Walthers Magnetic Wand

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello. Does anyone still have the Magnetic Wand used to perform some operations on Proto 2000 QSI dual mode sound equipped locomotives? I cannot locate mine (I bought the Proto UP E-8’s back in 2005 and the wand came with it.). I’m sure I still have it, but problem is after all this time I don’t remember what it looks like. Fortunatley I have the wand instructions that came with my QSI loco. I’m asking anyone that if you have it, can you please e-mail me a “photo” of the wand which may help me find it once I see it. Thanks in advance.

JRP

2

There were various designs of the so-called wand from a simple 3/4" long cylindrical metal “dowel” to a plastic-housed “Broadway Limited” style keychain fob.

I found that in many cases when the reed switch was buried deep within a tender or E/F-unit shell, the magnet supplied wasn’t strong enough to trip the switch.

I had success with stronger, neodymium magnets and the best result I got was from a magnet removed from an old computer hard drive.

Good Luck, Ed

3

I made a pair of wands using six ⅛” round neodymium magnets attached to a ⅛” dowel. Heat shrink over the magnets and dowel work great.

I use magnetic latching read switches in my cabooses and baggage cars to control the lighting.

I use a decoder function in my baggage cars to trip a relay and parallel the relay contacts with a latching reed switch for operating in DC mode.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.

4

Buy a Rapido car with lights, they have a useful magnetic wand comes with every car.

5

Well, that would be one way to do it, albeit somewhat expensive.

I use a neodymium cylindrical magnet about 1/4" in dia. by 3/4" long. Works great! Costs a bit over a buck each.

https://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D4C

Dave