Desided to go ahead and try as I am waiting for some plaster cloth to set. It worked every time I tried it, which was only a few, but still much beter than any other method I tried. Still have to try generic to generic couple but no probles with one of each and Kadees worked even better.
Played with it some more today because I was testing out an engine with a string of cars, worked very well and on a slight curve. Will test later today if the world dosnt collapse and try an 18" radius curve.
rrebellDon't know, took it out of packaging and tossed it, nothing on the pick itself. Bought at the dollar store and blue green in color.
I will check out my local Dollar Tree today and see what I find in there.
Llenroc fanWally World has everything it seems
I only go into Wal-Mart about once a month now. I will also see what is there next time I am in.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I don't know about the rubber ones but you can go to WalMart or Neighborhood Market and they have their generic brand of them for a fraction of the name brands.
Wally World has everything it seems.
Don't know, took it out of packaging and tossed it, nothing on the pick itself. Bought at the dollar store and blue green in color. Found some more at another $ store, they are called Plackers gentle piks.
rrebellJust tried out the dental toothpick brush, thought I was buying the bristle type but got the rubber brisle type by mistake, happy accident.
Could you share the manufacturer, part number, or description of this happy mistake? It sounds perfect.
Just tried out the dental toothpick brush, thought I was buying the bristle type but got the rubber brisle type by mistake, happy accident. Will have to keep on experimenting but so far vastly superior. It is like the rubber grabs the parts so they don't slip back together.
rrinker So today I got a package in the mail, it was the missing pieces from my Sergent kits. I dry assembled one - not too bad with the fixture, but I also didn;lt put the little ball in. I'm definitely going to need a different sort of tweezers to handle those without shotting them across the room. For the number I need to convert what I have now, plus all anticipated additional rolling stock, I still think they might be too fiddly. If they were still sold assembled, I would probably go for it. Theyt do look nice and I like the way they operate. Maybe if I was only building a small switching layout with a handful of cars and one or two locos. I'm sure if I build these 6 it will get easier to put them together, but due to the small size of the pieces, it will always take a few minutes per coupler. And I need around 100 pair already just to do what I have now, not counting the unbuilt kit stash or the whole fleet worth of undec locos that need painting. After actually having some in hand, I'm leaning 75% at this point to not switching. Unless someone starts offering them in bulk, assembled. --Randy
So today I got a package in the mail, it was the missing pieces from my Sergent kits. I dry assembled one - not too bad with the fixture, but I also didn;lt put the little ball in. I'm definitely going to need a different sort of tweezers to handle those without shotting them across the room. For the number I need to convert what I have now, plus all anticipated additional rolling stock, I still think they might be too fiddly. If they were still sold assembled, I would probably go for it. Theyt do look nice and I like the way they operate. Maybe if I was only building a small switching layout with a handful of cars and one or two locos.
I'm sure if I build these 6 it will get easier to put them together, but due to the small size of the pieces, it will always take a few minutes per coupler. And I need around 100 pair already just to do what I have now, not counting the unbuilt kit stash or the whole fleet worth of undec locos that need painting.
After actually having some in hand, I'm leaning 75% at this point to not switching. Unless someone starts offering them in bulk, assembled.
--Randy
Randy,
If you want to try out a few cars with Sergents, make a "transition car" with your Kadees on one end and a Sergent at the other end. If you make two, you can sandwich a bunch of Sergent-equiped cars in between to try these out on your railroad to see if you like Sergents enough to go forward.
Yes, the steel balls are tricky to handle. The way I get around this is to magnetize a small jewelers screwdriver with a quick swipe on a magnet and use it to "grab" a ball to place in its location. I use a small wooden stick or anything non-magnetic to push the ball off the jsd into the receiving pocket (hole).
Hope that helps.
Joel
Modeling the C&O New River Subdivision circa 1949 for the fun of it!
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
One of the problems with a Kadee magnet for uncoupling is thqt modern locomotive are so precise in their handling that a train might not uncupple right over the ramp.
LION"S solution was a 'cutting key'. I have a real 1:1 cutting key from the NYC subway, but then those are electronically operated coulkers with all air and electricap portions built into the coupler.
You might not hae this on the railroad of you, but my cutting ke is simply a push button wired as a reversing switch. A little jab at that thing and the modern locomotive will make no visible jerk (he is at the other end of the wire) but it will keep on running as if nothing had happened, but hat little unpreceptible shudder is enough to leave the cars behind at the magnet while the locomotif continues on into they yard for servicing.
