Patent Application
20050199570
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to magnetic couplers that magnetically couple two adjacent model railroad cars positioned on a section of model railroad track, and an apparatus that selectively uncouples the two magnetically coupled model railroad cars.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In the hobby of model railroading there is a large group of enthusiasts that are interested in the collection, assembly and operation of smaller sized or smaller scaled model railroad layouts. Be it a desire for a model railroad layout that does not require a large expanse of space, or the challenge of assembling a realistic looking model railroad layout in a smaller scale or size, in recent years the trend in model railroading has been toward the increasing popularity of smaller and smaller scales or sizes. A first popular scale was the “O” scale, or 1:48 scale. Then came the “HO” scale, or the 1:87 scale. This was followed by the “N” scale or 1:160 scale, which was followed by the “Z” scale, or 1:220 scale.
Although the trend in model railroading has been toward the smaller and smaller scales, it has continued to be a desire of model railroaders to assemble and operate a lifelike looking model railroad. With increasingly smaller scales of model railroad cars and railroad tracks, the desire for realistic looking model railroad cars has led to some difficulties in the operating of the model railroad layouts. For example, as the scale or size of model railroad cars decreases, the size of the couplers that releasably connect adjacent model railroad cars on a section of model railroad track must also decrease to maintain a realistic appearance of the model railroad cars. The reliable operation of the couplers of model railroad cars has always been a problem in the operation of model railroad layouts, and as the scales have gotten smaller these problems have become more pronounced.
The problems encountered with the reliable operation of smaller model railroad cars exist because, as the scale of the model railroad cars gets smaller and smaller, the need for the precise construction and assembly of the coupler component parts increases proportionately. Furthermore, this is true not only in the construction of model railroad cars and their couplers, but is also true in the construction of the model railroad track and in the quality of the laying of the track in a model railroad layout. For mechanical couplers or nonmagnetic couplers of model railroad cars to work well, each individual coupler of the pair to be connected must be properly aligned, both vertically and horizontally, with every other pair of couplers in use. It can easily be seen that as the scale of the model railroad cars gets smaller and smaller, this becomes more and more difficult. Irregularities in model railroad track, the dimensional tolerances of the wheels, trucks, and couplers of the model railroad cars, and the thermal stability of the model railroad track all get more critical as the scale decreases. In addition, as the scale of the model railroad cars gets smaller, the forces needed to operate the mechanical couplers pose a greater risk of causing a derailment of the cars.
In efforts to reduce the problems encountered with the operation of model railroad car couplers, manufacturers of the mechanical types of couplers that employ two or more moving parts have, in some cases, increased the size of the magnetic coupler relative to the scale of the model railroad car. However, this has the disadvantage of giving up the realism of the appearance of the railroad car and its couplers. In addition, some mechanical couplers have been designed that can only couple and uncouple along straight lengths of track or along only slightly curved lengths of track, sacrificing the realism of the functioning of the mechanical couplers.
Another factor demonstrating the need for model railroad car couplers that function with increased reliability is the increase in computer controlled model railroad layouts. Computer controlled model railroad layouts tend to be more unattended by the individual(s) operating the layout. Therefore, computer controlled layouts require a very high degree of reliability in all aspects of the functioning of the model railroad car couplers.
The difficulties encountered in the functioning of mechanical model railroad car couplers for the smaller scale model railroad cars have been addressed by the design of model railroad car couplers that use cooperating magnetic fields to form the releasable connection between adjacent model railroad cars. Model railroad car couplers that use cooperating magnetic fields have been found to be far more reliable in coupling and uncoupling operations, but have not achieved popularity primarily because they have tended to be large in size relative to the scale of the model railroad cars, and are often complex in construction.
Another disadvantage associated with model railroad car magnetic couplers is that many require that the two adjacent model railroad cars coupled by the magnetic couplers be grasped manually and pulled apart from each other in order to uncouple the magnetic couplers. Alternatively, a wedging tool is sometimes used by inserting the tool between the adjacent coupled cars and manually applying sufficient force to physically wedge the model railroad cars apart, uncoupling the magnetic couplers. These procedures can result in causing damage to the constructions of the model railroad cars being uncoupled, or in unwanted derailments of one or both of the cars. These procedures also require direct intervention by the model railroad operator at each pair of railroad cars being uncoupled. The procedures are inconvenient in manually operated model railroad layouts, and are undesirable for computer controlled model railroad layouts.
What is needed to overcome the disadvantages associated with the couplers of smaller scale model railroad cars is an improved coupling and uncoupling system that is self-aligning, and can operate reliably when manually unattended to couple or uncouple adjacent model railroad cars without causing damage to the cars or derailments of the cars.
