Using magnets between Lego Train Couplers

After having issues with decoupling I decided to try using magnets between the magnetic buffers. This is a pretty common solution. I found magnets that worked well and even matched the buffers black color. They will be linked below.
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For more information on the multi-unit / distributed power update to the PyBricks script I'm using check out this video which has links to the code
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[@BricksWorks]

That's why I like the old style buffers so much more. They have better magnets and don't get misaligned. But the trick with the magnet between the buffers is pretty neat.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

It works really well! Much cheaper than the old style buffers, I think I like the look of the newer ones as well. Still the old style were definitely better out of the box

[@White-Wolf1969]

I like the old style because you can take the magnets off the old style and use them with a 2x3 modified plate with hole (part 3176), because as soon as you start building MOCs 8-10 studs wide the 6 wide buffers look dumb. Plus for North American, Japanese, Chinese and some other country's trains they don't have buffers to begin with. I would love if Lego made actual knuckle couplers, I don't like the looks of the Kadee couplers on Lego MOCs. The owner of BrickTracks was looking into making some a few years ago but it seems he abandoned the idea, shame too because I liked the look of what he had designed.

[@LordPhobos6502]

​@@White-Wolf1969agreed, those knuckle couplers looked great.

[@insomniacbritgaming1632]

those are not buffers, those are couplers

[@BaileyChap]

@@insomniacbritgaming1632 the modern lego coupler pieces have buffers included in the single part.

[@LordPhobos6502]

If you end up with a REEEEEALLY heavy train, you'll want magnets between engines. But you'll know when that's needed because it'll split with fresh batteries. Super-impressed with those trixbrix traction bands, that second run was so much faster!

[@fluminox13]

I liked to connect the buffers with 2x1 plates/tiles

[@BrennanHuff_001]

That setup is convention worthy! Honestly wondering what’s next?!

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

I'm wondering that too, I've been sick 3 times since making this so I haven't made any layouts 🤦‍♂️. I have plans just need life to cut me a break 😅

[@holgerlunden4189]

Another way is to "eliminate" that, is have a motorised lokomotive at each end, so that the 1st pull on flat & uphill, & the 2nd push on the flat & uphill, & on the downhill the 1st brake, & the 2nd "try to" hold back. You could also have a 3rd, (motorised) or so, in the middle.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Yes distributed power would certainly solve the issue as well. For whatever reason it looks weird to me to see locomotives in the middle and on the end of trains. I've seen it in videos many times I've just never seen a train setup like that in real life 🤷‍♂️. I still may play with it in the future

[@GeneralHomsar]

@@BatteryPoweredBricks You've never seen distributed power in real life?

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Nope, only in videos. Some of them from videos made in my own city. But I've still never seen one 😅

[@UVACHeEngineer]

Move one of the powered locomotives to the end…ie one pulling and one pushing. Pretty sure I’ve seen this on Norfolk Southern trains. In the US it’s called a pusher and other countries a Banker. They are usually used in mountainous or steep gradient areas.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Yes, it's also called distributed power in the US. I never see these setups in real life even though I've seen videos of them running in my city. All I ever see is all the locomotives up front, so I guess that's why I think it looks best 😅

[@donbot5000]

easier to derail if you have any light cars ahead of the push. dp or distributed power is better. one up front one in middle with the lightest cars behind the second loco.

[@tld8102]

hahahah. that's kinda funny. I noticed the "Docker" container on the train

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Ikr, I had to order some stickers 😅. They are from the BrickStickerShop website along with plenty of other Maersk container stickers designs😁

[@DRUmBEaTTS]

I rub the couplers both up and down AND back and forth (or in a circular motion) and get a very strong bond between the couplers. I’ve run some very long trains since I started using this trick with no problems.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Yeah I didn't really have any issues until I started using the incline. They really tried to hold on 😅

[@ducky_the_helper]

When my locomotive pulled 40 8 wide wagons by itself we had neodymium magnets between every magnet and had no problems with the train separating

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Awesome!

[@LordPhobos6502]

Those magnets are great ❤ good work getting them in nlack as well! For big shows, our trsin club tends to go for 10x1mm or 10x2mm magnets, whether using old or new couplings. Works great with long freight trains. Or just technic bars to permacouple. I have a few long passenger trains, so I tend to use the black 1x2 tile on top and under the coupling - if I just do the bottom they will slip off. Having an engine at the back as well as the front helps too. And yep, 6 wide modeller here too ❤

[@ThunderStrike_Sim]

Video ideas: How to make a proper layout for Lego trains 😮 Longest lego train ❤ Making a self driving lego train

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Great ideas. I have plans for some larger trains / layouts but I think I will wait until the summer to release those. Views have been way down the past month which is fine seeing as many are simple tutorials. But I think broad appeal videos do better in the summer and around Christmas

[@holgerlunden4189]

And i also agree on/about the magnets.

[@BeansBricks]

What I used on my Passenger Express because its 5 cars long, the newer Lego magnets couldn't hold the cars together. So what I did was swap at one end of the cars? the new magnet with the old 12volt style, as they are stronger magnets.

