Many years ago the late Ed Ravenscroft had a beautiful operating hump yard on his HO layout in Glencoe, IL. It got a big write-up in Model Railroader around 1961/62. Ed modeled the retarders on the tracks but they were non-working, at each one he used a puff of compressed air (triggered by a relay) to slow the cars as they rolled downgrade from the hump. You could use the same method in O gauge, or maybe use toothbrush heads (or something similar from the hardware store) to slow the cars by rubbing the bristles against the wheel flanges as they pass through your retarder.
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