Slotcar System

[LEGO Family]

Does look promising. I have never made anything like that before.

When i think about it only negative thing is that it will take some quite wide roads to make "the traffic" flow along in both directions. If you know what i mean ?

But i like :)

[Hoexbroe]

That bus looks excellent running along! -It looks quite good taking the corner too. Well done!

Edited November 18, 2013 by Hoexbroe

[timmyc1983]

Looks fantastic! Brilliant idea and I have enjoyed watching its progress. I take you will keep making improvements...?

Happy building

[Hrw-Amen]

This looks very interesting and good. I have seen similar on HO model railways before and that all looked pretty good, but the vehicles only went around a small track. Having them go around the whole town would be good. I liked the bus best of all the vehicles and if they ever do go faster those old ladies in the car had better be paying attention to what is in front of them rather than yapping to one another about whatever it is old ladies yap about!

[ER0L]

Does look promising. I have never made anything like that before.

When i think about it only negative thing is that it will take some quite wide roads to make "the traffic" flow along in both directions. If you know what i mean ?

But i like :)

Thank you. Oh yes, road width is an important subject which is intensively discussed among us. Crossroads are the crucial aspect here, even on non-slotted roads. Crossroads are most interesting in terms of traffic, several turning vehicles on crossroads make the whole thing lively. But a turning vehicle needs much more room than a vehicle moving straightforward (if you take a look at the turning bus you see what I mean). Thus proper crossroads determine the road width in some way.

Another aspect: Depending on the height of the buildings of a town wider roads (and pavements) are nice to have a better view into the streets - which might be even more important when there are moving vehicles. Plus the ground floors of town buildings often are most interesting since you can see shops and restaurants there. If roads are narrow and filled with vehicles and the buildings are too tall it might be difficult to get a nice perspective on that.

And so on ...

That bus looks excellent running along! -It looks quite good taking the corner too. Well done!

Many thanks Henrik. Yes, this seems to be the longest wheelbase that can take a turn in this setup, but it's enough for our purposes.

Looks fantastic! Brilliant idea and I have enjoyed watching its progress. I take you will keep making improvements...?

Happy building

Thank you, glad you like it! Sure there'll be improvements ...

This looks very interesting and good. I have seen similar on HO model railways before and that all looked pretty good, but the vehicles only went around a small track. Having them go around the whole town would be good. I liked the bus best of all the vehicles and if they ever do go faster those old ladies in the car had better be paying attention to what is in front of them rather than yapping to one another about whatever it is old ladies yap about!

Thank you! Well, the Faller Car System is so much better than what we have, but cars are moving as well, that's the main thing. Glad you like the bus. Concerning the ladies (mother and daughter, to be honest, and there is a male figure involved, too) I wonder if they stop talking when things speed up - I guess we'll keep an eye on that ...

[Edit, Nov 22]

We wondered if slot roads may be combined with railroad tracks since that would increase the possibilities significantly. Our testing arrangement: a small crossing. Please note that there are no passengers on board the bus, only a test driver.

Something like this couldn't be done with any magnet system, we guess.

Thanks for looking, stay tuned!

[/Edit]

Edited November 22, 2013 by ER0L

[Dat Lego]

Now do one for helicopters and planes, that would be EPIC

[ER0L]

Now do one for helicopters and planes, that would be EPIC

Not sure how a helicopter could be combined with this, but indeed we think there are many possibilities to get things moving via the slot.

I'd like to add a vid which shows another advantage of brickbuilt roads compared with road plates: flexibility.

That means that - at least with this type of slot vehicle - you can have several levels within a town with circulation. Vehicles like this bus - equipped with an M-motor with worm screw - are so strong that they could easily climb even a much steeper pitch.

Thanks for looking!

[LEGO Family]

Not sure how a helicopter could be combined with this, but indeed we think there are many possibilities to get things moving via the slot.

It could "just" be inverted, making a whole roof system to transport the choppers and planes around.

I love that diffrent levels also can be incorporated with this system.

Great job so far. :)

[edmau5]

All you need is Otto in that School bus and Springfield Elementary! Brilliant solution for Lego slot vehicles. I wonder if you could get it to work on Scalectrix tracks

[ER0L]

It could "just" be inverted, making a whole roof system to transport the choppers and planes around.

I love that diffrent levels also can be incorporated with this system.

Great job so far. :)

Thank you. Guess somebody else will have to do that ... ;-)

All you need is Otto in that School bus and Springfield Elementary! Brilliant solution for Lego slot vehicles. I wonder if you could get it to work on Scalectrix tracks

Many thanks. Otto is a nice idea, will there be an Otto with the Simpsons range?

Perhaps the bus would drive on a Scalextric track, but that would be quite a boring race, I guess. Loops might be difficult for it, too. To be serious we didn't think of combining Lego with Scalextric or something. Our aim is to do it with Lego and nothing else, as good as it can get. Car races would be nice (and perhaps even possible with slotted SNOT roads) but we rather want to have a more lively city with moving vehicles in it.

[ER0L]

Another update: Some technical bits of the vehicles used on our car system.

Here you can see the chassis of the already known school bus (more pics and info here):

It's driven by an M-motor with worm screw. Front wheels are self-steering - you get an "Ackermann" steering geometry by nature which reduces the friction when turning. The front axle is pivoting since the slot roads are quite uneven. Otherwise the front wheels wouldn't spin nor steer properly.

With the 9V box you can easily switch the motor on and off from underneath and quickly change the battery. An adapter cable is needed for that, of course.

This is the chassis of a (cable) car built for the slot from scratch:

Maybe you can guess the type of car from the color, if not, you may take a look here. As you can see, the front wheels are again self-steering, some small devices keep them from touching the body of the car when turning. The rear axle is movable here so that all wheels keep spinning permanently.

That's about it so far, thanks for looking. More to come soon!

[Hoexbroe]

The type of car was a very easy guess! ;-)

Excellently done anyway. Always interresting to read about this new system of yours!

[ER0L]

The type of car was a very easy guess! ;-)

Excellently done anyway. Always interresting to read about this new system of yours!

Many thanks Henrik!

Another update which is quite important since we've changed the slot car design. Now it looks like this:

This combination has quite a few advantages compared to the string solution:

• You can add and take away cars from the slot ad libitum.
  
• The directional stability of the cars is much better.
  
• There's nothing lifting the chain any more which runs smoother now.
  

On the other hand turning doesn't look quite as good since there is no delay effect like with the string. Maybe modifying the guide rollers will help a bit.

However we think that this setup can be transformed into a larger layout now. All this takes much longer than we have thought but the main problems seem to be solved (there are still quite a few ... ).

A - very short - video of the turning car you can find here. Many thanks for looking.

[solta]

Great stuff EROL. Sorry I missed this when you first posted it. For a long time I was not here on this forum.

[ER0L]

Great stuff EROL. Sorry I missed this when you first posted it. For a long time I was not here on this forum.

No problem. That was my guess since I knew you'd be interested in the subject ...