January 25, 2020 Mel's Magnetic Uncoupler

My original post November 2017 on my magnetic uncoupler disappeared from my Blog.

The Kadee between the rails uncoupling magnet works very good, almost too good so I fixed it.

I decided to make the magnet drop down below the track out of range of the coupler "hose" to prevent the influence of the magnet field.

I cut away the ties between the rails so that the magnet could move freely.

Next I built a box to hold the moving magnet.

So far so good

I cut out a .08" thick piece of Styrene sheet the exact size of the magnet and drilled a hole in the center for the moving support rod.  I sleeved the hole in the bottom of the box so that the rod would be able to move up and down with a precision movement.

 

As the rod is steel music wire and not easily soldered  I super glued a small ring of the brass tubing as the lift point of the moving magnet.

I attached a dual coil (latching) switch machine to the box to lift the magnet to the proper operating level.

I built a second Mel Uncoupler and both have worked flawlessly for three years.