Yeah, maybe the remote control isn't that big of a deal. I hate having a feature I paid for not work though. Maybe I'll have to work on rolling my own.
What would be really cool is if you could make a system that just used like a 12-bit code over RF, and address any coupler on the layout. Each car could have a little radio board with a button battery (since it's just receiving) and wires to the fore and aft couplers. Using 12-bits allows for 4096 individual couplers, or 2048 cars and would be easy enough to set with a three digit hex code. Then at different places on the layout you'd just have a 4x4 hex keypad and you just enter the code and bam, it opens.
A slightly more human friendly way to do it would be to just use a regular 0-9 keypad. first two digits would be the train number 0-8 and next three would be for the car number then front or rear. That would allow for 9 trains of 128 cars each. You actually wouldn't even need to have every car with the remote couplers. Just the first and last in a "section" depending on the consist.
RE: grinding/snapping off the lobster claws - I would had to ruin all my trucks that way. I think it would kill resale value, and really needlessly destroy a somewhat pricey item.
