Great 84 cent magnetic uncouplers

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I’m re-entering the hobby after a long pause and resolved not to pay more that $1 for mag. uncouplers. That turned into a quest, but successful. To test magnets I found @ Toys-R-Us a Fisher-Price pad with a magnetic stylus sold for kids on trips. It’s remarkably well engineered and works well for comparative uncoupler testing. I found a standard, widely available ceramic block magnet that is at least as strong as anything else I tested including those sold as uncouplers, has a very handy form factor, and is now on sale from Northern Tool. The magnet is from The Magnet Source, their # 07044, & is 1-7/8" by 7/8" by 3/8." Stand it on its side with the long side parallel to the rails. In HO it fits comfortably in a slot between the rails, does not disrupt the roadbed directly under the rails, and works reliably under flex-track tie strips. I use a patch of old window screen power-stapled to the bottom of the plywood roadbed to close the bottom of the slot, permitting future access if needed.The magnets are now on sale on-line by Northern Tool, northerntool.com, in 2-packs for $1.68, or 84 cents ea, + S&H. Their part # is 2507044.I also resolved to do something easy, quick, and cheap for manually activated uncouplers, a subject of this forum maybe 6 mos. ago. My homemade electro-magnets work but aren’t very quick nor much fun and with a hands-free delay feature, won’t meet my definition of cheap either. Having now installed permanent magnets on the new layout and being pleased with their operation I’m toying with putting some sort of flap under the roadbed to rais

2

I was in Radio Shack one day and found rectangular magnets that had 5 in the pack for just a couple bucks. They work great. They are a 1 X 1 1/2 X 1/4 inch. I have some at the end of my Scale tracks and others in the stub yard. They work good for KDs but the clones seem to be too stiff.

Pete

3

Wayne,

There is a design for the movable ‘flap’ in the instruction sheet with the Kaydee magnetic uncoupler. I just noticed this yesterday when I found one of the sheets during a clean up. It is basically a hinge with the magnet glued to one side. You operate it with a cable from the facia.

Bob

4

Don’t know about the Kadee version, but mine uses a cheap steel hinge from Home Despot. Activating mechanism is a length of fishing leader with a pull-knob on the end. Nice thing about the fishing leader - you can route it around obstructions by having it pass through small screw eyes.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - as inexpensively as possible)

5

I’ve seen 3 good ways to use hidden magnets for uncoupling.

  1. The hinged magnet as described.

  2. Horizontal sliding magnet. Similar to the hinge but may be easier to arrange in certain circumstances.

  3. Rare earth magnet cylinders installed from above. Easier to install after track is laid than the other 2, but has a limited longitudinal gathering range.

my thoughts, your choices

Fred W

6

Tx Bob, I was able to find the drawing on the Kadee homepage. It implies that a steel hinge will not noticeable effect the magnetic field, something I will still ck w/ my highly sophisticated Fisher-Price toy magnetic notepad. The piece that we don’t seem to have a really good solution yet having the magnet stay up hands-off so we can operate a wireless throttle. I’ve got an OK over-top-dead-center design with a push-rod but there has to be a better way yet.

Wayne