G`day Folks, Welcome to another edition of Gormo`s Shed. As you will see in the video, I am using Brian Kirby`s method of magnetic uncoupling for tension lock couplers. I have gone down this road with a video, quite some time back now, and until now, I had taken it no further than the testing stage. A couple of the Just Running Trains series involve trains shunting and running about and seemingly uncoupling wagons with ease. As most of you will already know, these feats of seamless uncoupling are achieved through the magic of stop motion photography, one of the many cinematic tricks or illusions or devices, if you like, employed by gormoVision Studios, in their quest to produce first rate entertainment for Toto and his buddies and the world at large. These tricks however, have caught some viewers unawares and prompted these people to ask me about my uncoupling methods. I then have to fess up and admit that they were tricks of photography. I dread to think how many punters have been absolutely shattered ,when they`ve found out the truth behind the magic.........Oh dear.???? So folks, I thought it was time to bite the bullet and get this thing sorted out so that future Just Running Trains shunting videos will be the real McCoy This video is a warts and all presentation, as part of it is flawed, as you will see in due course. Enjoy the video, and if you have any technical questions, just fire away.!!! There must be somebody on this forum that knows how these things work... Magnetic Uncoupling on YouTube http://www.clickGormo
Like the height gauge, good idea I was bending the staple around the dropper bit of the coupling and then gluing. Invariably ended up at slightly different heights, so ended up adjusting nearly every one by bending the staple. Ed
Thanks Ed, Yes the height gauge makes a big difference. Originally when I was soldering the staples on, I would butt the staple up under the hook and therefore achieve a degree of uniformity. The staple sat higher up from the track though and didn`t respond as positively as it does now. It`s all down to distances and power of the magnets etc. as you well know, having used this system yourself. The soldering method was too time consuming though, so the best thing was to go back to gluing. With the height gauge in place it really is quite simple although a delicate little operation. As you can see from the video, don`t be in too much of a hurry to start shunting with the wagon....let the glue dry first Gormo... Placing the magnets between the sleepers also helps keep them in place better but I am Supergluing them as well just to make sure. I am currently trialing 4 magnets......2 each end with a gap of two sleepers in the middle. It works but it needs a good deal of fine control with DC, so I`ll probably go back to 6 just to make life easy. I think the first thing anybody trying this should do, is to experiment with it and find what works best for them, because there will be differences in magnets and staples from country to country and railway to railway.........Murphy`s Law. http://www.clickGormo
Another quality video Gormo. Your coupler height setting gauge is fantastic, well thought out and extremely simple. Great stuff. Just curious.., have you had a staple fall off the coupler drop down bar ?? Cheers, Gary.
G`day Gary, Not yet mate........it`s early days though.? The thing is though that there is no load on them compared to the strength of the glue, so they should hold for a good while. I also give the dropper a bit of a scrape to key the surface a little and give the glue a bit more to hang onto. Then of course another drop over the top of the two joined components to seal the deal. I`ve bent a couple of them up and down to adjust them and the glue holds quite well. If you were to bend them back and forwards sideways they would part with the dropper though. http://www.clickGormo
The reason for me asking this is that if there are modellers running dcc, and are thinking of the system of uncoupling, there would be issues with shorting the system if a staple came off. Then again, I won't tell you how many times I have had points set incorrectly and the train stops dead in its tracks whilst using dcc... Luckily it resets within no time once I have realised my mistake ! Cheers, Gary.
Gormo. Another great 'how to' practical video. It appears there still needs to be a certain degree of accuracy in positioning the rolling stock to ensure both hooks are up at the same time? If that's the case, do you think using a rectangular magnet with the sleeper middles cut away might be a solution? A quick look at E Bay and I found some 8mm long x 3mm wide x 1mm thick magnets - perhaps 3 or 4 of those in line might ensure both hooks remain up at the same time? Cheers Dave C
That's not a bad idea with the 8mm x 3mm x 1mm magnets. Just wondering if the pull of polarity is the same on the long sides or would you need to determine which side is the strongest ?? Then again, if the magnets were a twice the thickness, you could completely cut out the sleepers and use the magnets as 'look-a-like' sleepers, instead of having them set in between... Cheers, Gary.
