Over the years I’ve watched model railroaders, including myself, struggle to uncouple cars… especially during operating sessions on my layout. They, we’ve… tried it all from wooden skewers to various types of magnetic devices. Sometimes they work and other times it’s frustrating to say the least. In those super hard to reach places such as between two structures I usually resort to track magnets.
But I have this dream. It’s a Kadee coupler that has a small, almost invisible pin on top and you simply use the blunt end of the above mentioned skewer to lightly press this pin and VIOLA! the coupler opens allowing you to separate the cars. Of course in this dream the coupler closes back by itself, maybe spring loaded or will do so when it is coupled with a car again.
Men have walked on the moon and dived to the cold dark depths of the ocean. They’ve transplanted organs in patients and use lasers to do eye surgery. They built the trans continental railroad.
Jarrell, know exactly what you mean. Possibly an
inexpensive" decoder that can uncouple w/ the push of A/B, but wouldn’t that be something to assign “all” the addresses an consist. Maybe a “real” solution is out there, but is it feasable or even worth it at this time.
Didn’t MTH come up with an “uncoupling coupler” with the push of a button? The downside was that it was ungainly bulky at the end and underneath the locomotive.
I know it’s a dream but I also think it’s feasible. Nor do I know what a coupler like that would cost, probably in the beginning it would be expensive. Might even be something you would have to lubricate now and then.
I have one friend that only uses the ‘mu’ hose of the coupler to uncouple them. I think his success rate is about 70 percent or so. AND… it only works when you can come in low and to the side of the cars, not so great for those times in a yard where you have tracks relatively very close to each other.
Oh if I were only an engineer (not the locomotive type). I’d be rich by now!! [:D]
Thanks for that reminder Bob! I don’t remember watching the big boys do it, perhaps I did and my mind was on something else. To get the needed slack do they intentionally back up a wee bit?
Here’s where copying the prototype helps. A crew will typically not send somebody between cuts to pull the pin, but will pull the cut out of the track far enough to reach the car that needs to be uncoupled. Modelers often do it the hard way by trying to reach far into a yard to uncouple something when moving cars to a more accessible location is both easier and more realistic.
MTH automatic coupler didn’t work as expected, it needs to much “slack” to coupling and uncoupling.
The stick method is ok for HO and bigger scale, however it need some practice but it’s for me not prototypical to see a big hand uncoupling car, just my taste of course.
However the Sergeant coupler work extremly well whith this method, certainly easier than Kadee ones.
For the small scale like me in Nscale only permanent magnet or electric magnetic uncoupling could be used.
I use only electric magnetic uncoupling on my layout whith homemade device.
Sometimes I use one or two on the same spur track, so I can uncouple at different place or make cut in a train.
Don’t forget we are in a miniature world and we need to accept compromise to play whith or train like the prototype; so Kadee or MTL coupler system are today and I beleive still for years to come, the best compromise we can use.
All the electronics DCC coupler used on Loco in all scale didn’t work properly as far as I know today.Most are outsized and need big slack to work ( american design or european one like Lenz)
May be they will become better in the coming years but I’m not sure because of complexity and also of reliability.
They can also push the price of the locos higher which is never a good news
