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Cars along side the Bernina Bahn follow their own track
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Next to the rails we also made room for road traffic, the road
through Campocologno can be used via the Faller Car System. One of
our members reconstructed a few old type model cars, most branded Saurer,
to the Faller Car System.
The road is shaped like dog bone with a turning point on each end, in
the mountain. These turning points have the option to stop a car and
one has a switch to double track so another car can overtake it.
This makes it less boring because you don't see the same car all the
time. There are 2 railroad crossings where the car has to let the
train go first. Here too is
a stopper underneath the road. To put those stoppers on exactly 11 mm
distance from the middle of the track did give a few people a little
headache. If they are not properly set to this distance not all cars
will stop reliably and that did cause a few crashes.
Click on some photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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have a few different types of cars. One has been fitted for
transporting trunks, with a couple of AAA-format batteries hidden
underneath the trunks, real wood of course. next we have dump car
and 2 closed trucks with trailer. The dump truck has the engine
built in under the cabin to keep the loading part free. The engine
is fitted with an extended drive shaft and connected to the rear
axel.
We also have 2 postbusses. End of 2003 we created a turnoff for them
so they could stop in front of the station of
Campocologno. This is also fitted with an automatic stopper. Just as
in reality, the Swiss bus doesn't continue it journey into Italy, it
turns here and goes back into Switzerland.
On this photo, the turnoff is under construction. The stopper has to
be placed so that the bus stops in front of the station door. We
made a detector in the road such that only the bus takes this
turnoff and all other cars continue along the normal road. We put a little
magnet in the bus and a reed contact in the road. When the bus
passes this relays, the point switches so the bus can turn to the
station. We had to place these reed relays away from the middle
because otherwise every car would activate it by the magnet that
they use to follow the wire in the road..
Now we have to make the electronics to secure the crossing else the
bus will crash into a car when it leaves the station.
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Lining
27-may-08
In the mean time we started to give the road a more
realistic look. Various spots have been given a different color as
if they were repaired and there are lines on the road.
This has been done with a white marker of 1mm thick.
The only issue we faced was the clogging on those markers.
Click on the photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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New turning place
26-may-09
Now that we have an extra module connected to our layout
we no longer have the need to drive the cars all the way up into the
back of the modules to make a turn.
In the new module we created a turning place, this saves battery power and
we also have one less railroad crossing inside the mountain.
This only issue here is that the turn is a little tighter than the original one.
This makes stopping more difficult for some cars. This means that we have to
move the halt to after the turn into the straight part of the road.
Click on the photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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Cars with light
6-march-09
Truck with light.
Ingmar has put SMD LED's of 1 mm diameter in a coop truck. This truck is also able to
use our Faller Car System.
Click on the photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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Cars with light
6-march-09
Truck with light.
The real light are functional too. If the truck has to stop, the
break lights light up as well. Both on the car and on the trailer. A
special reed relay has been used which has a make and a break
contact
Click on the photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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Cars with light
16-march-10
We want to have cars with lights on more locations.
Here Ingmar is working to build some LED's into a Trabant. He uses tiny SMD LED's.
To make sure that they don't shine through the plastic, it needs a paint on the inside
before the LED's are mounted.
Click on the photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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Cars with light
The Trabant has received his final location near the railroad
crossing.
With 2 headlights and 1 rear light its really an old car.
Click on the photos for an enlargement in a new window.
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On to the left side turn for the cars.
06-dec-2011
After Campocologno, right behind the tunnel at the railroad crossing, Johan
is working hard to create the next part of the motorway. First we
had planned to make the turn for the cars right behind the tunnel
but it turned out the turn became too tight.
Now a second railroad crossing is under construction shortly after
the tunnel entrance so we can use the open space in the next module
for a larger turn.
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