October 4, 2014 – The idea of having operating vehicles on a model railroad has always appealed to me. Check out my idea for such a vehicle below:

Below is the working side of the mag steer car. Only one of the four batteries is used to reduce speed.

Above – December 20, 2010 – Bottom view.

Above – December 20, 2010 – Bottom view of steering detail.  A stacked pair of very powerful neodymium magnets are used since an air gap is maintained to the track surface.The magnets are powerful enough to break the front of the plastic chassis so the brass piece is used for reinforcement. The ratio of the distance to the magnet center in front and the tie rod center in the back is 1:1. It may or may not be ideal, but it works.

Above – December 20, 2010 – Top view of steering detail. Lots of slots in the linkages for development. Spring suspension replaced with fixed collars. 
Below – So how did it work? Not bad in this first very limited test:

Above – July 27, 2014 – Shown with some folks and items that populate the 1:24 railroad.

A Huge Operating Vehicle System in 1:24 Scale

I was amazed to find in recent months that Madurodam, a huge outdoor scale model park in Holland, has operating vehicles in 1:24 scale. Correspondence with the Dutch folks that run the park indicates that the vehicles are guided by a buried electromagnetic source and the vehicles are steered by an electric motor responding to the electromagnetic field in the road. It was difficult to understand their English translation.

 A local friend created a successful 1:24 scale mag steer car in his garden railroad. As of summer of 2014, it has been removed and the friend has, unfortunately, passed on.

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