The track is now in its final position with all points laid and track cut to length, station area and goods yard laid out. Just pinned, not glued down yet.
Incidentally, half of it is code 100 GEM Flexi-trak, which I bought as a
25-yard package in 1966. Not sure if the present owners of GEM still make it, I suspect not as it isn't advertised. The chair detail leaves something to be desired but the sleepers are wider and set further apart than Streamline, so the track looks better. Has a sort of EM look about it, which I like. The other half is code 100 Streamline. But I digress.Before I glue down the track and points I need to think about point control and uncoupling. Point control will be wire-in-tube and no problem. As for uncoupling, I want automatic not hand in the sky. Most of my stock has tension lock couplers but they look awful and will have to be replaced. But with what? I like the look of Kadee, because most alternatives (I've looked at Dingham and Sprat & Winkle) look no more prototypical than tension lock.
Last year at Warley a couple of helpful bystanders from a club recommended the Kadee no. 308 magnetic uncoupler, so I bought one. It's designed to sit under the track. Trouble is that with the intensifier plate it's nigh on ¼" thick. My track is laid on 4mm thick cork sheet on top of MDF so the 308 is too high even with the cork cut away. A common recommendation is to remove the top laminate of your plywood but this won't work with MDF.
Another possibility is the Kadee no. 321 "between the rails" uncoupler. I'm inclined to go for this but the two guys at Warley said the magnet wasn't as strong as the 308 and in their experience often failed to do the business.
All thoughts and suggestions, on this topic or the meaning of life, will be most welcome.