The model railroad car magnetic coupling and uncoupling system of the invention overcomes the disadvantages associated with prior art model railroad car coupling and uncoupling systems. The system of the invention is basically comprised of pairs of cooperating magnetic couplers that have unique and simplified constructions, and an uncoupler mechanism that is mounted beneath a section of model railroad track and operates automatically to separate the magnetic couplers of two adjacent model railroad cars positioned on the section of track.
Each magnetic coupler of a pair of magnetic couplers of the system is the same. Each coupler is comprised of a drawbar having a proximal end that mounts the coupler to an end of a model railroad car for pivoting movement of the coupler about a vertical axis. A socket with a socket cavity is provided at a distal end of the drawbar that projects from the model railroad car. A permanent magnet is secured in the socket cavity. A magnetic surface of the permanent magnet faces outwardly from the cavity. The permanent magnet is positioned in the socket cavity so that portions of both the positive and negative magnetic poles of the magnet are exposed at the magnetic surface. For example, the left half of the magnetic surface would have positive polarity or be the north half of the surface, and the right half of the magnetic surface would have negative polarity or be the south half of the surface. The polarities of the magnetic surfaces could also be reversed with the negative polarity on the left half of the magnetic surface and the positive polarity on the right half of the magnetic surface. For each of the magnetic couplers employed in the system, the positioning of the positive and negative polarity areas on the magnetic surface is the same. Thus, when two magnetic couplers are brought toward each other to connect the exposed magnetic surfaces of each of the couplers, the positive polarity area of one coupler will be opposite the negative polarity area of the other coupler, and the positive polarity area of the other coupler will be opposite the negative polarity area of the one coupler. With this arrangement of the permanent magnets of the magnetic couplers, the same magnetic couplers can be used at the opposite ends of each of the model railroad cars of the model railroad layout.
The uncoupler mechanism comprises a slide housing that is mounted beneath a section of the model railroad track by a pivot connection for pivoting movement about a horizontal axis relative to the track section. A slide arm is mounted to the slide housing for sliding, reciprocating movement of the slide arm along the length of the slide housing. The slide housing has a post that projects upwardly toward the railroad track section and the slide arm also has a post that projects upwardly toward the railroad track section.
The uncoupler mechanism also includes an elongate link that is connected to the slide housing at one end and to a bell crank arm at the opposite end. The bell crank arm is driven in rotation by an electric motor. A control circuit operates the electric motor, causing the motor to rotate the bell crank arm one complete rotation each time the control circuit is activated.
In an at rest condition of the uncoupler mechanism, both the slide housing post and slide arm post are positioned side-by-side beneath the track section. With a pair of adjacent model railroad cars positioned on the track section so that the magnetic couplers of the cars are positioned above the slide housing post and slide arm post, the control circuit of the uncoupler mechanism is actuated to automatically uncouple the magnetic couplers and separate the pair of model railroad cars.
On actuation of the control circuit, the motor begins rotation of the bell crank arm which, through the connection of the elongate link, causes the slide housing and slide arm to pivot upwardly together about the slide housing pivot connection. This positions both the slide housing post and the slide arm post above the rails of the track section and between the pair of adjacent model railroad cars coupled by their magnetic couplers. Continued rotation of the bell crank arm causes the elongate link to slide the slide arm relative to the slide housing. This causes the slide housing post and the slide arm post to separate from each other between the rails of the model railroad track segment. The slide housing post comes into engagement with one of the coupled model railroad cars and the slide arm post comes into engagement with the other of the coupled model railroad cars. Continued separation of the slide housing post and the slide arm post pushes the pair of coupled model railroad cars apart and uncouples their magnetic couplers. As the bell crank arm is continued to be rotated through one complete rotation by the motor, the slide housing post and slide arm post move back toward each other and the slide housing is pivoted downwardly, positioning the slide housing post and slide arm post side-by-side beneath the model railroad track section in the at rest position of the uncoupler mechanism.
Thus, the magnetic couplers of the invention and the uncoupler mechanism of the invention provide a coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad cars that is both unique and simplified in construction, yet provides reliable coupling and uncoupling of model railroad cars without requiring manual assistance and without potentially causing damage to the model railroad cars or derailment of the model railroad cars.
Further features of the invention are set forth in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and in the drawing figures wherein:
The model railroad car magnetic coupling and uncoupling system of the invention is designed for use with the large variety of model railroad cars and model railroad track currently available, but is primarily designed for use with the smaller scale model railroad cars and track. The design of the magnetic couplers and the uncoupling system is well suited for use in the smaller scale model railroad cars and enables the use of more realistic appearing couplers with these cars. It should be understood that by referring to model railroad cars in the detailed description to follow, it is intended that the use of the magnetic coupling and uncoupling system of the invention not be limited to use with any particular type of model railroad car, or any particular size or scale of model railroad car.
