I had one also, and if the spring got kinked, it created a lot of friction.

Thanks for reminding me of the name. I seem to remember switching the cars on and off the roundabout was not without mishap.

Me too. “Matchbox Motorway”. Made a racket and the batteries lasted about 15 minutes.

@@kerryjones1508 i used to have races with my bruv. fortunately our dad bought the matching Matchbox transformer, which is still in use today powering his doorbell. :O)

Tnx for the suggestion! Didn't even cross my mind!

I’m planning a rr layout with canal narrow boats. Hmmmm

It was a cool idea. I wonder if you could remount the gears to put a chain on the other side to drive cars in both directions.

I’m going to do that. The driver section is the same length as a straight track. I hope it works.

hmmm... print the road in blue without lane markings, model the canal banks to the side of the "blue road", they go up from the "road" surface of course, do a winding part where it goes left and right, maybe add a lake where you have one edge, one side of the lake with all kinds of plants on your layout and the rest of the biiiig lake is in the fantasy of the visitor or in a painting behind the layout... and of course, firstly elevate the lake to the height of the "road". Maybe have a stretch of the canal in the foreground and most of the lake in the background to turn back maybe. Or let the boats enter a tunnel, elevate the hilly terrain over the tunnel and don't make it too obviously, let the boats enter and leave the tunnels in a way that it's not so obvous that the tunnel brings the boats back to the point where they exit "another" tunnel. Maybe enter the tunnel on the right side of your layout to the right and let the boats emerge from "another" tunnel in the left of your layout from the left to the right. Make the tunnel open from the back of the layout, so that you can do some repairs if necessary. You could mount a backplate to the rear side (and right and left sides) of the layout, so that it's closed, but you could easily access the "blue road" in the tunnel if necessary... So, I need to stop my fantasy here, all is said, use your own imagination to make it great! Enjoy it and have fun with it! I already had fun in my fantasy, imagining some different sceneries... Yes, you need to elevate all of your layout to be higher than the canal (pardon, the "blue road"), but it could work. Make canal boats with these car tires in or under them and you are pretty much done, add a nice scenery, add some figures, each of them has something to do like in the real life, that makes the best sceneries... Maybe there's a farmer's market in a small town with fresh vegetables and fruits... a farmer is bringing in the corn from the fields... You could pretend there are locks to go up and down some elevation change of the scenery when in fact the "blue road" is everywhere in the same elevation to make it easier, but to have some nice ideas for the scenery... I think, the scenery might already be too crowded with all these features, pick a few of these features, make it nice, take your time, imagine how it might look, make it a good and relaxing scenery... not too hectic... just relaxing, that would be good with the narrow boats... And give the narrow boats something to do. Either way back in time when they were transporting goods, that might be a hectic scenery in that time --- or it's a scenery of today with tourists on the narrow boats, maybe your family in one of them and your friends... Then make the machinery, the farmers equipment or cars if you have them in your scenery, not too old to make them fit with today's tourism if you like it this way. But of course, it's your layout, you are the master of your layout, your rules apply, have fun and enjoy it! Or it's a futuristic fun layout with UFOs instead of cars or boats, whatever you like... Your fantasy is the limit... (within the limit of the available space, time and money ...) You could also model a road scenery with the terrain on the height of the road of course. And I guess, be prepared to see shiny flattened tire tracks on the road... when you let them roll too often...

i had one of those :o)

Danger, Will Robinson! 3D printing is a very versatile way to make *stuff* -- but it's a rabbit hole all its own. Next thing you know, you'll be looking for stuff (or even learning to design it) just to be able to 3D print it...

There's another video on YT by someone who's done a similar system with bicycle parts!

It will probably require some changes to work with a grade crossing, but it doesn't look impossible. Standard steel rails may mess with the magnetic connection with the cars. The full size grade down the street from here has a section of special track. The ties and all but the very top of the rail are out of sight. From above you see asphalt, black rubber, the rail, a slot for the wheel flange, more rubber, and more asphalt. That style grade crossing lends itself to 3d printing. A small section of non-magnetic rail would prevent interference with the magnets. The lack of visible ties, gravel road bed, etc... allows for a thinner section of the track so the magnets don't get too far from the cars. This would best be used on a seldom used siding, so the train could be synchronized with a long gap in the cars.

Great to hear! It drives dogs crazy though...

They might take a little bit of force to break them loose depending on your printer, but they should come loose. Did you print with the proposed settings (extra fine profile, 0.3mm wall width,..)?

@@RoadChainSystem hi I’am using an adventure 4 which appears to print only in standard in flashprint…it’s not a problem as they do print nice

Connectez simplement un deuxième grand engrenage quelque part au premier, par exemple en utilisant une courroie de distribution comme celle utilisée dans les imprimantes 3D. Utilisez ensuite des roulements à billes.

Do it.

Why, they are on the right side and you drive on the wrong one. Statistically driving on the right side is much safer. But that is not easy to understand for those who voted for Brexit😂😂😂😉😉😉

Hi, the double lane was designed to do just that, just add another drive unit piece with servo on the opposite side...

@@steffenrosmus9177 he means have cars running in both directions

⁠@@steffenrosmus9177please explain how it’s much safer, it makes no difference. But that isn’t what the OP was pointing out 😂😂😂😂

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. I initially tried this in the prototype design, but for some reason, it gave a lot of "wobble" between the servo gear and the sprocket gear

@@RoadChainSystem Try helical gears.

The chain is built up out of 13mm links. You can snap them together (or snap them apart) to make a chain that fits the amount of road pieces you have printed.

The "track only" files can be found here: cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/road-chain-system-double-lane-track . You connect the track pieces with the little plastic lips that are part of the printed files.

Hi, yes I did think about it, but then I'm getting into the realm of "professional" systems like Magnorail and the Faller Car System where you really have to "plan" your road track and make holes and slots in your baseboard . And I really want to keep it as "plug and play" as possible.

@@RoadChainSystem Thanks for taking the time to reply !!!!

The single lane track that comes with the starter kit doesn't have markings, so that can be used for N scale. For now, the double lane is only available in HO.

Yes actually! Also some wider corner ratios are in the works. And I am also thinking about an Arduino driven bus stop ;)

@@RoadChainSystem Oh boy! Can't wait 🤩🤩

Hi, a lot of prototyping and testing really. The road pieces are really straightforward, but the chain and drive unit took a lot of iterations to get right.

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/road-chain-system-starter-kit cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/road-chain-system-double-lane-track cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/garage-building-h0-scale

Now that you mention it, it was recorded at 25fps, thnx for the heads up!

Actually, it did cross my mind, because the new Lego road plates even have some thickness to them. But I think I would get a phonecall from their laywers real quick 😒

​@@RoadChainSystem I dunno about that, FXBrick is still going strong with their 3D printed Lego gauge track.