Model Forum / General / Railroads / May 2008

Hi,

there is a very large system with individual car control at
Miniatur-Wunderland in Hamburg/Germany. Google for it and look up their
Car-System pages.

However I should warn you, that (a) the english version might not be
very talkative (the german one isn't complete either) and (b) the system
is VERY complex. Probably there are some other sources as well?

Ciao...

My best solution is to use an HO railway track mounted on a "cookie
cutter" plywood roadbed 2"-3" under the visible layout.
A 4 wheel short wheelbased mechanisim (eg, a Spud unit) with plenty of
weight added and a sprung tower with a bar magnet can pull a vehicle on
a roadway above with a small magnet inside.
The two magnets will align so the topside vehicle will always point in
about the same direction as the track below.
I experimented with this system and achieved good operation through
6mm/1/4" ply and across railway crossings. (no steel rails!)
The road vehicle (Wiking plastic) needed more weight because if it
caught on less than smooth roadway it would stop momentarily and then
leap forward to catch up with the magnet below the baseboard.
Also cornering could have been improved with some form of castering for
the front axle, or perhaps lift the front axle clear of the roadway with
some form of castoring wheel or ball bearing underneath at the front.
This system requires there to be no cross members along the route of the
operating roadway, but as the roadway rail system base needs support, a
second cross member beneath the usual ones would do the job.
Curves down to a radius of about 6" would be practical. N scale track
and mechanisims might be more suitable, but running might not be so
smooth.
A shortcoming of this scheme is that vehicles can't pass in opposite
directions unless you get the size of magnets right.
Kadee underbaseboard magnets might be right for under the baseboard and
magnetic noticeboard rubber magnet for the vehicles, although the Kadee
magnet has it's poles at the sides rather than front-rear.
A yard trackmobile would need to drive around underbaseboard point
motors!

Regards,
Greg.P.

Why use railroad track?

Electric race sets could be used... and DCC chips installed in the cars.
Power it with a DCC system, and set the throttle speed where you want
it.

Just because race cars CAN go fast doesn't mean they MUST go fast.

It would be far easier to put a non-race body on a car chassis than it
would to build one onto a handcar.

Third party bodies can be fitted to Faller chassis (at least in HO),
although you may have difficulty if the vehicle you want is small. Although
you cannot control the speed of faller vehicles remotely, you can adjust the
speed by means of a varialbe resistor on the chassis. The vehicles are
stopped by a magnet placed under the track, so electromagnets can be used at
level crossing, loading docks, and the like.