Miniatur Wunderland Car System Equivelent

Have You heard of Miniature Wonderland?  It is the world's biggest HO model railroad and is located in Hamburg, Germany.  They have a massive car system and the whole thing is full of secrets of how they did it.  They have a article on their site, but it's not that descriptive.  Luckily, I took the time to look through their descriptions and figured out how I think it was done.

Step 1: Materials

Here is what you will need.

Faller Car System:
Vehicles of your choice
Road
Any Other Accessories You Would Like (You can make your own after completing this article)
If you are reading this after 9/13, get the Car System Digital 3.0
At the time of writing, the digital system 3.0 is not available.
Beware the links above are in German.  Click the USA flag at the top to get it in English.
There may be more items you will need as you go through this article but that is all that is needed to get started.

Step 2: Set Up the Sensing Rig (optional)

Unfortunately, I did not write this step, I found it.  So do the following step.
http://www.opendcc.org/s88/s88_magnet/s88_magnet_e.html
You can also skip past this step and do step 3 or do both.

Step 3: Start, Stop Rig

Now what you are going to have to do is put a network of stop rigs, or electromagnets around the layout so you can stop the cars.  They will sense the magnet and shut off the motor.  I would recommend wiring them to switches on a main control board so you can flip a switch and stop each car.  They also sell them directly.  This can Also replace step 2.

Here is a video I found with a very small car and how to stop it.
Or, if you want to pay for it, you can get the PC Controller and save the hassle.

Step 4: Charging

Ok.  The setup is starting to look great.  But what about charging the cars.  They are designed to be hand picked up and plugged in.  But that is not always convenient.  Miniature wonderland has their own charging rig.  It works like something out of the Pixar movie Cars.  Here is some links of how to do it.  Unfortunately, Their in french.  (Why can I not find anything in English?) So you will have to use Google Translate.
http://amfn.nice.free.fr/pics/bloc-csf.htm
http://amfn.nice.free.fr/pics/station-csf.htm
http://amfn.nice.free.fr/pics/realisation-csf.htm

Here is a video of how it works in miniture wonderland

And here is a video of what the finished product should look like (above)

Step 5: Run Them

Give the system a test run. Hope it turned out great.

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Comments

[Cajundweeb]

Sounds great. Perhaps one day I may incorporate this into a model railroad.

[haunted.haunt]

@OogieMustBoogie I will post more details soon. I had to pause the project due to money and time. I would also love some details on your project. Do you think you could post some details on your project? I would love to add that to my layout too.

[OogieMustBoogie]

I think I'll just create an instructable after I finish the project (which could take a while for the same reasons as yours)

It won't be automatic like the car system, the ships will be radio control

When it comes to making things automatic that do the same thing constantly, my understanding begins to get hazy

The ships at the Wunderland are completely on their own (not RC) except they don't automatically charge themselves

[OogieMustBoogie]

The Miniatur wunderland is awesome!

I'm currently working on recreating their ship-system

This is an excellent version of their car charging system, but can you into more detail on the construction of the rig?

I'm considering giving the car system a try

Thanks