You might try asking a local bike shop (or your cyclist friends) for a few old chains, clean them up and link them up (easy with 'quicklinks')- you really could extend quite a bit. Another advantage of old chains is they are more flexible side to side (due to wear and stretching), so may well work over gently rising and falling terrain. Excellent idea, Don.
This is an amazing demonstration. And for the cogs, if you want larger radius turns, you can 3D print larger cogs. In fact you could 3D print the chain itself. Really great idea.
Very interesting, I was thinking of building a San Francisco cable car layout but not sure about the ability of this system to climb. It's ingenious, very clever. And cheap as you say. We all want to budget in this day and age now. 👍
Fascinating, Don! I can't believe I missed this when you first posted it. This has a lot of potential, not just for model railroad layouts, but for animating other dioramas, as well!
Great idea. The larger wheels could be used in different places to increase the radius of the corners, or 3D print other sizes. If the chain was rotated through 90 degrees inclines could be done like in Chicago. Putting kapton tape (not so cheap though) under the cardboard would reduce the wear.
You've built a very ingenious and cost-effective system. If you want to hand crank the track without the crank being in the way, stack two drive cogs with the top cog driving the track and the bottom cog linked with chain to the crank cog off to the side.
the chain is working fine , as for weight / mass you could try other types of band or even a rope , but the chain is making sure the magnet stays pointing upwards . super great system and expandable for little more cost
Nice work on this demonstration. People use tubing as well for home made systems. I wish more scale vehicles had steerable front wheels though. And drivers.
I think it's great, but if I may give a piece of advice I'm sure you have already done this but a simple way of making your road way visible is once you've laid the sheet over your chain would be once the car was attached one could tape a pencil to the car and it would draw out the roadway as it goes around
Great idea and contraption! Absolutely genius! İt reminds me of an old toy board, which was made of tin sheet and there were cars that moved by pins that protruded from slots while cranking a wheel !
Great idea! Love it very much. Here you go, a solution to joining card. In the automation industry, for inductive or optic sensors/switches, a device called a "soft nose" can be purchased to allow slight contact with moving parts/products to ensure jamming/damage does not occur. Using a domed cover stuck to the magnets, the ability to glide over card joins and maintain a magnetic connection may be fascilitated. Another idea would be to use a thin but firm acetate strip under the vehicle path that can be accurately glued together under the card to enable smooth traverse. On a final note, garages could hide charging stations for remotely controlled vehicles to run random routes after being fully charged. I love your work. Very good for a first build.
This is excellent - I've just looked at the cost of the Magnorail systems and even the starter pack price would put people off. I appreciate that it costs a lot of money to create a product like this from all the testing prototyping etc, but it's likely to turn people away just from the initial outlay alone, so this looks like a great way forward!
Nice ! The durability of a steel chain is so much better than 3d printed plastic, this kind of system can pull mutch heavyer stuff bigger scale vehicles also. In legoland Denmark they have ropes going in the shanels to drive model ships and sutch... outside... this chain system could be used on outdoor railways to...
Absolutely brilliant. Thinking out of the box. May I suggest that you could use plastic bike chain instead of metal ones. I can see this concept becoming a much used system. Magnorail is an amazing product but pretty expensive especially in today's economic climate for most average modellers. Thank you for sharing your great idea.
I constructed a 3 lane motorway diorama in 1:50 scale using this exact principal! The turnarounds at each end were the worst parts to design 😒(each lane moves at a different speed and avoiding them hitting each other at each end was a nightmare) different sized drive sprockets achieved the 3 different lane speeds, and the vehicles just cycle round in an endless loop (up one carriageway then down the other side). I powered it off an old windscreen wiper motor (because it was free) however I'm sure there are better geared motor options available that have a lower amp draw. I toyed with the Idea of making a video on it, but decided against it 😒 Well done for posting this , It's a very sound principle and 5 years later mine still works fine, the downside (when you have a lot of chains and cars/trucks) is that it's very very noisy!! Ps: the one thing to add is a chain tensioner on each run of chain, otherwise they throw the chain 😉. Oh and New subscriber here 👍
i commend your persistence. Until all problems are solved its not worth replacing the top road system, I was forever having to dismantle the system because of chains falling off. Better to share the idea and let others have the headaches.
that's so so impressive Don....well done and proves these things can be cheaply done with the knowledge of how to do it from experts like yourself sir.
Fantastic, Don. Despite the same challenge of transport, no doubt the chain is far more durable than the Magnorail chains, which you have to assemble anyway.
Two thoughts. Instead of building up to the chain and gears, use a router to create channels for the chain and gears. Second thought, many die cast vehicles come with true steering mechanism in the front end. Which would create more realistic turns. That’s my 2 cents worth. Thanks for sharing.
hi Dan, LOVED THIS... i just seen it this morning.... i think if you motorized this idea, just too let people see it working...then people can use cheaper forms of motorising their ones and if you can suggest cheaper ways of doing it..i think your subscribers would be in thousands as this idea is getting more seen on you tube everyday...P.S. you should have shown when you made the V2 rocket scene making the rocket also....just suggestions...keep up the brilliant work...good luck john
I was contemplating something similar on the river on my layout for boats, but have 6mm MDF and 4mm resin so I will need to get really strong magnets, only issue is the magnet rubbing the road surface, maybe try a small airgap which would sole the join in the card too.
