You may find one of these helpful:
It’s a “Rail-it” from RIX Products. Put it on the track, roll the cars down the ramp and they’re railed. I’ve got mine Velcroed to a a benchwork leg. I think it would work fine on the Walthers car float.
Simplicity rules!
How come I always think in so complicated terms? [swg]
Thank you!
Was thinking about this today at work, since I’m going to have a carfloat myself at some point, & would also like to use it as a cassette while looking real while on the layout.
Why not mount a type of sponge / foam to the bottom of the car float? Either one big pad or a stip of ribbon around the edges.
Some thing unobtrusive (1/4"?) of the right density so that you can pour the water & stipple the waves/caps as much as you want, the foam will contour them & provide a flat top.
If you get the foam the right thickness / firmness, it would also provide the slight side to side motion from the weight of the cars in operations.
I have some 3/8" dark grey foam ribbon (sticky on one side) that’s used to insulate doors & windows that might work.
& since foam “deflates” over time, with the ribbon you could just peal it off & apply a new strip.
In my head this has the potential to flow a bit better than the spring idea, & allows for realistic water when the float is removed.
Just thinking out loud.
Good luck!
–Mark
I have given up the idea of a removable/exchangable car float some more thoughts. A smooth performance in this segment is essential for the operation of it and a car float that´s just looking nice is of no value.
I will have to follow a different approach, not integration the car float fully into the layout, thus being a littlke bit more free in its design.
The following plan shows what I try to express:
This opens up some more options, like multi-track traverser etc. to enhance operation.
Dear Ulrich
If you don’t mind i have some questions
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Do i understand it well, are you going for a sturdy ferry, to be handled like a casette? Great idea.
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You will have thought it out longtime ago, but how do you cope with all the cars after the ferry has arrived? The ferry can bring in 12 cars and you may have another 12 cars waiting to be put on the ferry; seems quite a job to do. I would like to add a (smaller) ferry into my design, so I am very curious about your project.
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Which Cad system do you use, I like your “drawings”.
Have fun , good luck
Paul
Paul, just a short answer to your questions:
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Yes, I plan to use the float as a exchangable cassette for staging.
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12 cars is a lot, but that´s the max the layout can handle. Actually it is 24 cars - 12 coming, 12 leaving. I am thinking to make the float a little shorter, say, by a foot, the reduces the amount of cars landed to 6 - 8. Plenty of track available for that.
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The CAD system is WinRail. WinRail is actually RTS, but with a bigger library of track systems. If you are happy with Atlas track, then RTS is ok. There is a drawing feature incorpoirated, that lets you draw different shapes in various colors. I use that feature to draw buildings etc. The finished plan gets a rework in MSPaint and, voila´ - here is the plan! Takes a bit of a learning curve, though…
I need to have pics like that to nurture my “imagineering”.