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Pat
Great idea, I'm sure we all "loose stuff" on the layout and this is another easy to do idea to collect some of it.
Great idea. This woulda come in handy a few months ago, Pat. I lost a small connecting rod screw on the railroad loop somewhere. Dragging a magnet by hand(very cumbersome) didn’t find it. Engine is in the shop now as the screw goes in from the inside so I’m having a tech do it. I’m gonna make one of these cars. Who is your magnet source?
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TedW posted:Who is your magnet source?
Amazon
I made mine with a $5 MPC gondola car and a magnet from Northern Tool and Equipment. Ribs on the bottom had to be trimmed to make it fit.
It works like a champ. Before I started running trains on my new layout, I ran this around by hand. Once the "junk" was picked up, I continue running it with my track cleaning car work train. It picked up all sorts of filing/fuzzys. To clean it, I use packing tape.
It make passes on the club modular layout several times each year.
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Us old school types rely on Magnetraction to perform the job. It's simplicity is only outweighed by the handy object sensor feature. When a metallic object is captured, nine times out of ten the engine comes to a violent hault. And nine times out of ten it stops somewhere totally inaccessible. 
Nice craftsmanship, Pat. I may have resort to one of these contraptions once my last Magnetraction engine gets destroyed.
Bruce
