I just came across this video of the Faller Car System in operation and I’m curious to know what you think of it (let’s not focus too much on the cost if we can).
I have a love/hate relationship with the system. I love seeing the vehicles run but I hate seeing them stop. In other words, my biggest criticism of the car system is that the vehicles do not operate very prototypically, especially when they come to a stop. There is no smooth deceleration. The vehicles stop very abruptly. That bothers me a great deal.
I’m not sure what the solution would be but I’m sure somebody could come up with one. If the vehicles could be made to come to a gradual stop and slow down for the corners, I think that would add enormously to the realism.
Does the system maintain spacing between vehicles, or did they just intentionally use short clips to create that illusion? I only saw a few cases of tailgating and one nose-to-tail collision.
I’m optimistic that we will eventually see Faller or other manufacturer use technology to enable these vehicles to start, run, and stop smoothly.
I’d enjoy having my HO GMC fishbowl buses be able to run slowly, in automated mode, on a Faller-type system on an HO street scene and simulate stopping to pickup / dropoff passengers then slowly taking off.
What’s also curious is that you’ll start to see real cars behaving more like that too. I spent a day with a Tesla recently and the braking behavior of an electric is wildly different. Not uncomfortable and you get used to it from a driver’s perspective very fast, but there’s no coasting and the regenerative braking is abrupt.
This video shows an interesting product that would appear to make installing the car system fairly easy. The company offers set roadway patterns but the method could easily done by making up your own road sections: