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2 Responses to Uncoupling With Super Magnets
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What type of couplers do you have ? What do you mean by “Super Magnets” ?
The manufacturers of magnetic coupling systems will match the strength of their magnets to the magnetic field required to operate the coupler.
Extra powerful magnets will not be useful, unless they are further away, such as under the baseboard.
(However, you can get strong magnets quite cheaply and experiment to see what happens !-)
The problem I found with magnet uncoupling was the steel axles and steel weights in wagons. I wanted to cut off individual wagons. As the loco pulled away from the wagon, the wagon would follow until the steel axles or ballast weight was over the magnet, and by then the coupling had closed again.
I found that I had to get non-ferrous ballast weights, axles and wheels for my wagons. I suppose that I could have planted some grass between the rails to stop the wagons rolling, but I was concerned it might find its way into the loco mechanism.
It is worth making a test track on a spare piece of board to try out your ideas, particularly if you are mixing your brands of couplings and uncouplers or using generic magnets. As well as uncoupling, you need to check that you can roll coupled rolling stock over the uncoupler slowly without them uncoupling. One trouble I found with permanent magnets is that if a slow moving train hesitates slightly when a pair of couplings are over the magnet, it can break the train.