As nice as kaydee's look and work let me propose a different angle here. this is comming from first hand exsperiance. first off yes truck mounted kd couplers work just fine on 036 curves and switches. the time and cost to convert all your rolling stock to kd couplers is really time consuming. not to mention all the DIY fabrication to get the kd couplers on the various manufacturers truck designs. this can somtimes be a real PITA let me tell you I know. also let me stress if you want to run on 036 or smaller radius track. truck mounting the kaydee couplers is the only way to be able use kaydee couplers body mounting is out of the question. now truck mounting the kaydees can be done and like I said works. I know because I tried this myself on various types of truck designs from different manufacturers. I was going to do just as you wish some time back. I also have 036 curves and switches. then I discovered this little $2.00 if that trick and I literally changed the way I operate my railroad.
I took a walmart $1.00 small led flash light and a piece of thick coat hanger type wire and a small piece of shrink tube, some black tape and wala. the picture in the first attchment should be very plane as to how to build my uncoupling tool. the u shape bend in the end of the wire is for uncoupling the hidden tab uncouping style trucks. the little piece of shrink wrap has two purposes. one it makes the tool look a little more professional and most important it helps the wire not to short out to the track when using it. also as a side advantage it helps not scuff your pieces of rolling stock when recoupling cars together.
Now the next two short videos show how to use the uncoupling device. you can use it with the flashlight on if you need to see between the cars when uncoupling them. when recoupling some cars together at slow switching speeds I place the uncoupling tool somewhere on the car I am coupling too and this holds the car or string of cars to help the stubborn lobster claws go together. this avoids the slamming effect as you mentioned.
I run legacy and mth engines with the mth dcs remote. I like the mth remote because I can have one hand for the remote and the other for the uncoupling/flashlight tool. I have been using this for over 6 months now and just love it. I found out after using this tool for a while that now I can switch almost any car made any where I can reach them. this I believe this would be ideal for a shelf layout with 036 curves. plus a one time cost of $2.00 is a lot less than $10.00 for a pack of kaydee's wich by the way is only enough for two cars. not to mention the mounting bracket parts you would need to have to fabricate for each brand of wheel sets. give this a try and if you dont like it then you can go the kd couple route. I bet like me once you try it and get the knack of it you will be glad you never wasted your money on kaydees. just my two cents.
