Magic Moving Mini Metals

[Golfie]

A few years back, I went to a train convention and there was a layout with a very neat element on it. Sure, many models have die-cast cars on them, but this one had tiny die-cast cars that were MOVING! I know for one thing that the cars didn't have a motor or anything in them, but there must have been a conveyer belt with magnets underneath the table or something. Does anyone know a good link that could teach me how to do this?

Thanks,

Golfie

 

[Marxed]

thats sounds really cool, i would like to see some more info too

 

[zedob]

Other than to Rube Goldberg something, I don't know. I know that Faller makes a system, but I have no experience with it at all Here's a link.

http://www.reynaulds.com/faller/fal_ho_car.asp


Walther's sells the stuff too.

 

[Golfie]

Thanks for that link, but I don't think the Faller Car system is what they used - the cars didn't have a motor inside of them. I know this because when they were moving, they were a little shaky (logically because they were driving across model train gravel). The cars were also about the size of a quarter.

 

[zedob]

Just out of curiosity, what did the path of the vehicles look like? Was it circular, oval, or right angle-ish turns? Any hills or was the layout flat?

 

[Golfie]

The layout was flat and the cars went on the road (the layout was a large square and went all the way around - I think the cars went all the way around the layout too.) I can't remember if they went into any tunnels, but I know that the layout wasn't flat. However, the part that the cars went on was flat. As for the path of the vehicles, they drove on the gravel you use for making model roads... their turns were right angle-ish

 

[jim currie]

there was somthing years back in one of the model mags about using magnets to move model cars will see if i can find it.

 

[shaygetz]

Faller or Vollmer put out a system in the early 70s that was similar to a slot car track. You had a series of track segments with a grove in them. By connecting a chain that rode in the slot together with each successive chain/track segment and ending in a special loop "cul-de-sac" at both ends, you could put together a road system that pulled your cars along via a pin that stuck up thru the slot and into a hole in the front underside of the car. The neat part about the system was that you could use any free rolling cars as long as you drilled a little hole underneath the front of the car. Sigh...we had some really cool stuff back then and no money to get it...

 

[webmaster]

There was another system which used 'N gauge' track laid under the main baseboard where the road would be that had small loco's with magnets on top. They didn't look like loco's, they were no more than a 4 wheel chassis, motor & magnet. The vehicles/locos ran on a series of loops that crossed over each other.

I don't know what the system was called and it has been a good few years since I have seen it in operation. I believe the newer faller system superseded it.

The newer faller system has motors & batteries in the vehicles & the vehicles follow a wire that is buried under the road surface. This is much more realistic than the old slot car system, but even today it is very expensive.