DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

For quite a while, I've been interested in taking advantage of magnetism to add linear motion to other things besides trains, road vehicles or watercraft (or make the latter two categories look more realistic when moving). I can only assume it started when Miniatur Wunderland came to my attention. The (real) model railway market offers two popular options: the Faller/Tomytec system and Magnorail. Like any other products that work differently but share a purpose, they have their inevitable pros and cons. I looked at so many different interpretations of both concepts including with LEGO, yet never settled on an affordable, accessible alternative. Yesterday, it finally hit me: what if instead of a chain drive that might be difficult to hold in place/power continuously, I could just hide a TOMY/TrackMaster circuit and put the magnets on a running engine (with or without a train)?



Sure enough, the (general) idea was already successfully attempted. I found a great video of a barge powered by a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis with a magnet mounted on it. Prior to that, I also found LEGO vehicles driven the same way with train motors and NXT robots.

The big canvas board I used for my old wish list has an additional middle support that would surely interrupt the magnet/s, which prevented me from using it. I recalled having a large sheet of paper that was originally from an "artist pad", so I took it out and taped it over six risers. It turned out too small for track due to the curve radius being too big, so the track had to be replaced with road (where the curves are tighter but engines can still clear them). My magnets latch onto the "Thomas type" drive unit without need for Blu Tack or similar. One important thing to make sure was the magnets on the chassis wouldn't "jump" onto the one on top, yet be stacked high enough to attract it. It did happen several times, mainly because the sheet wasn't supported in the middle.

While it worked remarkably well, the magnet only made it halfway until it lost contact and briefly moved again. I also tried it with Elizabeth, but the results weren't as good even though she was made for TOMY road. If I had something large enough, I would've been able to cover a proper layout with points and stop/go tracks to control the surface magnet/s. Just like with Magnorail, the possibilities should be (nearly) endless. Moving humans, animals, cyclists, motorcyclists; anything without room for a battery and motor in small scales. I'm off to a good start with this one.