is there any way to automaticly uncouple a hornby engine? the uncoupling ramps from hornby seem to be ideal except that they are fairly big and im going to need a quite a few on my layout. any ideas welcome.
I hate those couplings! My dad wedges little strips of thin celluloid between the sleepers or ties, cut to fit between the rails and bent to make a little ‘hump’, then wedged or even glued in place. He uses scraps of old film negatives - very unsightly. I think thin plastic you might use for glazing would also work and would be maybe a tad less visible. When the train is reversed over them the couplings lift and if you’ve got the height right they will uncouple. It takes a bit of fiddling to get it right, and they’re about as good-looking as the couplings! But it does work. Hope that helps a bit.
Mike
Hi corksean
Nope your alternatives are home made ramps, Hornby ramps or shunters pole
The shunters pole comes with the shunters float or at least it used too.
Or you change couplings and if you go the prototype route the problem gets worse.
regards John
If space is at a premium as on my layout a thin piece of card gently inserted under the couplings and carefully lifted up is all that is needed to uncouple the engine and carriages. Ian
I have always used an old thin and wide butter knife.
what i use now is a magnetic dart from a childrens dart set, and it works fine but what i reall want is to be able to just stop the train over a certain area and have the couplings lift by themselves. i was thinking of magnetising the all the couplings and putting strong magnets in the roadbed. would that work?
A good percentage of us modellers here in the UK remove them altogether and replace with the likes of Sprat & Winkle, DG couplings, 3 link or instanter couplings, all which probably means nothing to you but they are all commercialy available items here in the UK. Some people myself included use a home made version of the Sprat & Winkle which is dirt cheap to make and once you get the hang of it you can convert stock in no time. If you want any more detailed info please contact me and I can get some more info for you plus drawings etc.
Shaun