Kadee shuffle

[KingEdwardII]

2 hours ago, RobinofLoxley said:

I am concerned about the whole thing being controlled by a piece of string

That is one of the concerns that I have - but the idea of using a small servo is simple enough.

 

My bigger concern regarding the Precimodels solution is finding the right place to mount the unit. Probably not too hard when dealing with the coupling on a tender. For a bogie mounted coupling at the front end of a steam loco or on a diesel, I envisage that it could get much more tricky.

 

Yours, Mike.

[steve45]

10 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

That is one of the concerns that I have - but the idea of using a small servo is simple enough.

 

My bigger concern regarding the Precimodels solution is finding the right place to mount the unit. Probably not too hard when dealing with the coupling on a tender. For a bogie mounted coupling at the front end of a steam loco or on a diesel, I envisage that it could get much more tricky.

 

Yours, Mike.

They are fitted on 0-6-0t's at McKinley for shunting. Other loco's use the shuffle function.

[RobinofLoxley]

9 hours ago, steve45 said:

They are fitted on 0-6-0t's at McKinley for shunting. Other loco's use the shuffle function.

Its good to get a reliable reference. Watching the film the snag part seemed to be getting the string tight at the right length in the location. In practice, a first timer might loose a lot of hair getting that right.

 

My particular interest is that, when finished I will have quite a large layout, steam era, and I want to see if its possible for a loco drawing into a terminus to reverse out when its coaches have been pulled away by another loco, run round a reversing loop and back to another platform to pick up a new set of coaches, automatically. Im nowhere near being in a position to do that now as the layout isnt built, but this is the long term operational objective as it requires all the other objectives be achieved before it.

[Nigelcliffe]

18 minutes ago, RobinofLoxley said:

Its good to get a reliable reference. Watching the film the snag part seemed to be getting the string tight at the right length in the location. In practice, a first timer might loose a lot of hair getting that right.

 

My particular interest is that, when finished I will have quite a large layout, steam era, and I want to see if its possible for a loco drawing into a terminus to reverse out when its coaches have been pulled away by another loco, run round a reversing loop and back to another platform to pick up a new set of coaches, automatically. Im nowhere near being in a position to do that now as the layout isnt built, but this is the long term operational objective as it requires all the other objectives be achieved before it.

 

You don't need loco-mounted couplers for the above.   

 

Requires fixed position uncoupler at end of terminus road, positioned to catch the coach coupling.   That might be a thing to trip a Hornby tension-lock, or a fixed magnet for many of the couplers which use magnets.    So, the arriving train uncouples when loco is at/near the buffers.   Station pilot comes into the rear, removes coaches and releases the main loco.     Automation of this is fairly simple as a sequence - the hard part is getting the station pilot to stop at the correct place when arriving on the rear of the train before it removes the coaches.   

 

- Nigel

 

[RobinofLoxley]

22 minutes ago, Nigelcliffe said:

 

You don't need loco-mounted couplers for the above.   

 

Requires fixed position uncoupler at end of terminus road, positioned to catch the coach coupling.   That might be a thing to trip a Hornby tension-lock, or a fixed magnet for many of the couplers which use magnets.    So, the arriving train uncouples when loco is at/near the buffers.   Station pilot comes into the rear, removes coaches and releases the main loco.     Automation of this is fairly simple as a sequence - the hard part is getting the station pilot to stop at the correct place when arriving on the rear of the train before it removes the coaches.   

 

- Nigel

 

Im aware of those various possibilities, Im just choosing something else pending understanding of the different issues involved. While Im not much of a 'realist' in terms of operations Ive decided to get rid of all the tension lock couplings as they are truly hideous to behold. Thats why i talk about long term objectives as I wont be changing many until the layout is properly finished. The list of things to do is very long, and even though I have retired I have other hobbies that take time too.

[roundel]

Hi all, apologies for resurrecting such an old thread, but...

 

I have a number of Train-o-Matic decoders which say that they support this, but although I've managed it on a Loksound, I can't get these beasties to dance for me.

 

Does anyone have any wisdom with these controllers please?