Derailleur jockey wheels come with bushings and these are designed to be low friction and silent running. The larger red jockey wheel is from a low end Shimano derailleur and those can be best obtained by asking nicely at the bike shop - they should have plenty in the bin by the end of a busy week. Maybe just tell the mechanic you will pay a quid for each one and you should get dozens. The spring of a derailleur keeps a chain in tension and this needs to be part of the design. There are chain tensioners that can also be used. This should make it silent running.
Absolutely brilliant!I have been trying to figure out. How to make a car system, And it just so happens I live above a bicycle shop. He also has a three d printer that he makes parts with, So i'm going to be giving him a call in a couple of minutes
Cool system nonetheless, but I think this, and something like Faller has absolutely different target audiences. This woudl also work wike 2 wheelers, so motorcycles or bicycles, but from the nature is a static track with all vehicles moving at the same speed, etc. On the Faller, which I woudln't consider because of the price and just build it myself, each car is a standalone and detached from every other carm, and can therefore do much different things, like taking over, have a crossing, not even mentioning that each car can have hundreds of lights, indicators/hazard lights, etc. But for a small town like the one you showed, where little bicycles would fit perfectly, your system is more than enough, and probably far cheaper than magnorail. Hats off for that! :)
I know it's way too soon. But this is a plan for down the future. I'm looking to build a 4x8 train set with moving cars. My granddaughter. As years go by it'll be something that she'll always remember.
Sir you are doing extremely well do you know why ? You are creating fresh oxygen and this converts in to happiness as a matter of fact those who love this will divert there mind from the filth of this world to something holy ......that's my way of concluding the message. I respect your thoughts and I must say we still have good souls in this world even the world is changing so fast. Keep it up and introduce more unique techniques. ❤❤❤
I did this 22 years ago then revised it using a nylon roller chain as you can make holes in it, the steel I used wasn't magnetic so the switch to nylon worked really well. But when Magnorail came out I started again with a product that was made for the job! Sorry Don but 5 years on and my Magnorail still runs great, not like this I know is noisier than you'd like to say! The membrane (road surface) needs to be more than card as the center of the layout has zero support if yo run a sinlge lane road!
have you seen the gears of a tamiya 4wd battery operated cars? start from there... modifying it will take time but i'm sure it'll be convenient at the end. maybe 3D printers might be needed to produce larger pinion , only 2 pinions is needed.
I've got no idea why RU-vid threw this into my feed, but replacing the bike chain and sprokets with GT2 belts and pulleys (commonly used in 3D printers) would reduce cost even more and would be quieter. Slightly more advanced would be to use the same sort of stepper motors used in the 3D printers along with an Arduino and stepper driver PCB to power it. If you have access to a 3D printer, GT2 pulleys could be printed in different diameters to give wider or tighter curves.
Smart idea, maybe you can make the handle for turning the wheel under the table and raise the entire table so you have space for your hand or use a chain or rope system and connect the turning wheel with a second wheel with the handle for turning the system outside the diorama base so it don't form an obstacle for the moving vehicles
i luved the vid papa! im trying to search for smaller chain gauges, to drive an entire table top(underglass) diorama. if it all works out, im going to make it 2 way powered, hand crank on the side of the table, and a motor,/ later it might have a small solar panel array as part of the scenery, that will feed a small battery pack(2x 18650) when it day time, but when the table stop receiving light, it then enables the batteries to light up the tiny led lampposts and houses/shops lights =D
If you overlap pieces of card, as long as the car always passes from the too card to the bottom, the magnet shouldn't catch. You can put a small slit in the cardt to swap which piece of card is the top allowing a circuit.
C’est exactement ce que je voulais faire il y a 18ans pour ma ville lego mais par manque de place chez mes parents je n’avais pas pu 😢 et je voulais le motorisé avec un moteur de meccano. Mais c’est top de voir que sa marche vraiment 😂 quand j’avais 11ans j’avais des idées de ouf 😂
oh, you mean for a model, I was thinking on a real live real large scale of real life. Lol. Oh well, that model you showed would work. With motors and maybe magnets or just use some hooks.. Christmas tree hooks perhaps. Smiles! Terry
Due to budget and health I'm using tatty bits of Meccano parts for all sorts of model railway applications. I model, moderately, in 7mm so was looking at more robust chain for 7mm diecast cars. I like what you've done, very inventive thank you for sharing 👍😊✌️💜 Could you tell me the exact name of the idler wheels/gears please, I can only find expensive branded type🤔🤔🤔👍🤞💜
Alot of rv repair centers have chains like this the comes off theor cable slide systems most waranty tells them to just throw away but normally don't and these are longer Tham bike chains
On A Rollercoaster there is a chain that pulls all the riders up the big big big hump that starts the ride, that's a similar system, but it's for fun. but a simple chain in a city could be made with enough motors and hooks, not magnets, the hooks would pull your car around, but the car would need to retract their hook when at the destination, and get off the chain, and using electric motor, get of the chain, and park at home or a store. save tons of electricity. But the system would require paying a fee to use their chain system perhaps. My concern is: how many cars can the chain handle, or how many tons can the chain in a city pull? That's a lot of tons of weight. Just my thoughts. Terry
What you describe is basically the way trolley cars in San Francisco are moved. The conductor of the car pulls a lever to clamp on to a continuously moving cable, hence the name "cable car". I don't mean to detract from your idea, it's a great way to move traffic around using far less energy and eliminating internal combustion engines in cars
That's very revealing! I Thought the cable cars were electrical cars using electric power lines above. I heard the term cable cars, but I thought that was mountain climbing cars, lol. Thanks.
