Adding Running Boats to a Layout

[HAZMAT9]

Watching the show "Great Layouts" on RFD-TV yesterday I noticed one layout which had a running ferry boat on an O-guage layout. The owner mentioned that magnets were used to move the ferry on what appears is a painted plexi-glass sheet used to make the water for a waterway.

Has anyone ever tried anything similar? Curious to know how the motor/magnet set-up is under the benchwork. It was a real nice layout and the water had a lot of depth to it even though it was just a sheet of plastic. I'm proposing a portion of a coastal scene on my layout with an offshore oil platform and I'm thinking of having shuttle boats travel to and from the rig from an onshore oil plant (about three feet actual in travel distance). Thanks, Steve[8D]

[cacole]

I saw another show on RFD-TV where they explained that the boat was pulled along by a large magnet mounted on an HO-scale flatcar that ran under the O-scale boat, and the bottom of the boat was a steel plate.

What they didn't mention was how they accessed the HO-scale train if they had a derailment or needed to service the locomotive or clean the track.

[HAZMAT9]

I'm wondering if you can run a tether with a magnet attached, kinda like a sky car and place it underneath the bench, the flatcar idea sounds like a lot of extra work but interesting.

[West Coast S]

This is how it is done at Disneyland, The boat is mounted to a frame on wheels which then rides on rails placed on the bottom of the body of water. I've seen one layout with operable marine modeling using the above method.

The boat had a frame attached to the bottom, which had O scale trucks and rode on O scale flextrack. No mechnical or electrical parts made contact with the water, the propellers were functional and power was supplied by rechargable batteries and control was done using RC. Mighty impressive, to say the least.

[HAZMAT9]

The one on RFD-TV yesterday showed the plexiglass track smooth with no visible signs of track, so assuming the track system was mounted underneath the the plexiglass sheet. You can probably mount low profile wheels or glides to the hull of the boat in order to reduce friction and use the magnet system to propel it. I would think a heavy duty magnet mounted on a chain drive would work with the hull' s bottom mounted with a steel plate. I used to use a similiar set up when building HO scale rollercoasters, magnets were used to propel the car up the first incline.