MATT LOVELL looks at this automated vehicle system from Faller.
Everyone loves watching trains operating on a model railway, but sometimes it's good to see a bit more happening on the layout to add realism. One aspect that is often missed is the everyday movement of vehicles on roads.
Faller produced a working roadway system that looks great and is easy to operate, The Faller Car System.
This system uses a FA161670 Metal Contact Wire embedded underneath the road as a guide for the battery powered vehicles. This wire is flexible enough to be used on straights, curves and hills.
The vehicles are fitted with a motorised chassis and rechargeable battery which pushes the vehicle forwards via a small motor and gear arrangement, following the guide wire. The magnet offset to one side on the chassis is what activates the various additional modules (more on those later).
The front axle is fitted with a guide stem and magnet that follows the guide wire.
The vehicle then drives around the streets of your railway following the wire through junctions, roundabouts, carriageways and any other arrangement that you can design.
Faller produces a range of starter sets in OO Scale, HO Scale (including a House Boat!), and in N Scale with various different vehicles to choose from. These sets include everything you need to get started out with plenty of wire to make quite a large circuit to begin with. They normally include the following items.
Faller also produce lots individual vehicles to add to your road way including Cars, Tractors, Lorries and Buses. These vehicles all use the same power supply to charge the batteries so while a couple of vehicles are running around you could have one on charge ready to go for next time.
Click Here to view available vehicles in OO/HO Scale, and in N Scale.
In addition to vehicles, Faller has produced lots of accessory modules to create life on the roads. These include Bus Stops, Traffic lights, Stop sections and branch off sections. Most are available in both N and OO/HO Scales.
The Bus Stop Set allow a bus to pull in off the main roadway, park, wait and pull away again without you having to press any buttons. This level of automation always looks impressive!
The various Traffic Lights can be installed on the main roadway, and using the stop sections included the vehicle will stop automatically if they are showing red. Once it changes to green the vehicle will start up and drive off again.
The metal wire can be installed in one of two ways. The first way is using the special FA161669 Groove Cutting Tool available from Faller. This tool allows you to cut the perfect depth groove to insert the wire into your baseboard. The wire can be glued down and then using the filler provided in the set you can cover it over to hide the wire from view. It is always best to test the system before covering the wire as you may need to move it.
If you do not wish to cut a groove in your baseboard, Faller produce a range of laser-cut lengths of roadway under the 'Laser-Street' brand. These fit together like a jigsaw, and already have the groove cut in them for the wire to be inserted. Using the same principle as above you can lay, test and cover the wire to form part of you new roadway. the Laser-Street range us currently only available in OO/HO Scale.
These plates are available as Straights, Curves, Bus stop Sections and even Flexible sections to create your own gentle curves.
The Junctions and other special plates have the holes already cut in the ready for the branch off sections to be installed.
As with the other parts of your layout, there are always lots of dioramas and little scenes that can be added to enhance it. I have had a few ideas with the Faller Car System which are sure to be talking points.
These are just a few ideas to get you started but many more are possible with the versatile The Faller Car System. Have a look, next time you are out for a walk or a drive, and see what you can come up with.