Faller road system

[red68]

Has anyone built their own moving vehicle system similar to the Faller system.

 

As money is very tight, I was wondering if it would be feasible to build a d.i.y. system.

[Red Devil]

Has anyone built their own moving vehicle system similar to the Faller system.

 

As money is very tight, I was wondering if it would be feasible to build a d.i.y. system.

 

Several have, off the top of my head I can think of three where there was little use of Faller parts but along the same idea, however it's fairly labour intensive making the most vital part which is the front steering arm, personally I build my own into the vehicle required using lots of non Faller parts but often using the Faller steering arm, it's quite a lot cheaper to do it that way than carving up a Faller vehicle, you can also get better (slower) speeds with the right motor battery combination

 

For example the bus in this video is a resin kit, its chassis was modded to take a FCS 163002 steering arm this was fitted with extended pins to widen the track, the motor is a Nigel Lawton 12v rated mini motor, 10mm dia, which is a direct fit into a Faller 163501 gearbox, the other bits need are an on/off switch and a changeover/normally closed reed switch, hook all those up into a simple circuit with a half AA 3v battery and you have a running vehicle that's slower than any FCS as bought and does exactly the same thing. The wheels are non Faller copies which are available. I'd guess the bits to do this are around £40, the steering arms are around a tenner.  It's possible to build other things too with slightly different non Faller steering see the test of the Scammell Scarab vid that uses pretty much the same ideas and parts with a home brewed steering arm.

 

 

[red68]

Cheers

 

Thank you for the advise.

[Geneng]

I have been experimenting with the car system for some years now.   Cost seems always to be an issue - small UK market, high cost.   The postal charges from many suppliers (inevitably often based in Germany, there being few UK stockists) can be eye-watering for tiny items that could surely be mailed in a simple envelope.   You could buy a complete Faller starter set for only 4 times the price of a couple of their spares.   I have largely used Sol- Expert components in place of Faller for conversions (again German and supplier has now increased minimum postal charge - what a bummer).   Currently trying out digital control but again expensive even though I have avoided Faller and chosen the Dutch MCC Dinamo system.   To deal with OO scale needs versus HO I widen the front axle track by using rear wheel hubs - not ideal but works for me.   I am now moving gradually to using Lipo batteries instead of Nicad as the latter can struggle a little power-wise with the weight of UK diecast bodies.   I actually started with a Base Toys bus - relatively easy, plastic body, apart from dealing with modifying the metal chassis.   Later found that Britbus is a good design to work with construction-wise.

Only caution I have is that the Sol-Expert brass gears are not as durable as the Faller steel motor worm gears.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by Geneng
Updating

[Mike Harvey]

On one of the Facebook groups someone has just motorised a steam traction engine with only the steering being a regular Faller component. Seems to run prototypically slowly, and haul a couple of trailers. The most common modification to stock Faller vehicles is to slow them down using either a lower voltage power source, resistors or diodes, or a combination of all three.