I find that Rix Products uncoupling tools are, while not always perfect, useful.
I seen those on sale on Walthers website but wasnt sure how well they worked so I didnt get one. Ill have to consider one of these.
All metal cars can be a PITA since the tool wants to stick to the cars - makes it tricky to get the tool in between the cars and back out without derailing a car. Otherwise, it works pretty good. I slip it between the cars and give it a little fore and aft movement and it uncouples the cars pretty easy enough. A slight nudge with the tool then separates the cars.
Bamboo skewer
I have a small plastic stick with a notch at the end that works well. Assuming the cars arent knocked off the track by someone being careless. Sometimes it is just easier to lift the car a bit and rerail it.
You mean skew the guy in the way. LOLYep, and Rex has a nice collection of color coded skewers, which are great for operating sessions. You can use them to uncouple cars or poke the guy who's train is in your way.
Interesting that the poll results show that over 64% of modeler's uncouple all their trains manually. If we factor in the "Combination" option, that's probably closer to 70% that use some kind of manual uncoupling. I did not think that it would be that high.