Geeky, some of the video clips look like the scenes from videos of the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, GE. Faller may have developed this system for the MW. If so, then this may be a retail subset of that system, thus should be very reliable.
I think it's the same stuff. I sort of like old trucks a lot, so the idea of having a industrial area with a truck driving around in it is really tempting.
The miniature wonderland set is faller based, but modified. The consumer version is a bit toned down. From what I have seen, a basic loop, what you may want for your industry, is simple. A metal wire is in the road, and a magnet on the car’s steering axle follows it. There is an upgraded version that has sensors that can detect other cars and functional grade crossings, etc. that can get pretty pricey though.
Yeah, I'm in the one lonely truck driving around on the back streets price range. Some of the videos I see are awesome, but it makes me wonder if they are model railroaders, or if they are model truckers.
I've seen a couple of those running around on an outdoor layout and they are very interesting. There's was a bit elaborate but with the crowd it was hard to get in close or ask questions.
I've been shopping around for em. Of course I don't even have a layout right now, so I'm in no hurry. The cheapest deals I've found are from Reynaulds. The cheapest set is a bus, but I really like old trucks. https://www.reynaulds.com/products/Faller/161503.aspx
I guess we're all kind of the same when it comes to layout research. Once you get it in your head, you end up spending hours understanding what something is before you make that big leap and buy the thing. So I got to thinking about this Faller Car system and realized that as a basic set, it's just a little truck or car going in circles at the same speed. So, why not just build your own and forego all the expense? If you're aren't wanting to spend money on the extra stuff to make bus stops and intersections work and such, you can just motorize something and basically copy their steering system and you've got a working system. All you need is something like this to fit into a plastic vehicle model. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Smallest-E...423315&hash=item27db6f7bdc:g:aQoAAOxyHQlSDvTY Seeing as I've been buying a fair amount of Kibri truck kits for my future layout, I've got things I can play around with. My electric motor is ordered. I got out one of my Kibri trucks and it's frame looks like it could easily be modified too, and one could install one of these onto it: http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Faller/163002.aspx The more difficult part will be figuring out how to get the motor to power one of the rear axles. But I am a model railroader!
And here, I continue my crazy long discussion with myself. hee hee hee I have one of these kits: Now that I understand how this truck system works I am beginning to think outside the box. A quick trip to ebay reveals that there are a bunch of different RC cars out there that measure in about right for a HO scale truck. I did find a truck! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tech-Toyz-Mini-RC-Remote-Control-Vehicle-Truck-Mack-Dump-Truck/382214855836?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 It's awefully nice of them to put some letters on the side of it. So if you ever forget what kind of truck it is, it says dump truck right there on the cab. Thank you. Here is another option: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2CH-Mini-Remote-Control-Car-Kids-Gift-Racing-Car-Random-color/112706211175?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 Super tiny and with a razor saw one could likely adapt it to fit a truck frame. This option comes with LED lights! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nice-Coke-Can-Mini-Speed-RC-Radio-Remote-Control-Micro-Racing-Car-Toy-Gift-UL/161886331688?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 All of these will likely need a resister put in line with the motor power to make them run slower. I know how to do this and it seems easier than working on the gears themselves. I found another ad for the same thing that had a picture with dimensions. So as you can see, this is all quite small and would easily fit into the kibri truck. The truck's bed measures at 1 1/8" across. 3 cm comes out to 1.18 inches. The race car wheeels seem to be flush with the body, so it's pretty close to 1 1/5" wide. The pciture above says 7 cm for length which comes out to about 2.7 inches. My trucks frame is about 3.5 inches. I think this can be dealt with after a couple of quick saw cuts. The Faller System seems to be kind of a hands free and watch your vehicles run sort of system. Using RC would be a completely hands on system. So I am thinking I could mix components from both and have a hands free system that can be over ridden by the remote control when you want to. So your truck could be left to just amble around, or you could trick people by stopping it at an intersection now and then by simply using the remote control. Whaddya think?
In Europe there is an HO scale RC car hobby. I have seen some good videos on motorizing Wiking and other models. If they can fit a drive, servo steering, battery, lighting, and receiver in an HO Unimog, I think it can be done in a semi truck. I think your biggest difficulty will be integrating the two systems. It might be a good idea to use the RC gearbox or driving axle with HO wheels replaced and the Faller based steering. With the space in the two cargo beds of your Kibri, I’d say it could be done.
I videoed the test of two types of Faller Road System HO trucks on a demo board that has various road crossing angles and curve radii. There is also a Hall Effect sensor buried under the guide wire that detects when the truck’s guide magnet passes over. It looks like the trucks will not divert on roads that cross at angles 30 degrees or more. Also, they have no trouble following a curve of 4" radius which is less than Faller's recommendation of 6".
