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This the first full system test of my new Funicular Railway in Tucson Arizona. Please excuse the hand-held camera shake! See video here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jlcarmichael/49105795553/in/datetaken/ and here: https://youtu.be/SmoXgy7kNUo I moved it to my garden railway yesterday for permanent installation where I'll build a mountain around it. It features automated station stops, delay, and auto reverse- all programmable. Speed is adjustable if necessary. Also has an automatic warning bell, and extensive cabin and structural lighting. This is a rare two rail G-Scale Model Funicular with the ingenious and revolutionary ABT Passing switch. (the only railroad switch without moving parts! In fact, I know of no other G-Scale version in the United States. See: https://www.giessbach.ch/en/abt-switch.html And see this VERY interesting article: Giessbach Funicular.pdf (2.1 MiB) Most of the people I talk to- even railroad aficionados, don't even know what a funicular is. This is understandable since very few exist in the United States. But there are some incredible ones in the rest of the world. My funicular features automated station stops, delay, and reverse- all programmable. Speed is adjustable with a throttle. It also has an automatic warning bell just like the real ones, and extensive cabin and structural lighting. Controls are conveniently located outside of the rear of the Gear Room.Everything is weather resistant for outdoor use. To make a fully functional G-Scale model I had to teach myself everything about it since there is almost no information on modeling a funicular on the internet or railroad magazines. Everything, including the crazy tracks, had to be designed by just using old photographs of real funiculars. I is the biggest railroading challenge I have ever met. Precision in all parts of the design and construction is imperative. The split-level cars must stop exactly in line with the boarding platforms. The cars had to travel at 3 inches/sec. And I had to teach myself all about gears and gear ratios and how to do the calculations knowing the motor's RPM. Difficult but lots of fun! I’m making these full design drawings, electrical diagrams and construction photos available to everybody hoping that more will be built. This way, future modelers won’t suffer the learning pains and design errors I had to solve teaching myself how to make it, since funicular modeling information on the internet is almost nonexistant. See here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jlcarmichael/albums/72157711889718966 Meanwhile here are some of my diagrams and drawings for a quick overview: I'll also post another video after outside installation. I'd like to write an article for Garden Railways Magazine after final installation and landscaping is complete. My Funicular was inspired in part by a G-Scale demonstration model of the Horseshoe Curve funicular that was made in Barcelona Spain. Although his model is a little “rough around the edges”, it proved to me that an ABT Passing Switch was possible on a G-Scale track. I took his idea and made several improvements. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL0XYKtTEHw My thanks go out to him and to Mr. Steve Worack, the man who designed and sold me the Circuitron AR-2 auto reverse & delay controller. His helpful connection advise was critical to the sucess of the project. It works perfectly. Thank you Steve. If anybody has any questions, just ask. But please be patient as my reply may take time. I'm very busy trying to get thefunicular landscaping done before our Christmas party. Thanks, John
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