Moving cars and boats on Model railroad layout

[darkstar974]

I am thinking of using ho sized cars and boats on my layout is there a way i can get the cars to move on the roads i have a sorta kinda idea of how to do it but other ideas would be appreciated As for the boats on my river i thought about using real water with one of those pond pumps and magnets to move the boats I just thought this would make my layout unique

Dark

[cheese3]

maybe you can find a slot car track. I have one that is the right size for HO and have often thought about including it on my layout in some way

[Fergmiester]

Real water has been talked about before. The prognosis was not good as it brings a heap of complications and pitfalls too long to list tonight. If you want go with a water line model which has hidden wheels and use magnets under the water to do the pulling. I plan on several ships on my layout eventually but they will all be tied up or at anchor.

Fergie

[cacole]

I've seen videos of O scale layouts on RFD-TV, a satellite channel, where HO trains run underneath pulling boxcars with large magnets on top. Boats have a metal plate on the bottom, and are pulled along by the magnet on the boxcar. They don't say in any of these videos how they get to the HO scale track or train for maintenance.

[trolleyboy]

Hi if you check a walthers cat. tthe company Faller makes a car control system in which the HO scale cars follow a wire built into the road. It's under the surface so you don't see it when its insatlled.Each of the cars are either rechargable or battery powered.I warn you though they are expensive and all Euro cars and trucks.They even sell a traffic light system which the cras will actually stop and go for! Check it out, I have seen the system on some layouts and it works quite well. TB

[Anonymous]

A long time ago an area club was making a large layout, and intended to have an operating car ferry. They had a large area for the waterway that was to be painted to look like water. The ferry was to be built on a chassis of a radio controlled car - they could actually "drive" the ferry from one point to another. Sadly to say the club lost their access to the building and this never got completed. Seems to me something like this might be possible - you'd have to have ship pilots to operate them!

Bob Boudreau

[davekelly]

I think the difficulty in making a boat move either by sliding on the "water" or on wheels would be the compromise necessary in the medium representing the water. The boat's path would have to be on a flat surface. Either all the water would have to be flat or the path would have to be flat. I would think this would ruin the realistic look that we try to get when we model water.

[sebamat]

I saw at a show a N-scale layout with a working (!!) ferry operation on real water.
The boot moved pulled by a underwater wire.

By talking with the builder, he mentionned as main problem to have everything leak- proof. And clearly you can not leave the water in the tank for too long times before it start fouling.

But impressive it was surely!!!

sebastiano

[DigitalGriffin]

I briefly played with the idea too for about 5 seconds. I thought of having a real water fall and having the water go under a bridge. Then I realized,

water + AC electricity + derailed train = disaster in the making.

[davekelly]

I think there are several problems with using real water. It doesn't look real (yeah that makes sense doesn't it?). Perhaps with a properly colored sea/creek/river bed and some colored dye in the water it might work. Interesting idea. Whitecaps are out (which might not be bad for a slow moving body of water but would be unrealistic for a wake of a moving vessel). In order to keep the water clean you'll have to go the route of fish aquarists, using filters and a u/v unit to keep algae and other icki things from growing. Would be intersting though.

[Train1725]

I am planing a small dock area on the far side of my layout. The "Water" will be moldeled on 1/4 plywood that is twice as long as the dock area, with the excess continuing under the layout. I plan to have the plywood move back and forth along the docks, so boats simply "move" along with the whole water scene. Since it is on the far side of the layout, and in N scale, the scenery/water gap shouldn't be too noticeable. The boat begins under a bridge and out of sight. As the plywood slides slowly forward, the boat comes into view and slide up to the pier. Since the scene is surrounded by piers and buildings on pilings, the idea of water flowing under these buildings makes some sense ! Well, good idea, now lets see if i ever get it built !

[Anonymous]

ive seen people use kind of a slot-car track to move their cars, but im not quite shure how they do it, but it seems like a good idea. your idea about the boats seems pretty kool. have fun

[darkstar974]

Hey I revised my plan for now no moving cars although it would be cool to have moving cars the thought of having a slot running through my streets would not look right so i think the only thing that will move on the streets is the trolleys i remember them from my childhood in Pittsburgh As for the real water i have seen it done before at the carnegie science center in Pittsburgh they had a river boat moving slowly along a river thats where i got the idea from To all that have posted to this thread thanks for the input I greatly appreciate it !!!

Dark