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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:

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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:

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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:

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I also added a stop at the local gas station.  The template kit from AutomotionFX is outstanding, and extremely handy in track planning:

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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:

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I also needed to cut a big hole for the cars to drive under the layout:

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Made a template for the subterrainian (subplywoodian?) loop to do fit checks, then cut it out of plywood:

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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:

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And here's the track installation in progress on the above ground portion:

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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:

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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:

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Next step is to add some "non-wired" roads to the layout alongside these, then start spackling!

 

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Last edited by frizzinbee
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I love it.  One question.  How well do the card do going down that rather steep grade and coming back up?

GRJ, Jerrman,

The ramp on the layout has a slope of ~0.22, or 12.7 degrees.  The kids and I did some experimenting on slope before the build and found that the Nomad (our only car at the time) could handle a max slope of ~0.3 before it struggled noticeably.   We used a piece of wood with a homemade wire guide and some Duplo blocks for this project.  

The 1:43 Nomad handles the slope on the layout with no issue.  I also have a 1:43 Mustang - it is a little more finicky all around & doesn't always like tight (11" diameter) turns, but if the magnet is adjusted/angled correctly it also has no issues on the ramp.  (If the magnet creates too much drag it can't "push" it uphill without extra weight over the rear wheels). 

It turns out the trickier issue is that when a car pushes over the top of the "hill" to head down, the magnet may momentarily lose the wire and cause the car to wander.   I plan to address this by rounding over the curve at the top of the hill slightly, plus adding a supplemental guide wire just below the road paint. 

These are my findings after 1 day of building and running, so I may have more to report later re: ramp slope.

From what I read in the Faller book, the wire should be right under no more than paint on the surface.  Magnet force falls off as the cube of the distance, so a small amount of extra distance from the wire can make a large difference in steering.  Apparently you can also have the magnetic force too strong, another interesting issue.

Watching with Interest as I've already decided that my upcoming town build will be using this system instead of the Streets stuff I was planning.  Anyone want to buy some Streets track?

GRJ,

I worded that poorly...  I don't think the magnet is creating drag, it's the arm itself holding the magnet.   If too much of it contacts the road surface, there's a lot of friction for the car to overcome on the uphill.

The Automotion FX track has a big iron wire inside - much thicker than Faller wire.  As such, I imagine they can get away with burying it slightly under the MDF and still have good attractive force; I think Lee actually measured this force in some of his early analysis.  In my third pic from the bottom, you can see some of the FX track upside down and one of the actual wires sitting next to my wire cutters (lower left hand corner).  Curved sections come with the wire already glued in place.  The straights have the wire loose so you can remove it if you need to cut the straight.

I also have some Streets track that I'll be selling 

 

Don,

I gave that a try, just out of curiosity, before I took the Streets track down.   The magnet on the car just adheres itself to the outside rail, and if you try to use the thinner center rail then the wheels also end-up in the ruts.  It might work if you created some separation between the rail and the magnet...  but I imagine that would start to stray into Rube Goldberg territory 

-Dustin

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