Terrific Gormo. I'll watch it again tomorrow when I have my hearing aids in as I'm in my kip at the moment so could only watch the motion version. I take my hearing aids out as my ears need a break from them at night. Great way of blocking out SWMBO as well. Looks the biz as always. Toto
Thanks Guys, Yes I think the rectangular magnets may indeed give a constant attraction as opposed to the intermittent result with the round magnets. It certainly is worth an experiment and I will order some off the net shortly. A certain amount of fine control is required with the method as it is at the moment, however in saying that, it is not at all difficult with modern day locos. I have a little Hornby Jinty that can crawl along on DC, so not really a problem. DCC would be even better. The main thing is that it works and works well. Anything from now on is improvement and refinement. http://www.clickGormo
G`day Folks, Here`s an update and a bit of a teaser. A few posts back on this topic Dave C wrote: I took on board what Dave said about rectangular magnets and looked into it and eventually ordered some on the Bay. They are 15mm x 3mm x 2mm. They arrived today and I have been doing some testing with very pleasing results, however when you actually have these things in front of you, I guess the brain really kicks in and you start to experiment with different possibilities. Well two things have come out of my experiments ( sounds like a mad professor ???) and one of them was purely by accident. They involve firstly, a slightly different way of going about setting up the magnets and the staples, as opposed to the method in the video video above. Secondly a whole new approach to delayed uncoupling, which in my humble opinion will be a game changer. I am still testing it out....,it works and it works every time. I still can`t believe I didn`t see it before but there you are.......sometimes you need a nudge from a guy named Dave to bring these things into play. So I am confident the delayed uncoupling will continue to work but I want to be sure before I blurt it out to the world. So testing, testing, testing is the order of the day. The main thing is that it will give me great pleasure to announce it here on this forum.....the world wide release of the information from our humble little group of gentle folk. Stay tuned folks......I hope to have it in Gormo`s Shed this week. http://www.clickGormo
Great how to video Gormo , regarding the delayed uncoupling with tension locks, I saw a layout at a show and the operator had used a method of delayed uncoupling that I copied, it involved extending the staple dropper in front of the hook dropper, it worked 'ok' ish as long as the loco didn't stutter and the uncoupling and propelling was done on a straight track, I decided it was more trouble than it was worth, hopefully your method will be more successful. Cheers, Pete. Took a photo of a couple of wagons I have left over to illustrate what I did. Pete.
Thanks for that Pete, I should have mentioned my method is not set up on individual wagons but rather just between the shunting loco and any wagon. The shunting loco is set up for the process and does allow the wagons to be pushed around curved track etc. and dropped where required. In the past I had a T bar system worked out on the loco. It held the wagon coupling up and allow delayed uncoupling, but this new method is simpler and easier. The old version is shown in the video links. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG0nvME8dnw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJSXJZ5P0Ug Having each wagon fitted to allow universal delayed uncoupling may develop out of this but my brain cells are struggling with it at the moment.......but!!!!!.....now you`ve got me thinking about it once again. http://www.clickGormo
Your not just good looks Gormo! Great system, so I'm off up to the shed to do some modifications. Andrew Sandbar & Mudcrab Railway
The problem with the method I used was if you propelled the wagons round a curve (even quite shallow ones) the extended wire slipped off the coupling bar and they recoupled, also if the loco stuttered, on points or not so clean track, the same happened, it was very frustrating, it took the pleasure out of it. Cheers, Pete.
OK Guys, I`ve cracked it.......it works but as I said before I`m only working on delayed shunting between the loco and the wagon, however it will raise the coupling hook when passing over the magnets without stopping and continue on with it raised through points and around bends until you decide to stop and pull the loco away. I have to make a video now so you probably won`t see it until Sunday night Oz time. I have other things to do as well. http://www.clickGormo
Hi Gormo, Just joined Platform 1 and am working my way through Gormo's shed videos. Am interested in using your version of the method of magnetic uncoupling but am unsure of which couplings to order. I know you said they were Bachmann's but do you have the codes. Love the videos. regards Jim