Moving Trucks on the Greeley Freight Station Museum
David TrussellDescription
Rick Ingles is a volunteer of the Greeley Freight Station Museum and he will discuss the moving Faller car trucks they use on the railroad. They start with an original unmodified truck made in Germany. While they are well made and run well, they change them out to an American version, converting the European vehicles into American logging trucks.
They install the battery inside the logs and modify the cab by putting the steering mechanism in it that has a magnet that turns the wheels in the car. This magnet will follow a buried wire in the roadway. In order to convert these trucks, they only use the motor and the steering mechanism. He goes on to describe the motor and steering mechanism.
Darrell Ellis will describe the log control system. When they found out that an individual log truck only runs for about two hours, they needed to find a way to keep them running for eight hours. As a result, they developed a three truck log system. The three trucks are parked in their respective parking places and after a time delay the first truck will take off. Then the second truck will move up to the first spot, and so on. These trucks will remain parked in its parking place until the first truck comes back in and parks.
When all three trucks are in position once again, the first truck will be allowed to go out on the system. Darrell goes on to describe the system that senses that the truck is in position and the trigger to make it stop and go. For more videos like this, watch more from Allen Keller’s Great Model Railroad series in the Model Railroad Academy archives.