First you have to know why you’re building your railroad. If it’s just for watching trains go 'round and 'round (shudder) then be my guest and use body mounted link and pins if that is true to your taste/prototype.
However, if you want to actually operate a railroad in something like a prototype manner with switching, car spotting, and all that, then rethink your choice of couplers.
Some couplers are much better than others for this.
Since I operate outdoors and have tignt curves (4’ diameter on the spurs) and unskilled operating crews, I have decided on hooks and loops. I know these couplers seem sacriligious to most guys, but for me they work very well in my particular circumstance.
In addition, my tight curves mean that truck mounts work best for me, a further sacrilige, I know.
At this point some may say this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and that’s your privilege.
But if you’re still with me despite my eccentricities, then I would suggest to Devon that he move the trucks on those log cars closer to the ends of his cars. They seem to me to be awfully far from the ends, which creates an exaggerated end overhang.
There are trade offs in everything. The farther apart your trucks are, the greater the overhang in the middle of the car.
The usual compromise is to shorten the car.
There is a great difference between museum-quality models and an operating model railroad.
Museum quality models are very admirable for their authenticity and adherance to prototype, but I wouldn’t want them on my operating garden railroad. They simply wouldn’t be able to take it. There, I want ruggedness and reliability.
Here the ten foot rule applies. I only want a good impression of real trains doing real work, sometime soon within my own life span. A properly functioning backyard railroad may lack in detail, but for the pleasure its operation brings it can be far more admirable than the finest static display.
My 2c.