A pair of leaf springs 36 are integrally formed at the draw bar proximal end 26 and project outwardly at angles around the pivot ring 32, as shown in
A hollow socket 46 is formed integrally at the draw bar distal end 28. The socket 46 has a hollow cavity 48 that is recessed into the end face of the socket. The exterior surface of the socket 46 is shown having a general cubic configuration. The exterior surface could be configured to give the socket 46 a more realistic appearance to that of an actual railroad car coupler. The socket cavity 48 also has a cubic configuration, but could also be given different shaped configurations.
A permanent magnet 52 is secured in the socket cavity 48 by adhesives or other equivalent means. The permanent magnet 52 is dimensioned so that it substantially fills the socket cavity 48 with a magnetic surface 54 of the permanent magnet facing outwardly from the socket cavity 48. In the preferred embodiment the magnetic surface 54 is curved or convex horizontally and projects slightly outwardly from the socket cavity 48. However, the surface could be flat. The permanent magnet 52 is positioned in the socket cavity so that portions of both the positive 56 and negative 58 magnetic poles of the magnet are exposed at the magnetic surface. As shown in
In an alternate embodiment of the magnetic couplers 18, 22, one of the permanent magnets could be replaced with other types of magnetic materials. These would be arranged in a left side and right side arrangement as shown in
The model railroad car magnetic coupling and uncoupling system of the invention also comprises an uncoupler mechanism 64 that is mounted beneath a section of model railroad track 66 such as that shown in
The slide housing 82 is shown disassembled from the uncoupler mechanism 64 in
The slide arm 82 has a similar construction to the slide housing 82 in that it is constructed from an elongate, flat material such as thin sheet metal or molded plastic. It is constructed with a rectangular, elongate slide arm base 124 having a proximal end 126 and an opposite distal end 128. The slide arm is formed with a downwardly projecting tab 132 at its proximal end 126. A pivot pin 134 is provided on the tab 132. A slide arm post 136 projects upwardly from the top edge of the slide arm distal end 128.
The electric motor 86 is mounted on the uncoupler mechanism support 74 adjacent the distal ends of slide housing 82 and the slide arm 84. The bell crank arm 92 has a length with opposite first 142 and second 144 ends, and is mounted to the electric motor shaft 138 intermediate its opposite ends. The first end 142 of the bell crank arm 92 is provided with a cam surface.
The elongate link 88 has a first end 146 that is pivotally connected to the pivot pin 134 on the slide arm tab 132. The opposite end 148 of the elongate link 88 is pivotally connected to the second end 144 of the bell crank arm 92.
The control circuit 94 connects the electric motor 86 to a separate power source 152. A power supply conductor 154 extends between the power source 152 and the electric motor 86. A return conductor 156 extends from the electric motor 86 through a bypass connection 158 and returns to the power source 152. A secondary conductor 162 is connected to the return conductor 156 between the electric motor 86 and the bypass connection 158. The secondary conductor 162 extends through a switch 164 before returning to the power source 152.
To initiate an uncoupling operation of the uncoupler mechanism 64, an individual or computer operating the mechanism first closes the bypass connection 158 that bypasses the open switch 164. This allows current to flow to the electric motor 86 which begins to rotate the bell crank arm 92 from its position shown in
Due to the bias of the spring 108, the upper slide housing stop 118 remains in contact with the slide arm post 136 and both the slide housing 82 and the slide arm 84 begin to rotate in a counterclockwise direction around the pivot pin 76 of the uncoupler mechanism support 74. This causes both the slide housing post 122 and the slide arm post 136 to move upwardly through the elongate slot 68 of the track section 66 to a position between the two adjacent model railroad cars 12,14 until top edges of the slide housing 82 and slide arm 84 engage against the underside of the track section 66.
At this point, because the slide housing 82 and slide arm 84 can no longer rotate upwardly relative to the track section 66, continued rotation of the motor shaft 138 and the bell crank arm 92 causes the elongate link 88 to pull the slide arm 84 relative to the slide housing 82, moving the slide arm 84 to the right of the slide housing 82 as shown in
As the bell crank arm continues to rotate beyond 180 degrees, the movement of the slide arm 84 relative to the slide housing 82 and the rotation of the slide arm 84 and slide housing 82 is reversed. The rotation of the bell crank arm 92 continues until it approaches it position shown in
As explained above, the magnetic couplers 18, 22 of the invention and the uncoupler mechanism 64 of the invention provide a coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad cars that is both unique and simplified in construction, yet provides reliable coupling and uncoupling of model railroad cars without requiring manual assistance and without potentially causing damage to the model railroad cars or derailment of the model railroad cars.
Although the magnetic coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad rolling stock has been described above by reference to a particular embodiment of the system, it should be understood that modifications and variations may be made to the system without departing from the intended scope of protection provided by the following claims.
