The Faller Car System

We all know the main feature of a model railway are the moving trains but in recent years the Faller Road System has added an incredible extra dimension to model railway layouts. The Faller Road System is designed by Faller, a German company that produces a large range of products for model railways, includes a wide variety of road pieces and accessories that can be used to create realistic roads with moving vehicles! The Faller Road System comes in different scales, including N and OO Scales.

The Faller Road System works by having cars with motors and a tiny magnet fitted, follow a magnetic wire which is built into the baseboard. The magnetic wire is buried into a groove cut on the baseboard using a special tool which Faller provide. This groove is then covered using the supplied filler and then the surface is painted to create a realistic looking road.

Another option recently released is laser cut road pieces. These pieces are sections of road in a variety of shapes, straights, curves, T-junctions etc that click together. Each piece already has a pre-cut groove for the magnetic wire to be placed.

The Faller Road System has a range of accessories, such as bus stops, traffic lights and even an overhead satellite monitoring system. Each vehicle has a relay inside of it that functions together with an electromagnet placed under the road at the location of the bus stop or traffic lights.

When the electromagnet is powered under the road, it causes vehicle to stop thanks to the relay cutting the circuit. When the power to the magnet is switched off the vehicle will begin to move again.

Another accessory that Faller provides is a branch off junction, like a set of points on a model railway. The switch sits under the road in the same way the electromagnet does, and the user determines the way the vehicle will travel by switching the switch. It really is that simple. It is possible to create your own route changer using an Arduino circuit with servo motors and this can be automated using software called JMRI.

The Faller Road System can be a stunning addition to any model railway layout, it does however come at a cost. Some would argue that the realism it creates is well worth the cost. The system has become so popular that some are modelling standalone road systems rather than model railways now.