Home-made uncoupling ramp for Bachmann Thomas couplers

[railtwister]

After a bit of experimenting, I've figured out a way to make some very inexpensive uncoupler ramps for anyone wishing to switch their Thomas HO/OO trains without having to resort to changing the couplers. First experiments using a piece cut from a common business card were promising but unsightly. The second experiment, using the business card as a pattern, involved using a piece of clear blister packaging and was much better looking (in fact, the ramp itself was hard to see), but the plastic proved to be too hard to adjust so that it would uncouple the cars without derailing them, due to it's extra stiffness and thickness (about .014"). While it would be nice to recycle a piece of clear packing material that costs nothing (and that's still a good option if you have the patience to find the right piece), I found a piece of clear Acetate that was .0075" thick at a local art store. It was really too large to justify purchasing it just to use for uncoupling ramps, but the leftovers can be used for windows in cars or structures, so at least it won't go to waste. I found that this thickness of acetate was just right, being just stiff enough to raise the coupler trip levers, yet flexible enough to deform when the travel limit of the lever was reached, rather than derailing the car. If you want to try to make your own uncoupler ramps, you might find suitable clear plastic in the window of a display box, or possibly in the clear cover variety of duo-tang (are they still called that?) report folders, now that school's out.  My final ramp measures 7/16" wide by 2-7/8" long, but these dimensions are not that critical. The critical dimension is the spacing of the mounting holes in the ramp, which needs to be about 1/16" longer than the distance between the mounting holes in the ties of your track (2-5/8" in my case). I used an 0-80 brass screw at each end of the ramp to secure it to the ties. This dimension will likely vary between different brands of track, I made my test ramps to fit some old code 100 Atlas snap-track which I had on hand, but similar methods should work with any brand of track, such as: Bachmann EZ-track, Kato Uni-track, and Peco Streamline track, etc. A photo can be seen at the following link:

http://s606.photobucket.com/albums/tt143/lenstwister/?action=view&current=Thomas_uncoupler_ramp.jpg

Regards,
Bill Nielsen
Oakland Park, FL USA