Garden Railway Forum

Does operating it via a computer enable you to operate the points by radio control? Rik Depends what you mean by "radio" control. The software i am using is Train Control from Freiwald https://www.freiwald.com/pages/traincontroller.htm Its probably total overkill using it to just change p...

4 x 3mm LED's wired in parellel for the feather
Had to add a 100 Ohm resistor into the 12v feed of the feather otherwise it lights up most of the garden

Beginnings of a version with directional feather / route indicator

Initial testing using the controller which has the forward speed as either ON or OFF looks promising.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UmSEpGXHsRk[/video]

Once taped down the whole thing was covered in red gaffer tape and black dashed lines drawn to show the line of the groove / wire / pins.

At this point the car would not stick to the track at all.... this is when i discovered for some reason i had ordered Aluminium wire.... non-magnetic!
So a temporary solution was to fill the groove with steel panel pins and tape back down.

Next came making a test track by cutting a groove in a wooden board, running a metal wire through it and covering with tape to keep it all in place.

Initial progress has been to purchase two of the same vehicle. IMG_20221115_204824_635.jpg Open it up, remove parts of the steering system and replace with a 3D printed guide arm with magnet. It really did end up being quite simple for this particular vehicle as the steering system parts left over c...

For those that are not familiar there is a car system mainly for OO gauge from a German company called Faller. https://www.faller.de/en/car-system/ I have worked with this previously on an indoor layout but wanted to see what was possible outdoors. I have seen a few other creations such as this: htt...

I'd love to see/hear more about the system overall. Do you use a compressor or manually pump up a pressure vessel (eg an old inner tube) at the start of a session? What do the operating switches look like? Etc. Rik I'm using a small compressor from a air brush set as its pretty quiet, i was previou...

Nice work! I'm currently working on a similar project. What size are the LED's that you've used? 5mm for the standard three lights and im working on a left and right feather version using 3mm LED's. Im not really trying to work to any prototypical scales just as long as it "looks right" -...

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:12 pm

stevenfitch wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 4:43 pm Fitted to a set of points
IMG_20221113_161038_066.jpg

Looks like a very neat solution

Rik

Working a treat, now i just need to find a load of those black LGB screws that come with the motors or equivalent in stainless

I did find an article about the logistics, but can't now track it down. There were 25 four-car sets which they could only run downhill and in so doing generated 4000kwh of power. I've tracked down this other article which gives some of the stats Rik Thanks Rik. My first thought was it 'must be goin...

The smaller loop returning to the garage and the junction towards the main loops is complete and working IMG_20221113_161707_150.jpg IMG_20221113_161712_625.jpg IMG_20221113_161811_677.jpg Also, all wiring and air lines are contained inside this split conduit fastened under the road bad but well abo...

Fitted to a set of points

Finished item in a metalic / silver colour.

Solution was to design something which was more of an enclosure.
One of the prototypes shown

The existing motor housing is basically a metal plate which secures the cylinder to the sleeper of points.

This has several issues including not quite fitting the LGB or PIKO points correctly and forcing the cylinder to support itself

And testing illuminated connected directly to the control panel

Testing alongside track