For a big long fright train, cutting in the muddle automadickaly is less of a possibility. I guess you need to get out the coffe stirer and send the Conductor back to unkople it manually.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Well, I have them in hand, and apart from having to contact them because the kit of 6 couplers came with the bigger casting, the knuckle, balls, and springs, but not covers - I can't put any of them toigether yet. I'm already thinking this is not going to be for me. Awfully tiny and fiddly, I can't imagine getting the ball in the hole, even with the assembly fixture. I can barely see the thing. If I get replacement parts for the missing stuff, I'll still give these a go.
rrinker Sergents should be here in an hour or so. But I probably won;t have time to actually assemble and install them for some time. The trick I foudn with skewers is to file a bit at the tip, to flatten it slightly instead of being just a sharp point. Not turn it into a mini flathead screwdriver, just make is so it's not perfectly round. --Randy
Sergents should be here in an hour or so. But I probably won;t have time to actually assemble and install them for some time.
The trick I foudn with skewers is to file a bit at the tip, to flatten it slightly instead of being just a sharp point. Not turn it into a mini flathead screwdriver, just make is so it's not perfectly round.
For some pointers based on my experience assembling/operating/uncoupling Sergents, see my 2016 post http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/253265.aspx
Good luck with test driving the Sergents and I'd be happy to answer any question you might have after playing with them.
I rarelly do manual uncoupling on my layout. I spent a lot of time designing my yard and mainline to achieve it. First, the underneath uncouplers are all located on straight sections of track; two, I use the Rapido uncoupler that really works well on the mainline. I used bachmann magnetic uncouplers for my yard, which work well, except with the few cars that I have that still have metal axles, that cause unwanted uncoupling from time to time. Finally, I have zero inclines on my layout...
Simon
Per the Sergent web site, a few styles can be manufactured without 3D printing, so they continue to produce those, for now. They still list packs of 144 still in stock, so either he made a LOT for stock, or is still at this time willing to replenish stock on those, at least until the dies wear out.
There is a group on groups.io, but to join you have to send an email about yourself, except that when you aren't an approved subscriber yert, you get a 500 Undeliverable message sending the email that htey request you send. Ooops. You can read messages even without being a member, and there are some things but not much about anyone else actually producing product for sale.
But, I did go ahead and order a 6 pack, uncoupler, height gauge, and assembly fixture. I will see if I like them and if I want to pursue swapping everything over.
rrinker There was a rumor of Sergent shutting down, but they are still there and taking orders. It appears they had some issues with their older investment casting equipment so some items are permanently out of stock - on the web site it says they are encouraging others to make these parts since the design was open sourced for anyone to use.
It maybe that they are only selling down their stock at this point but not manufacturing any more couplers. A couple of big Sergent users on another forum have said Sergents is no longer manufacturing couplers. A couple of them have been experimenting with 3D printing them due to this.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Southgate 2You bamboo skewer guys make a good case, but my layout height at just under 5 feet doesnt really allow for that.
You are right - skewers (or Sergent couplers) - really impact layout design and operating environment.
In a different way, the various fixed or "temporary" fixed magnet schemes limit and impact operations.
Given how slow those Oregon boys are to get track laid, skewers win for the time being.
Someday, when I want to uncouple where I don't want to reach in, I will have to go to fixed or temporary magnets in places. Someday. Meantime, there are always all my locomotives to repair, construct, remotor, and/or regear so they can be converted to DCC. And once converted, it would be nice to get them painted and lettered appropriately.
Fred W
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon in HO and HOn3, where it's always 1900....
[quote user="cowman"]
rrinker "The best way to make a small fortune in model railroading is to start with a large fortune" --Randy Sounds like farming and I'm into both. No wonder I'm still working an outside job and not in the trainroom. As I said in my above post, I like the smaller wood skewers. Have fun, Richard
"The best way to make a small fortune in model railroading is to start with a large fortune"
Sounds like farming and I'm into both. No wonder I'm still working an outside job and not in the trainroom.
As I said in my above post, I like the smaller wood skewers.
I use a simple devise that mechanically raises a permanent magnet up under the ties to uncouple. No unwanted uncoupling, and reliable uncoupling. It works most the time for delayed uncoupling with Kadee 5s, and all the time with "whiskers"
You bamboo skewer guys make a good case, but my layout height at just under 5 feet doesnt really allow for that Dan
There's always a DCC uncoupler onboard each car. Then you cna drop any car, anywhere, without any GHA (Giant Hand Action). The problem, besides the potential cost, is coming up with an addressing scehe, since many car numbers are not suitable to use as DCC address and if you start taking say the last 4 digits, you can easily tun into conflicts with cars from different roads, or even different types fromt eh same railroad. Not to mention conflicts with loco addresses.
They do work well - typically they pull open a standard Kadee coupler, so coupling back up it simple and can be done gently, unlike those toyliek things MTH uses on their locos, which uncouple fine, but require slamming in to a cut of cars pretty hard to couple abck up again.
Hmm, maybe I should order some Sergents and put them on a couple of cars and see if I like them. Not terribly expensive if they just end up in a drawer. My only concern is that at this point,m if he's trying to wind down the business, and no one takes up his offer of the designs bneing free to use for anyone, then I have a bunch of cars I can't switch over. Or some older locos - with Kadee, I can just get an overset or underset, short or long shank to fit a specific purpose, with Sergent it's pretty much up to you to fabricate whatever you need to make it work if the car doesn;t already directly work with either a Kadee #5 or use thes the Accurail narrow draft gear box.
