Hello everyone, just trying to decide which magnets to use and how exactly do they work the kadee delayed and non delayed? I’ve read about the little round magnets on the post, so which kadee magnet do they replace? Also looked at the ace hardware magnets round and rectangular again which of these two are better and which kadee magnet do they replace. Any info would be nice. I’ve looked thru the older post on this subject but there a ton of them, but they don’t really explain the difference between the 2 types of kadee uncoupler magnets. Thanks grinstuff
The non-delay magnets open the knuckles enough so the cars uncouple. The delayed magnets pull the couples to the side so you can back the cars together without the knuckles closing, so you cna push the car further back in to a siding.
Using small round magnets you can pretty much set them up to work as either. Depending on how you position them, they will either just open the knuckles or also pull the couplers to the side. The strong ‘rare earth’ round magnets are pretty much always goign to be ‘delayed’ type because they are so strong. I did some experimenting on my last layout with the plain little round ceramic ones and depending on how I placed them I could get both types of uncoupling, but it was also quite picky about the spotting of the cars to be uncoupled. The super strong rare earth magnets wouldn;t be quite as picky as their effective range would be greater.
–Randy
So the non-delay open the couplers while the cars are rolling across them since they have more Magnetism? If the tension is pulling them tight while going over them?
Kadee couplers have a ‘lip’ on the knuckle. When pulling a train; the knuckle is under tension and will not release. If you stop over the magnet, the tension is released and the knuckles will pull apart. Many folks do not use the magnets on the mainline as any slack may result in a false uncoupling. Electromagnetic uncouplers generally are favored on mainlines for this reason. They can be energized when you need to uncouple, but do not cause false uncoupling if not turned on.
Kadee has an excellent web page describing this operation:
http://www.kadee.com/html/delay.pdf
Jim Bernier
Jim, thanks for the info…I printed out the pages for furture reference. So will the rectangular magnets (3/16 T by 1/4x7/8) item 07001 from Ace hardware do the same as the delayed kadee magnets? Or have you tried any other types besides the small round magnets?
A standard rectangular magnet won’t do the job, not by itself. A standard bar magnet us polarized so one end is north adn one end is south, the long way. The Kadee magnets are actually polarized down the middle. What happens is the metal ‘air hose’ in the field of this magnet gets polarized the same as the center of the magnet, if you have two cars coupled together over the magnet, both air hoses get poalrized the same way - thus repel, and also are attracked to the oppiste pole with is either side of the magnet - this is what opens the couplers and pushes them aprt side to side to allow you to back up and push the car without the couplers engaging - the delayed mode. It’s all pretty tricky and quite ingenious, a real tribute to the inventiveness of Keith and Dale Edwards (the K and D in Kadee). Two small round magnets work because each magnet pulls the air hose closest to it with simple magnetic attraction. A plain magnet in the center of the track will do little, it might get the knuckles to open but it wouldn;t work for delayed action.
As explained above, if a train keeps moving past a fixed magnet, the cars will stay coupled unless the loco stutters from bad power pickup. As long as the train is stretched, the lip on the knuckle keeps it coupled even over a magnet. There needs to be some slack in the train for the couplers to open. I don;t put fixed magnets on mainline track just to prevent unintended uncoupling. You can use the under table magnet and hing it so you can pull it up when needed to uncouple, or use the electromagnet uncoupler. I just forego the magnet and uncouple my cars with a skewer. Other peopel that do so often clip off the ‘air hose’, particularly on cars thathave accurate air hose details, liek Branchline Blueprint cars, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to that very final step - once it’s cut off, the only way to go back to magnetic uncoupling is to repalce the coupler with a new one.
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