I recall seeing a video showing how someone used uncoupling magnets. When he wanted to uncouple a car he simply "threw" the magnet in between the rails. If it needed to be in another location he picked it up and threw it down where he wanted.
Not sure if it was 3RS or 2R (probably 2R now that I think of it) but this seemed to be an easy way to use magnets to uncouple cars.
Does anyone have a link or a video of this?
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This is in the Green Frog video of John Armstrong's Canandaigua Southern, where he demonstrated passenger car switching.
Thanks Rex, I'll have to find that one.
Hmm, would it be possible to have a magnet on the end of a dowel, to uncouple cars wherever? Think I'll try something like that myself.
Dan Weinhold
Dan,
A two-prong fork with a magnet on each prong should do wonders. I plan to have one to use on the new modular layouts here in Denver.
ChipR
Chip, why two magnets? Did I read that right?
Dan
You need two magnets set opposite to pull the couplers apart. I don't know about the method above but I did a build on cheap under track magnets in the current July/August O Scale Resource. http://oscaleresource.com/
As for uncoupling in the yards a cheap coffee stir stick or on my case a sharp pencil still works well.
Thanks Dan for the explanation. A moment ago I read the magazine and watched the video you reference above. Good stuff!
Dan Weinhold
Matt, I used to have one of those Rix uncouplers in HO, worked pretty good.
I wonder if 2 electromagnets could be used on a device like the Rix uncoupler, powered by a battery and a discharge capacitor? Position it on both sides of the couplers and press a switch to energize the electromagnets. Of course it would have to have a light to really geek it up 
. Right now I'm using a bamboo skewer mounted to a LED flashlight using a piece of heatshrink tubing to keep the skewer in place. It's working but I figure there's a better/more geeky way.
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