Magnets for Model Couplers?

[pgandw]

Basically, are there magnets strong enough to hold HO model trains together?

I was thinking magnets might be the answer. The pins would act like the prototype and keep the couplers lined up, but the magnets would be what holds the cars together. The question is, do they make magnets strong enough to hold two or three passenger cars together?

Rare earth magnets are both small enough and strong enough to be used to hold together a train. But...Consider the force required to separate cars that have a strong enough magnetic attraction to stay together under all running conditions on the layout. Any fixed magnet that is strong enough to hold when you want it to without failure is going to have too high a force to separate when you want to uncouple. An electromagnet can have its field intensity varied, but now you have the complication of both powering and controlling the electromagnet.

I am familiar with the use of magnets to hold the wooden Brio trains together. The magnets used are fairly weak so that the cars can be separated by little kids' hands when desired. But these weak magnets also mean the inadvertent uncouplings on occasion. Getting the correct magnetic force so that uncoupling is reasonable, yet the train won't come apart unless desired, would not be easy.

Fred W