Interesting design concept

Neat
 
That's a great idea - but why couldn't it serve the function of the mechanical coupling as well?

Except maybe the maximum practical force to pull it apart is less that that required to form a reliable coupling in the first place - dunno? .... :)
 
I tried a year ago PEHO KKK (Kurz-Kupplungs-Kulisse / Close Coupler Motion Link) , they offer it with and without cable so for test reasons I purchased this:
http://peho-kkk.de/mshop/index.php/spur-tt/kupplungen/magnetkupplung.html
At the end - it did not work reliably for G-Scale... The magentic force depends strongly on the alignment of the small magnets, and the more "guidance" for the magnets the less freedom of movement has the coupler which leads on pointworks to decoupling effects.

Maybe the gimbal-/ cardanic-mounted LEGO-couplers are much stronger and easier to align: https://www.1000steine.de/de/gemeinschaft/forum/?entry=1&id=332256
 
Interestingly Peter Yatton's 16 mm laser cut rolling stock kits, at least the Darjeeling 4 wheel baggage wagon I have, offer a similar optional supplied coupling system. They are fitted with a "Magnabar" coupling rod that utilizes small end-on neodymium magnets to couple wagons together, with an embedded wire to act as a conductor to which wires can be soldered.

It is suggested that you can use this to pass a current between wagons, using the rails to provide a return to complete the circuit. Given they have insulated wheels it would appear you will need to add your own "wipers" to the wheels, which are not supplied. It's a feature not noted in their kit descriptions for some reason. Max.


Here is the coupling described. You can just about make out wher I have clipped the wire off the coupling bar.
 
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Nothin' new under the sun eh....

Magnets sound good to me although the automatic decoupling process would need to be considered also. I use the auto de-coupler a lot.
 
Interestingly Peter Yatton's 16 mm laser cut rolling stock kits, at least the Darjeeling 4 wheel baggage wagon I have, offer a similar optional supplied coupling system. They are fitted with a "Magnabar" coupling rod that utilizes small end-on neodymium magnets to couple wagons together, with an embedded wire to act as a conductor to which wires can be soldered.

It is suggested that you can use this to pass a current between wagons, using the rails to provide a return to complete the circuit. Given they have insulated wheels it would appear you will need to add your own "wipers" to the wheels, which are not supplied. It's a feature not noted in their kit descriptions for some reason. Max.


Here is the coupling described. You can just about make out wher I have clipped the wire off the coupling bar.
Nothin' new under the sun eh....

Magnets sound good to me although the automatic decoupling process would need to be considered also. I use the auto de-coupler a lot.
These Magnetic Couplings that Max has shown were written about a long time ago in the Forum, perhaps even Mad Days. There was a 16mm Trader selling them as couplings. I got some from Maplin to play around with but found that the effort tomuncouple them was pretty tricky at best. Though Auto Coupling was great. This would all have been early part of the years 2000's.

As for passing current between coaches there is a germ of an idea here that has been bubbling around in my single celled nut for a while now. Small Rare Earth Magnets attached (can you solder to a Magnet without destroying it?) to very soft wire perhaps the stuff used for 00 Gauge Chips. This is then run via pipes of Heat Shrink to look like Vac Pipes 2 at each end. These hang down hopefully with enough flop to keep attached to the next vehicle but not the same pipe at the same end of a vehicle for obvious reasons. I feel that a prompt to couple up the pipes with a screwdriver would work better as this could then be not too strong to act as a coupling so that vehicles could be separated with ease.

Oh re the interesting design concept, could not see the pics on my iPad.
 
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