SeeYou190 I take the clear cap off and put it on the top of the brush. In that configuration it is 4" tall. Without the cap the brush part is 2-3/4" tall. Joe I just looked again at the label on my package. It is for tight teeth. This works just fine for the couplers. The wide brush shown in the picture may not work as well. josephbw Here's what I use on my layout. With a little slack between the couplers, you stick the brush between the faces of the coupler, give a gentle clockwise twist, and the couples open up. That looks like an interesting tool. It is difficult to tell by the picture how big these are. -Kevin
I take the clear cap off and put it on the top of the brush. In that configuration it is 4" tall. Without the cap the brush part is 2-3/4" tall.
Joe
I just looked again at the label on my package. It is for tight teeth. This works just fine for the couplers. The wide brush shown in the picture may not work as well.
josephbw Here's what I use on my layout. With a little slack between the couplers, you stick the brush between the faces of the coupler, give a gentle clockwise twist, and the couples open up.
That looks like an interesting tool.
It is difficult to tell by the picture how big these are.
[quote user="rrinker"]
Marc_MagnusIt's a never ending subject, there are a lot of post about this subject and many tips to uncouple cars using Kaddee or MT couplers.
Marc Magnus,
It's good to hear from you again. How is your layout building coming? You do such good work, maybe you could post some of your progress on the Weekend Photo Fun thread. It starts every Friday and modelers post pictures of their projects through Sunday.
York1 John
It's a never ending subject, there are a lot of post about this subject and many tips to uncouple cars using Kaddee or MT couplers.
None seems to be better than another and all are good to use but are not perfect.
The perfect uncoupler device will make the inventor a real god for model railroaders
I have try different method for my N scale layout, permanent magnet, electromagnetic magnet, bamboo stick with the results we all know
I ended by a very simple device using permanent magnet as a start.
The magnetic field of a magnet can only uncouple the couplers when positionned perpendiculary on the track.
If you turn this magnet only 90° the field didn't act anymore on the couplers.
This reflexion ended with a simple device put under the track, invisible when ballasted and easy to operate.
The device is hand moved or can be moved with a servo easily, it avoid any unwanted uncoupling which is often the case with permanent magnet between the track
Sure it's not the ultimate solution for uncoupling cars but it works and he is easy to build.
The design come from a friend idea Jacques Leplat a well know Belgian modeler in Europe which as published many books on the hobby and has translate in French the Kalmbach book "railroading with John Allen".
The device use a kaddee permanent magnet, glued on the intensifier plate and grinded in a round pattern; the intensifier is drilled in the middle and a shaft is fixed on the intensifier and fixed on a support, any arms or device can be used to rotate the magnet.
A round hole is drilled in the roadbed and the magnet is installed under the track; to hide the magnet a very thin sheet of plastic
The system is inexpensive
1. a magnet posed perpendicular under the track uncouple
2. when the magnet is just turned 90° the field of the magnet don't uncouple anymore
3. here is the device; the rounded magnet put in place under the track ( J. Leplat picture)
4. first a round hole is drilled in the roadbed at the strategic place to put the magnet ( J. Leplat picture)
5. the device seen in place under the roadbed, the brass tube on the left is the actuating arm with a lock spring made of piano wire ( J. Leplat picture)
6. Another view of the complete device ready to be installed (J. Leplat picture)
7. a plan which explain the installation
I had always been a magnetic uncouplers guy. I have permanent magnets on most stub-end sidings, and electromagnets on mains to avoid unwanted uncoupling. But, I have mostly moved to bamboo skewers, because they give me the ability to uncouple anywhere, not just where I've placed a magnet.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Frank Sergent is still making his most popular coupler, but as stated in this thread, he is winding down and encouraging others to take on production by publicly sharing technical information. I bought enough to outfit my entire fleet of steam locomotives and rolling stock (several hundred pieces). I don't think I need any more at this point, but may buy another batch to prepare for "the day". I admit there is a learning curve to assembling and using these, but personally I love them after more than 30 years of Kadees.
BTW, I can still use #58s with Sergents because of my broad curves and turnouts.
Anyway, Sergents are definitely an acquired taste and for some, once tasted, too good to resist (that's me!).
Wish we had a real product engineer here as there must be a simple engineering solution, after all someone finally got a chemist to anilize the black gunk on our layouts.
josephbwHere's what I use on my layout. With a little slack between the couplers, you stick the brush between the faces of the coupler, give a gentle clockwise twist, and the couples open up.
Here's what I use on my layout. With a little slack between the couplers, you stick the brush between the faces of the coupler, give a gentle clockwise twist, and the couples open up.
Here's a link to the brushes.
https://www.gumbrand.com/new-proxabrush.html
Edit: These are available at drug stores, grocery stores and even Wally World.