An important driver of evolution on the Plywood Empire route has been the car-stoppers I invented and deployed at remote uncoupler locations. I put up a Topic laying out the whole story here:
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...85#90547142152123785
so I'll just summarize here. After running Lionel PWC NW2s the Plywood Empire Route recently acquired three MTH PS3 SW1500s and a new era has begun. With speed control these engines make switching moves at a [scale] walking speed possible. Unfortunately Lionel “claw” couplers require a lot of force to couple so they need more like an Olympic sprinter’s speed and that defeats the realism of slow-speed switching. A switch to Kadee couplers would solve the problem BUT the only space available for a return loop/interchange track/fiddle yard requires an O31 circle so truck-mounted couplers must be used and no one yet offers a way to mount Kadees on MTH freight trucks. So I’m stuck with crash-coupling claws. What was needed was "brakes" for standing cars so I assembled and installed several such devices.
The basic bit is a Circuitron Tortoise slow-motion switch machine. It actuates a 5/32" brass tube which is fitted inside a larger 3/16" piece of tubing. The 3/16" tube is friction-fitted and hot glued and the whole assembly is attached to the underside of the plywood decking:
Installed in the roadbed adjacent to an electromagnetic uncoupler, it looks like this:
In the raised position:
This is how it works:
The train approaching from the left is able to couple slowly because the tank car's truck-frame is securely stopped against the raised brass plunger.
Anyway, the thing is that because coupling became suddenly so easy and reliable switching became so much more satisfying and entertaining and this in turn drove Operations to evolve in the direction of more and more switching. While I am also a Looper with no intension of doing so, by now I could do away with the traditional train-watching and still have a satisfying pastime of operating an exclusively switching pike.
