Question about coupling/decoupling devices?

[gavino200]

I've never taken interest in "operations" myself, so I haven't paid attention to it. But my son is interested in shunting, coupling, uncoupling, and generally pretending to drive real trains on the layout. I'm now interested in incorporating this into my layout, but I don't have even a clue where to start. I have a few super basic questions.

 

1. Are there reliable coupling/uncoupling devices available on the market?

2 Do they require a special coupler to be fitted to trains/wagons carriages? Are these couplers reliable in general use?

3. Can the coupling devices be incorporated into automated control systems such as iTrains? If you don't have experience with this aspect, please ignore it. I can ask question #3 in the automation forum later.

 

Thanks.

[Tony Galiani]

I had an opportunity to operate a small 1/150 scale Japanese themed shunting layout that used MicroTrains couplers and it worked superbly.  However, the owner took a lot of time to fine tune the track, the couplers and the magnet placement - the excellent performance was a result of his efforts.  I don't think these are are a quick install.  They seemed pretty reliable when I was watching or operating the layout.

 

I had a chance to use the original Arnold type (quite a long time ago) and that worked okay for rapido style couplers but was not a sophisticated as the MicroTrains system.  Not sure there is a automatic system in N Scale at this point.

 

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[disturbman]

Japanese layouts and trains are not thought for this kind of operations. It’s fixed consists or die.

 

However, maybe you could look into making him and yourself a small shunting layout. There was a very interesting video about a simple mini curve oval with a siding where the owner’s had embedded a neodymium magnet under the track bed to trigger—iirc—TOMIX/TOMY magnetic couplers.

It looked very interesting and fun. My own experience with simple decouplers was not satisfactory.

Edited December 24, 2021 by disturbman

[MeTheSwede]

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1. Are there reliable coupling/uncoupling devices available on the market?

 

1. Yes, I bought a set of 150 uncoupling devices at my local supermarket and at least the one I've been using so far has been very reliable.

 

 

 

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2 Do they require a special coupler to be fitted to trains/wagons carriages? Are these couplers reliable in general use?

 

2. My device requires rapido couplers, which luckily all my rolling stock came prefitted with.

 

 

 

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3. Can the coupling devices be incorporated into automated control systems such as iTrains? If you don't have experience with this aspect, please ignore it. I can ask question #3 in the automation forum later.

 

3. I don't know. Maybe with some kind of robot hand? 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I know I'm a bit backwards still using a wooden stick. Next year I might upgrade to a bent steel wire. 😊

 

 

Okay, that was written very tongue-in-cheek, but there's something serious coming here at the end. I don't know to what extent, if any, you've tried the old fashioned manual stick approach to uncoupling, but I don't think it makes much sense to start changing couplers and installing a fancy uncoupling system if you haven't done quite a bit of shunting before. Maybe you'll find out that shunting wasn't that fun in the long run after all. Or maybe like me you'll find that you think using the stick was just fine. Then you haven't done a lot of unnecessary work and investments.

 

Automatic uncoupling looks very impressive when demonstrated, but I don't think it adds to the enjoyment of shunting itself. 

 

 

 

[gavino200]

52 minutes ago, MeTheSwede said:

 

1. Yes, I bought a set of 150 uncoupling devices at my local supermarket and at least the one I've been using so far has been very reliable.

 

 

What is that thing, btw? Does it come like that? Or did you put the bend in it yourself?

 

 

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2. My device requires rapido couplers, which luckily all my rolling stock came prefitted with.

 

 

Almost all my trains have rapido couplers. For me they've been more reliable than anything else.

 

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3. I don't know. Maybe with some kind of robot hand? 😉

 

 

Lol. (actually I did some research on robot hands a few years back)

 

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Okay, that was written very tongue-in-cheek, but there's something serious coming here at the end. I don't know to what extent, if any, you've tried the old fashioned manual stick approach to uncoupling,

 

 

I'll ask my son what he thinks. I bet he'd be fine with the stick.

 

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but I don't think it makes much sense to start changing couplers and installing a fancy uncoupling system if you haven't done quite a bit of shunting before. Maybe you'll find out that shunting wasn't that fun in the long run after all. Or maybe like me you'll find that you think using the stick was just fine. Then you haven't done a lot of unnecessary work and investments.

 

Personally I doubt that I'd ever do any shunting. I'm pretty sure my son would like it though. Incorporating it into a fancy system is probably more my thing. Likely he'd end up ignoring it and using a stick, anyway

 

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Automatic uncoupling looks very impressive when demonstrated, but I don't think it adds to the enjoyment of shunting itself.

 

 

The enjoyment of shunting is probably not something I'll ever understand. Thanks for your input and ideas, Swede. It's like that old story about the little prince who kept asking for the moon. Eventually a smart guy asked the kid what the moon was like. The kid said it was the size of his thumbnail, and made of silver. So they whittled him up a moon on a chain, and the kid was happy.

 

I'll present the stick idea to my son!

Edited December 27, 2021 by gavino200

[MeTheSwede]

It's a stick intended to put food items on for barbeque. It was just the first thing I came to think about when my first rolling stock had arrived and I wanted to try an uncoupling stick. I bent it and it turned out to work fine. I just put it under the couplers and lift gently.

 

The stick also works for some other things, like adjusting the sideways location of couplers that don't want to couple, manually switching points, giving a push to a locomotive that has stalled on a point, or scratching my back. 😀

[Madsing]

I use Tomix Fine Track, I have purchased the Uncoupler Track with Light Pole M70 (Tomix 1521, https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029059, https://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/n/1521.html) a few years back but, sorry, I have never tried it so I cannot comment. It has a permanent magnet between the rails. If I understand well, when used with M Couplers, reversing slowly while above the magnet will uncouple the cars.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV16441117Pd/

 

[MeTheSwede]

 

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I use Tomix Fine Track, I have purchased the Uncoupler Track with Light Pole M70 (Tomix 1521, https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029059, https://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/n/1521.html) a few years back but, sorry, I have never tried it so I cannot comment. It has a permanent magnet between the rails. If I understand well, when used with M Couplers, reversing slowly while above the magnet will uncouple the cars.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV16441117Pd/

 

 

The video you linked shows the Tomix uncoupler track in action with an unaltered Tomix locomotive. Most Tomix locomotives produced the last 20 years (I think) come with this feature (i.e. a magnet fitted to the rapido coupler). If you have any Tomix locomotives I suggest you pull one out and tests it.

 

It's a very neat function for anyone who for instance would like to easily move a set of kokis from one place to another. I'm using it to park sets of train cars at hidden sidings under a mountain.

 

 

Note that Tomix and Kato systems are not compatible as shown in this video: