After seeing Lee's and Kevin's automotion roadways in action, I had to find a way to add one too. Cars driving themselves around the layout with no rails is just too much of a "wow" to skip. It's been a while since something this genuinely exciting popped-up in the hobby...
We started with the purchase of one car, plus a spool of thin iron wire (I got wire intended for florists, if I recall correctly). I taped the wire to the back of the posterboard to experiment with how well the car works, how tight it can turn, etc. PLUS adding the roadway meant removing our superstreets trolley line, so I had to convince the kids that this was cooler than a trolley. Experiment showed that it tracks even a thin wire well, and the kids concurred with removal of the trolley line. Even the cat thought it was cool:
So we were in business! Next step was mapping out the roadway and seeing how it could possibly fit. The trolleyway was an out and back - but for the road we had to have two lanes of traffic. Obviously, real estate is at a premium in this small metropolis:
The trolley way was intended to run around this inner "U". The best solution I could figure was to run a U-shaped dog bone. The left side of the dog bone is at normal street level... but the right had to go "underground" due to lack of space around the train station:
I also added a stop at the local gas station. The template kit from AutomotionFX is outstanding, and extremely handy in track planning:
In the picture above, you'll notice that my curves impinge on the edge of the layout... so this section of the layout needed to be expanded several inches to accommodate the roadway:
I also needed to cut a big hole for the cars to drive under the layout:
Made a template for the subterrainian (subplywoodian?) loop to do fit checks, then cut it out of plywood:
Here is the track installation in progress on this loop. I added a hole in the middle to I can reach in and grab any stuck cars. I'll also eventually build a cover for this hole or add bumpers in case any cars jump the track:
And here's the track installation in progress on the above ground portion:
As of tonight, track installation is nearly complete - and the Nomad successfully navigates the whole thing! You can see the ramp down to (and up from) the lower level installed on the right:
I say "nearly" complete as I have a couple specialty pieces for the gas station stop pending permanent install. AutomotionFX has been great to work with, and I should have the logic module for the gas station in a week or two:
Next step is to add some "non-wired" roads to the layout alongside these, then start spackling!
