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I used the Kadee HO underground magnets on my N-scale layout, and they work fine with roadbed, track, and ballast above it. I haven't had a chance to try others. But there are some considerations to using magnets, whether above or below ground. 1) The knuckle couplers that come with some N-scale cars nowadays seem to work fine with the Micro-train couplers, except they do not uncouple with the magnets. So if you want to use delayed uncoupling, you will have to equip every car and locomotive with MT couplers. 2) Cars with steel weights and metal wheelsets will be drawn to these uncouplers like... well, magnets. You will have to replace those with non-magnetic weight, and plastic wheels. 3) If you have such a magnetic uncoupler under a mainline, or other track where a train will regularly run, cars may occasionally uncouple when you run over the magnets. There are ways to basically eliminate this, like using MT's restrictor springs on the trucks of cabooses (or whichever car is at the end of your train), and making sure your cars run as smooth as possible. Since I'm constantly making train movements over these magnets with all sorts of combinations of cars, I've gone ahead and put restrictor springs on all of the cars. So basically, you can make them work fine, but remember that it will take a little more effort. It's worth it for me, but it's not for everyone. Good luck! ---jps
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