Garden Railway Forum

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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULxYlmSfcmw

I am looking to achieve this using off the shelf 1:24 scale vehicles, modified so the steering follows a magnet and the power / control is over wireless DCC.

I imagine the road bed to be wooed covered in dark roofing felt but this is yet to be tested.

Initial progress has been to purchase two of the same vehicle. 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 could just be attached to and a small slot cut in the chassis for the guide arm to go through.

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.

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.

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.

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]

It does look interesting Stephen, please keep us updated.

BTW, you've used incorrect syntax for your Youtube link.
It should be
[video] https://youtu.be/UmSEpGXHsRk [/video]
and not
[video]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UmSEpGXHsRk[/video]

However I suspect that you have also selected the wrong link on Youtube as well, because it should show it embedded here but it doesn't.

See the How To.. in the Index section https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=9208

That does look promising. My concern would be ensuring the steel guide rail was suitably protected from rusting when outdoors.

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 5:49 pm That does look promising. My concern would be ensuring the steel guide rail was suitably protected from rusting when outdoors.

Rik

Covering the whole board in roofing felt is the current plan, the place where the magnet runs does need to be pretty smooth so maybe something else thin but painted to protect / easily replaceable when it disintegrates.

I wonder if the plastic coated wire from a coat hanger would work?

Rik

Regarding waterproofing....PTFE , silicone, polyprop, and other plastics, in tube form are easily available in a huge variety of diameters and very long lengths. It should be possible to thread iron or steel wire through the tube with a hefty wodge of silicone sealer at each end and then bury it under whatever road surface you choose.