andygif Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 I got a pair last week, and finally got round to trying them out on sunday morning on a strip of code 80 flexi track. I used a 37 & 03 as the traction and a single seacow wagon as the load. i nipped the sleepers off altogether in the area were the magnet was to go, which was a mistake as it made postioning the magnet in the center of the track bed harder. Next time i'll cut themnext to the inside edge of the chairs. uncoupling was problematic, it got better when i added weight to the wagon in the form of my brass back to back gauge. I couldn't always get the wagon to propel without recoupling after a little ways, though this may be to down to the magnet possibly not being centrallised. Roll on the multipacks (larger packs would be good idea, though i guess i will need more T-shank ones than NEMs in the long run), i will almost definatley be swapping to these. i did try a small rare earth but all that did was rocket the wagon to the middle of magnetic field, i didnt get chance to see if the coupling tripped or not. What Dapol could really do with is selling a tool for checking the trip pin heights, coupling height, and centralising the magents in the road bed. cheers Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 I couldn't always get the wagon to propel without recoupling after a little ways, though this may be to down to the magnet possibly not being centrallised..... i did try a small rare earth but all that did was rocket the wagon to the middle of magnetic field, i didnt get chance to see if the coupling tripped or not. That sounds like you have a wagon with steel axles that are being atracted to the magnet... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldNick Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 A single rare earth magnet pulling down onthe trip wire will not operate this style of coupling. A pair, careful;ly placed might do so, by attracting the wire sideways.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygif Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 (edited) Going back to the rare earth magnets, as these little s0ds are so strong i might try a pair of them set outside of the rails rather than between them. i know it may sound sad, but i did have rather a collection of rare earth magnets at one point. I've got one little ###### thats about 1/4"(6mm) thick and 1"(25mm) round that needs 100lb(50kg) pull to shift it off a piece of steel. Edited December 19, 2011 by andygif Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJW Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Got a pair of couplings and the magnets this morning. The couplings themselves are excellent, but I echo the calls for shorter versions. My main concern today has been with the magnets and the positioning of them. Bare in mind I have been using Kato Unitrack and those using Peco may not encounter the following issues. If the magnets are placed flush with the top of the rails, they have a tendency to pull the coupling's trip pin down so that they scrape along the surface of the magnet. They do work as intended in this position, but it doesn't help smooth running. However, if you lower the magnets so that the trip pin cannot reach them, this risks the magnets not being strong enough to allow the "easy-shunt" technique. They will uncouple, but the couplers aren't pushed far enough wide so that they overlap. Hence today I have been very carefully positioning the magnets so that they are just the right height. Very fiddly, but once completed I have found their operation to be flawless. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MrSimon Posted December 19, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 19, 2011 They work well with the Unitrack MT uncoupler tracks if that helps? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NZmodeller Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Got a pair of couplings and the magnets this morning. The couplings themselves are excellent, but I echo the calls for shorter versions. My main concern today has been with the magnets and the positioning of them. Bare in mind I have been using Kato Unitrack and those using Peco may not encounter the following issues. If the magnets are placed flush with the top of the rails, they have a tendency to pull the coupling's trip pin down so that they scrape along the surface of the magnet. They do work as intended in this position, but it doesn't help smooth running. However, if you lower the magnets so that the trip pin cannot reach them, this risks the magnets not being strong enough to allow the "easy-shunt" technique. They will uncouple, but the couplers aren't pushed far enough wide so that they overlap. Hence today I have been very carefully positioning the magnets so that they are just the right height. Very fiddly, but once completed I have found their operation to be flawless. Any chance you could give us a measurement of what the "right height" is in mm measured from the top of the rails and also the thickness of the megnets themswlves? Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJW Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Any chance you could give us a measurement of what the "right height" is in mm measured from the top of the rails and also the thickness of the megnets themswlves? Peter Trial and error I'm afraid. I've also found differences in the strengths of the magnets. Just got some more this morning, and they seam to be more powerful than those I'd already got, so will be set lower than the others. I've been putting the magnets on a couple of peices of platicene, and then pushing them down until they are at the optimum height. Since I am using Uni-track I then just fix them in place against the ballast. Just sent for the Kato magnetic track peices and will report back on their effectiveness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveArkley Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Hi Dave, thats perfect thanks cheers Dave DapolDave, The replacements arrived Tuesday, and work perfectly. You've demostrated outstanding customer service here, a beacon for the rest of the industry. Thank you ever so much for your positive, can do attitude which is really refreshing, Out of interest have you had a chance to inspect the pair I've returned and if so did you find a problem? Again many thanks Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DapolDave Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Hi Dave, No problem and glad to be of service. I haven't had a chance to check your returned ones yet as things were hectic just before the break. Rest assured I will once we are back in the office come Tuesday. Cheers Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin1985 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 (edited) I've finally had the chance to have a play with my Easi-Shunt couplings, and unfortunately I can't get them to reliably uncouple from the Microtrains couplings that I've used in conversions in the past Coupling, and shunting in the "delayed action" position work fine, but uncoupling doesn't seem to want to happen. I've tried this with Peco wagons fitted with standard MT gearboxes to the wagon floor, as well as Farish wagons from the immediate pre-NEM era which have MT's specific "Bachmann" conversion pockets installed (these all work out a bit higher than the NEM mount). I seem to remember others mentioning having had success? Has anyone tried with the MT couplings down at NEM height? Also, I've been using the Microtrains coupling magnet track - I wonder if the Dapol one might be stronger? Cheers Justin Edited January 1, 2012 by justin1985 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 I've finally had the chance to have a play with my Easi-Shunt couplings, and unfortunately I can't get them to reliably uncouple from the Microtrains couplings that I've used in conversions in the pastJustin I suspect that may be your issue: - I don't recall Dapol claiming them to be interoperable with Micro Trains couplings. I suspect that for maximum reliability it will be a case of use all one type or the other and not mix them. An issue that will only be worsened when Farish's version arrives leaving us with three visually similar but not fully compatable couplings to confuse the unwary... Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin1985 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Hi Paul, I understand that they're not necessarily designed to work together - and I'm not saying it is a problem with the Dapol coupling that they don't - just that, if there is a way to get them to work together under some circumstances, that would be great Justin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 anyone know when Bachmann plan on getting the Farish ones to market? they'll need to be quick or we'll all be using Dapol ones! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyChappy Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 I don't recall Dapol claiming them to be interoperable with Micro Trains couplings. I e-mailed Dave at Dapol about interoperability with MT when the Dapol couplings first became available. He clearly replied that they were not designed to be compatible due to height differences. However, my own experiments have shown them to be absolutely fine on reliably coupling up and uncoupling but the 'delayed shunt' does not work reliably when coupled together. They tend to re-couple as soon as the couplings leave the proximity of the uncoupling magnet. On the Bachmann (US) website a recent thread on EZ-Mate couplings (which are already available there), http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,19099.msg152874.html#msg152874 mentioned compatibility betweem them and MTs. Let's hope we don't end up with 3 different but similar couplings which are a 'bit iffy' on working together. Happy new year HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted January 2, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 2, 2012 On the Bachmann (US) website a recent thread on EZ-Mate couplings (which are already available there), http://www.bachmannt....html#msg152874 mentioned compatibility betweem them and MTs. Let's hope we don't end up with 3 different but similar couplings which are a 'bit iffy' on working together. I hope that Farish are able to make the couplings compatible with Dapols. Doing this would make more sense for the British market than getting them to work with the Micro trains ones. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 (edited) Well since no has had a go yet I have decided to do a bit of experimenting with the Dapol couplers and some neodymium "rare earth" magnets. The ones I used were 3mm x 2mm circular ones. I chose these as the North and South poles are aligned along the axis of the cylinder making alignment easy, they also wedge snuggly between the sleepers of Peco code 55 track. I tried different combinations and placements of the magnets. The one that seemed to work best was with the 2 magnets just inside the rails, one sleeper apart in the 4 and 10 o'clock positions as shown below. With the magnets in this position (one northside-up and the other southside-up) uncoupling seemed quite reliable. See the images below. The problem was that I could not get the delayed action to work. My guess is that the magnets are not strong enough to provide sufficient deflection to operate this feature. Now this is not the end of the world. Magnets like this can be bought on eBay for pennies so it will not break the bank to scatter them around the layout at many locations. Also they can be fitted without having to remove sleepers which makes them much easier to disguise. Simply give them a brush of matt paint to match the ballast and they are almost invisible. I have not bought a Dapol uncoupling magnet yet so I would be interested to hear how reliable the delayed action uncoupling is with this. If others find it works well, I may try with a row of magnets. Edited March 15, 2018 by Karhedron 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 That's some excellent information Karhedron. I do however wonder about scattering magnets too widely, as this would surely end up with unwanted uncouplings when stock happens to be stopped over them. This is why I'd like to see someone produce a suitable electromagnet - It's on the long list of things I intend to try when I manage to get hold of that confounded round tuit. There are also situations such as loco changes where the train will be uncoupled and recoupled in exactly the same place, and shoving the coaches back a couple of inches would seriously endanger your passengers! I wonder if a couple of coils stripped out from a Seep point motor would work when mounted under the board, with nails through them in the same arrangement as in the photos? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyChappy Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 This is why I'd like to see someone produce a suitable electromagnet - They already do - it's the Kadee 309 electromagnet for HO scale. They are cleverly designed so that you just turn the pole plates around so they fit N gauge track. See N Gauge Society journal 4/11 where Keith Warltier describes how to fit, (thanks Keith for an excellent article). HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 would the Kadee 309 need to be mounted between track (cutting sleepers out), rebated into the board or completely under board? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 (edited) I have now got the delayed action working with the small circular magnets thanks to a tip from a user on another forum. I simply moved the trip pin in towards the centre-line gently with a pair of needle-nosed pliers. This increased the deflection caused by the magnets and means that it works properly. See below. Edited March 15, 2018 by Karhedron 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyChappy Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 would the Kadee 309 need to be mounted between track (cutting sleepers out), rebated into the board or completely under board? Hi Black Sheep, I roughly followed the method illustrated in the N Gauge Society Journal 4/11 - namely cut out a slot in the baseboard, (approx 20mm wide and 51mm long), exactly centred on the track location and fit the Kadee 309's with the pole plates flush with the top of the baseboard.The track is laid as normal and, when ballasted, the 309 is completely invisible under the track. I've also done the above on pre-laid and ballasted track but you need to be very careful in cutting the baseboard slot in the correct position from underneath. Small pilot holes drilled from above along the track centre help with this. Don't use the supplied mounting plate but substitute right angled, adjustable mounting brackets fixed directly to the centre bolt of the 309. This minimises the size of the cutout slot and helps with final positioning. HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PaulCheffus Posted January 6, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 6, 2012 I hope that Farish are able to make the couplings compatible with Dapols. Doing this would make more sense for the British market than getting them to work with the Micro trains ones. Hi Unless like me you are already using the Microtrains couplings then I would perfer Farish did make them compatible with those. Cheers Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold bcnPete Posted January 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 7, 2012 I have now got the delayed action working with the small circular magnets That's good progress... Whilst I completely welcome Dapol's approach to replace the Rapido, I was a little concerned when I saw the size of the magnet required and I wondered how many people would remove large chunks of their existing trackwork to accommodate them... Nice work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Where have people been aquiring the Dapol couplings and magnets from? I've tried three different model shops in various places as I've been passing through Modelzone-Reading, Antics-Coventry and a large independent shop in Wakefield, the latter having ordered some before Christmas, but not received any yet. Are Dapol still feeding things through to their stockists and I just need to be patient? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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