Model Forum / General / Railroads / July 2009

Just another form of uncoupling I suppose.   ;o)

You need my Farish 04 :-)   DCC controlled couplers on the loco; press the
uncouple button on the handset and sit back and watch the loco do the rest.
http://nigelcliffe.blogspot.com and wade around looking for videos and other
information.

On the Kadee/Microtrains couplers;  The O gauge magnets, cut in half, were
put in a hole in the baseboard, the track supported by either thick card or
very thin ply.  The hinges were either horizontal or vertical, depending on
position, doesn't matter which is used, just swing the magnet out of
position when not required, swing back when it is needed.   The magnets will
cut with a hacksaw if done slowly.  What more is there to say ?

- Nigel

Keith,

I've also been messing around with remote uncoupling MT couplers in N
scale.   I've not really had much success with permanent magnets,
whether that has been the MT products or making up magnets using
various combinations of small button magnets.  

The main problem has been involuntary uncoupling since the lighter N
scale stock can start bouncing when being pulled and allow enough
slack for the couplings to operate.  I haven't tried Nigel's hinged
magnet setup to overcome the problem.

Another problem I got with my US bogie stock was that the strength of
the magnets necessary to operate all the coupler types I have - MT,
Accumate and McHenry - would sometimes pull truck mounted couplings
down as well as across,  and derail the truck.

I've now gone for electro-magnetic operation and I'm using the guts of
old Carpenter relays to provide the bits.  The Carpenter relays have a
U shaped pole piece with a coil on each leg.  The width across the
pole piece ends is just about right for N scale.   The considerations
I have with this system is that the flux generated by the relays is
just about sufficient and will only operate well made MT couplers and
the new McHenry N scale couplers (on new Athearn stock).  I've given
up trying to make Accumates work well since their centring springs are
quite stiff and require a lot of magnetic oomph to get them to operate
reliably.  I'm also changing out all the truck mounted couplers to
body mount MT 1015s where I can to get rid of the Accumates on Atlas
stock.    I have to assemble the 1015s quite carefully with plenty of
burnishing and graphite to make sure the work well.  ready built MT
couplers work well,  but are a bit pricier.

I use a 50V supply to operate the relay coils (their design voltage)
and I've rigged up a simple capacitor discharge system to give a 60+V
pulse at the start to get things moving.

I've actually been quite surprised at how difficult it has been to get
a reliable working remote system with N scale knuckles.  I'm building
a switching layout and progress on the track laying has been held up
for a long time until I thought I had cracked the coupler operation.
At present, I think I have got a working system.  I can see why a lot
of people recommend using manual methods with toothpicks (or whatever)
but I didn't want to use manual methods on my layout.

Jim.