I use Kadee's as well as their magnets. I ended up cutting the metal plate into strips slightly wider than the magnets. I glue the magnet to the metal strip then to the wooden ties. I wasn't about to rip up ballasted track to install per instructions. Got the idea from Forum member Cape Cod Northern. As far as how they work. Pretty good. The trip pins must be right on the money. I can uncouple and delay couple reliably with about 80 percent of my cars. There are always those that don't seem to work as well. If your persistent I'm sure you can get them all to work properly. The majority are the older 805's. The 3railcouplers are probably more reliable as far as getting the cars uncoupled. Where the Kadee's really shine is making up trains. You can couple one car without moving it.
A pic of 2 Kadee magnets in the yard. About the same look as the Gargraves. The beauty of the Kadee's is they require no wiring.
Wow! That is a NICE layout!
If I understand you correctly-- the standard Lionel couplers uncouple very well-- but you have to "bump" cars together to get them to couple, whereas the Kadees couple together with very little force involved.
I am glad to see that it is possible to install Kadee magnets "after the fact"-- so if I wanted to upgrade to Kadees in the future I don't have to tear the track up. Thanks for the info.
