Paul3 is right, the magnets are too strong and grab any iron on the passenger cars, like the grabirons. I am surprised how strong these rare earth magnets are. I was able to get two of them under a piece of track and they do uncouple freight cars, but not the passenger cars. I think I would need to have at least two or three per rail to do passenger cars.I took some piano wire and bent the tip into a U shape. This works great for uncoupling the passenger cars if I can come in from the side.
Thanks for the feedback.
a Brit at James Train Parts reccomends a device that is either a stall motor or a solenoid with a rotational motion that can be activated by DCC. You superglue a monofilament fishline to the outside of a kadee coupler and the shaft of the device that pulls the coupler open. he builds space for it into his engine shells. Appears to be about the diameter of a pencil. it would be expensive to do every car but is an interesting solution
I have installed a lot of the super magnets on my layout but got some skewers too just in case but never seem to need them anymore. I have a thread on this forum about them. The Rix has never worked for me, nor some of the others I have tried.
Like somewhat mentioned above, I like my bent end brass wire stuck in the end of a 1/4'' dowel rod to uncouple passenger and freight cars from the side.
I wouldn't bother trying a suped-up version of the Rix uncoupler because, at least with many of my Walthers passenger cars, the grabirons on the ends of the cars can be attracted to the magnets. I had that problem with my Rix uncoupler when I tried it out many years ago, and that was with freight cars with metal grabs. The Rix uncoupler would get stuck to the car grabs, and when you try to yank it off the car, the car would lift and derail. I can't see why it would be any better with passenger cars, especially considering the need to make it long enough to get around the diaphragms.Personally, I just use a bamboo skewer from the side. Slack the cars up and use the point of the skewer to pull the Kadee uncoupling lever away from the centerline, then separate the cars. I also don't like super tight diaphragms so I adjust accordingly. IMHO, they should just barely touch. If you have trouble making the hitch because the diaphragms just push the car down the track, it's too tight.There's also the metal kind of Kadee hose grabber. Bend some .050"-ish piano wire into a 90-degree, 1/4" long Z-shape, leaving about 1/4" from the end of the wire to the first bend. Cut the wire about 3" long. Drill a hole into the center in the end of a 1/2" dia. dowel (the dowel is cut to about 3" long or so). Dip the long end of the wire in a little glue, then force it into the dowel hole. The last thing I did was dip the last 1/4" of the Z-bend into yellow paint for visibility. Viola! An uncoupler. Just use the end of the Z-bend to hook the Kadee hose and pull to the side. If I made another one, I might coat the end of the wire in plastic dip or maybe use some bright colored heat shrink tubing to give it a little more grip so it won't slip so easily on the Kadee hose.Magnets won't bother the DCC decoders.
I have one of those Rix uncoupler thing and the magnets are weak and unreliable. I have under track super magnets in spots and they work awesome.
As far as messing up decoders, the only ones I would worry about are older QSI with the magnetic reed switch for resetting.
Pete.
As anyone who has every tried to uncouple passenger cars with diaphragms knows, it is nearly impossible to do without picking them up. Relying on magnets under the track works, but you will soon find that no matter how many you install and how strategically you placed them, they will still end up in the wrong place. We need a tool for uncoupling passenger cars that is as easy to use as the pick is for freight cars.
Rix makes a product that has two opposing magnets on a plastic handle that works reasonably well with freights cars, but is too narrow for passenger cars. Has anyone ever tried a modification of this approach? A horseshoe magnet would probably be too big and heavy, but I am thinking of mounting two rare earth magnets on a plastic frame that is wide enough to go between passenger cars.
I just ordered some rare earth magnets and will give this a try, but before I start experimenting, I thought I would ask first if this is a crazy idea, something tried and rejected, or something that might be practical and worth pursuing?
Also, do I have to worry about rare earth magnets harming the DCC chips in locomotives?
Your feedback is appreciated.