It was brought to my attention that an eBay seller ‘pasidump’ in Sri Lanka had link and pin couplers for sale.
https://www.ebay.com/usr/pasidump
He’s selling 12 coupler pockets for $6.50:
And 12 pins with 6 links for $6.50:
He also sells a pack of 150 plastic rivets for the coupler pocket for $150. Free shipping. So I ordered a pack of each and got enough for 6 cars for $19.50.
They arrived yesterday:
so I fitted one to an LGB small wagon frame. First I drilled the end plate of the wagon:
I’ll have to make up a drilling plan/jig for them - tough to get behind the pocket to mark the rivet holes. Here’s a significantly enlarged view of the coupler with rivets loaded, ready to glue to the frame:
With a liberal dose of superglue, I fitted it to the wagon:
(The rivets don’t look like they are not pushed home on the real thing - must be the enlarged pic!) And here it is next to the caboose.
Conclusions? They are quite big - larger than the Ozark metal couplers. The pins almost have a hole through - shouldn’t be difficult to drill them and make something to tie the pins to the wagon so they don’t get lost! The pocket has a big spigot behind but it is tapered - I messaged the seller and suggested a bigger, thicker spigot so I can put a pin through it behind the frame - right now I am relying on glue on the flat surfaces.
Can’t beat them for the price.