[@blairleipst4508]

Perhaps making the incline a smidge longer will help too

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

That would basically require making the living room a smidge longer too 😅. By the end of the video I was very happy with the result

[@holgerlunden4189]

Yeah, i'm pretty sure they just don't have lok's in front, but also got at each end/front & middle/& front, middle & rear for real.

[@creepertrekker]

Someone made Lego knuckle couplers so it shouldn’t uncouple if u use those. Also u could make the slope less steep

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

The slope does need to be pretty steep. My living room in only so big 😅. The magnets were the perfect solution for me and was dirt cheap to implement. I have seen some coupler alternatives but I think it would cost a fortune for me to update some or all of my trains 😬

[@kopakaskoolkompanion]

Does your cat like to chase the trains as they go around? Mine does, it's good fun!

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

He's fairly indifferent to them for the most part. That may be due to his age

[@EliasLarsson-ck6qn]

If u dont have magnets u can just use 1x2 tiles on the newer couplers so u can have long trains without them disconnecting

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Yep, I used them in the haul video when I bought the bridge. It was just a pain to put them on. All of my layouts are temporary so I like it be able to take them apart from each other easily

[@silvesterpeel5379]

That is amazing. I noticed that the magnets in my Maersk are very soft. Where did you buy your container decals from?

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

BrickStickerShop. I have entire videos for the Maersk project. I pieced them all together from Bricklink and used dark azure instead of Maersk blue to save a fortune. I also didn't use the grey doors on the containers since they were only in the Maersk set and a couple VERY exclusive sets

[@MarkTheLostTraveler]

Are those MAERSK engines from the set or did you build those. I like the magnet info. Thank you.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

I pieced them together with parts from Bricklink, I have a series of videos showing how I did it

[@pastajensen]

5:12 You got to cocky... 😅 But it looked good at the end 🤘The bridge looks strong, how long do you think it can be without support? (BTW all videos needs a cat)

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

I should have listened to Han Solo 🤦‍♂️. I think it could be a good bit longer, the bridge is rock solid 💪

[@pastajensen]

@@BatteryPoweredBricksThanks!

[@cornelius131]

For me, LEGO did not do better than the old system with bare magnets. This new system with embedded magnets is stupid because the magnets are smaller in their plastic and they are separated by two plastic plates so their force is divided by two or even three.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

They also can get flipped into weird positions and have less pull. I did find recently that BlueBrixx couplers have stronger magnets so I may do more testing with them. It doesn't look like they sell them individually at this time

[@controllerpleb6568]

Love the video! I've never been much into trains irl, but Lego trains are cool. By the way your audio is clipping. I'm not sure what's causing it as I am by no means a sound expert, but it might be something to do with the settings you're using in your editing software.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

It's a really cheap mic, I've needed to upgrade it for some time. I have to boost it a bit and may have gone too far in this video 😅. Thanks for the feedback 👍

[@Umweltliteratur]

Nice fix! I tried replacing the magnets in weak non-LEGO buffers and the result was always that it's worse than LEGO buffers, even with strong magnets. I have no idea why that is but maybe your solution would help for those cases, too. Also, open for suggestions to source strong magnets in the EU from a reliable source. The "super strong" ones listed on Amazon are usually piss poor (what have you become, Amazon...).

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

The ones I got were from Amazon and worked great for me. The sizing seems to be very important, the 3 I got all performed very differently. I honestly wouldn't want a stronger connection than what I have with these, I want to be able to pull them apart 😅

[@piggyplayzmc93]

I just connect a 1x2 tile to the studs on the underside of the couplers

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Yep, I used them in the haul video when I bought the bridge. It was just a pain to put them on. All of my layouts are temporary so I like it be able to take them apart from each other easily

[@deaddevilxd8473]

I really like ur train set videos I want to ask u that will I able to get this in america shop or we get in the online like stockx Only one website was showing that we are able to get this but I feel little bit scared of money that’s why I want ask u 😢

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

I have videos showing how I put the full Maersk train set together along with any other trains I have. They aren't really available to buy in a store new unfortunately. The Maersk train was an official Lego set 13 years ago but it is highly sought after and very expensive. I bought the pieces individually and used pieces I already had to put them together. It did cost a fair amount but it was a lot cheaper than buying sets from collectors. There are some Chinese knock off sets for sale but they have many issues of their own, like awful electronics and the wheels have a lot of friction. Some buy these cheap sets and upgrade them with official Lego parts. I wish there was a simpler answer but there really isn't

[@davidstrachan734]

You could run your second power unit in the middle as real freight trains do, or at the rear.

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

Yes distributed power would certainly solve the issue as well. For whatever reason it looks weird to me to see locomotives in the middle and on the end of trains. I've seen it in videos many times I've just never seen a train setup like that in real life 🤷‍♂️. I still may play with it in the future

[@legomta-munipalssubways2762]

Interesting 🤔

[@goclunker]

If you put bearings on the wheels, you’ll get even more mileage

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

This is true, but a lot more work 😅. If anything maybe I could do just this train, and see how much it improves

[@goclunker]

@@BatteryPoweredBricks you can always just oil the wheel spindles