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Coupler Craziness

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  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Sunday, April 8, 2018 11:21 PM

Well, if you cut off the pins, no magnet, no matter how powerful, will work. The Kadee couplers themselves are non-ferrous, so magnets have no effect.

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My main concern is basically "What are you thinking?"!

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If you want to uncouple hands-off, which is what I do, Kadee had already perfected that for us. The Kadee magnetic uncoupling system is a beauty, and I seriously doubt your system will be anywhere near as elegant and reliable.

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So.. what is your motivation for removing the uncoupling pins and creating your own system? What are you wanting to accomplish?

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-Kevin

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Living the dream.

  • Member since
    March 2018
  • 688 posts
Coupler Craziness
Posted by BNSF UP and others modeler on Sunday, April 8, 2018 10:39 PM

I am using kadee #5 couplers. The standard. I want to snip off "pins" or whatever you want to call them, but I still want to uncouple the cars without sticking a skewer into them or manually uncoupling them in any way. I have two ideas but I am posting this for more. My first idea is to hide strong magnets on either side of the track which will pull the couplers from the side. My second idea is to ditch magnets entirely, and have some sort of rod discreetly stick out under the car or under the couplers, and push up slowly, to simulate the amount of time it would take for a railroad worker to uncouple the couplers and walk to a safe place. Then, I can put actual model airhoses where they belong, hopefully the neat ones that join and break apart magnetically. Please brainstorm below at will!

I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.

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