Please see my 2/22/2020 post for the solution to this issue which is drawn from the various comments received the last few days. John
I have several modern Lionel operating hopper cars from the 1980s such as the 6-6105 Reading from 1982 pictured here:
These cars are modeled after the postwar 3456. However, the 1980's versions have sprung trucks with the uncoupling tab in front of the leading axle of the truck as shown here (the silver discs in the picture):
The postwar 3456 (the black car in the above picture) has the uncoupling tab behind the axle. The result is that when the car is coupled to the ramp, the uncoupling magnet mounted on the 456 ramp that is used to uncouple the train from the hopper car (circled in this picture)
is positioned under the uncoupling tab on the postwar car and thus uncouples the car from the train, but the tab on the modern cars ends up in front of the magnet and does not activate to uncouple the train. Although somewhat hard to see, this picture shows the tab in front of the magnet:
Has anyone run into this issue and found a solution short of replacing the sprung trucks on the newer cars with postwar trucks? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks. John
