hmm interesting thought but then the one problem I could think of is how to work tons of track magnets? (the engine being dummy beside I'm not sure how one could power it unless you wanted to refer to a heavy battery and some good r/c control?)

just my own commenting ;)

No need for any R/C actually unless you want to control lights or functions inside the vehicle, even if that would be quite simple.

The working principle is simplicity in itself and I believe simple to transpose to a miniature, except for the possible magnetic interference regulatory issues that may completely impede this.

As to the principle, one could have a monorail system like the real thing, divided in sectors, each autonomously powered and isolated from the adjacent ones. The cleverness is that one needs to power up the only sector where the vehicle is currently on, saving power.

Using the very same magnetic field the vehicle is "riding", its possible to determine which one the vehicle is on, so track occupancy detection is also ensured from the outset...

Luis

I would also be interested in having a model of this on my layout.

Come to think of it, if this can be done on an HO scale then I wonder if the Faller Car system could do something similar in order to eliminate the need for a battery in the units and end up finding a way to make the guide wire also provide magnetic power to the vehicles.

thanks steventrain...I picked this nick because I would be a dragon but in small scale (in relation to model trains) hm?

anyhow as for the trackside detection....hmm I guess that could work...the next question would be CURVES??!!! heheh

I doubt it would require "tons" of magnets. if the model is made lightweight out of plastic, aluminum, or carbon fiber (like the real ones probably are - no heavy zinc or steel plate), maybe rare earth magnets like the really strong neodymium ones would work in the train, and the "rails" would be coils, and not permanent magnets.
should be no need for any circuitry in the car, except maybe something for lights, would could be just as easily done with a small battery and LEDs. Like Laalves says, the rails will control the speed of the car. No need for motors, mfx in railcars to add weight.

Here is a model of the TNT-Monorail, the Sydney-Darling-Harbour-System:

http://www.modellbahnkeller.de/monorail.htm

There is a model of the Transrapid at Miniatur-Wunderland in Hamburg:

http://www.streckenkun.de/pmiwula4c.htm

Funck

Home made magnetic levitation is not impossible at all. Look at my old levitator project: http://users.tkk.fi/~hkoskenv/harrastus.html and title "Levitaattori" there. I am sorry, that all text is in finnish, but there are some pictures and scematics. My model was not exactly H0-size and it has little problems with energy economy (about 25 V 3 A) and propulsion, but magnetic levitation worked very well.

The levitator hanged from a 5 mm x 20 mm flat iron with two U-shaped electric magnets. Both ends on the levitator had an optoelectronic detector to measure the distance form iron rail. A quite simple electronic PD-control circuit adjusted the currents of electromagnets so, that the distance was about 2 mm.

The propulsion was more problematic. At the beginning I had a electric motor with paper propeller. That worked well, of course, but that was not very elegant way to propel the modern magnetic levitation train. After that I tried a E-shaped magnet with three-phase current. That worked, but the propulsive force was very weak. After that I started to make a whole new small, fine and microcontroller based device, which never got out of the planning board. [:(]