Fred
.....And as a conductor always had to "reach in". So not doing w/ Kadees kind of takes the fun away. Same goes w/ lining up Kadees on curves!
That's a matter of individual taste - and I probably should have written it that way.
Some - obviously including you - feel more like the prototype by reaching in and doing things manually, the same as on the prototype.
Others - and I favor this point of view - see the non-scale hand and arm reaching into the scene as distracting from the realism. Neither is right or wrong.
From a practical point of view:
- the hands-off approach requires more extensive and expensive infrastructure - uncoupling magnets or electromagnets, remote turnout throws, etc.
- hands-off approach to couplers puts a premium on very low speed running of locomotives, clean track, and tight tolerances on coupler mounting and centering. The Kadee delayed uncoupling dance is not realistic.
- the manual approach doesn't work in all situations. The reach in distance can be too far. Scenery and details can get in the way and broken. The Sergent wand doesn't work with passenger car diaphrams and very close coupling of cars. Cars can be derailed while positioning the Sergent coupler (same with Kadee coupler picks or skewers).
my thoughts, your choices