Imagine the whip action you’d get from the slack of you used rubber bands couplers!
Whap-pow! The caboose goes flying![(-D]
.
Reading to OP’s question, I don’t think the rubber bands were the couplers. Instead, they were used as security devices to prevent accidental uncouplings on the museum’s display layout.
.
-Kevin
.
I said IF you used rubber bands, I read the OP and knew that the rubber bands were “safety” devices. I was just commenting that it’d be hilarious if rubber bands were actually used as couplers.