Fabulous! Wowsers!

Jimmy

Good luck with that Ross, as you may find out, AMS can be fickle to get running. I face the same battle every time I want to have a play with mine or have a running session with another AMS owner.

You will already know this but for the benefit of others who may be looking for help, my advice for what it's worth is to focus getting one car to run well on one lane - if you already know which of your autos do run well (9v battery is a real simple quick test) then you can move on to the track (see further below the YT clip).



TRACK

Try and just give the tops of the metal rails a wipe with a cloth, maybe dampened with Isopropyl Alcohol, or even spray some CRC onto a rag (not directly onto the track) to improve the conductivity. But if the tops of the rails have developed surface rust, you may need to resort to either a track-rubber (actually a normal pencil rubber can work as well), or a VERY fine-grade wet-n-dry / emery / sandpaper.

I find wet'n'dry is best because again you can use IPA with it (or CRC) to minimise dust. At least 1200 grade I would recommend, you only want to remove the rust, not any metal.

Various sources say that the track when new was coated (nickle?) and if cared for shouldn't rust but we are talking at least 30-40 years since the most recent track production, but most people will have track from the 60's & 70's.

You'd have to be pretty lucky to find as-new track now.

JOINERS

But before the tops of the rails, you also have the connecting pins between the tracks. There are three styles, the earlier ones (left pair in image) work loose more easily but are easily (gently) squeezed tight with pliers. The right end ones have the most grip and you'll soon know this when you try to remove a few with your fingers!! - use a hook or pliers to pull them out without damaging them - there is a Faller tool for it but it breaks quickly.



What's more important and easily overlooked is the surface of the sides of the metal track rails. These too can become tarnished, and you can't really clean them because they are recessed into the holes but all you need to do is insert and withdraw a joiner several times to burnish the connecting surface between the gripping portion of the joiner, and the track rail. And again, if you give the joiner a light spray with CRC first, it will help.

Just a point regarding the joins, you may find some vehicles tend to catch when crossing the join, mostly this will be on curves. It's because the edge of the plastic slot has very slight sideways difference, but if you go in the opposite direction it may be fine. I have at times used a sharp razor-blade or skill-knife to just shave the absolute tiniest amount off the very edge corner of the slot to try to taper it just slightly but be very careful because this is a one-way action!

RUNNING

Ok so once you have checked all the joiners and given the tops of the rails a rub, start with a simple oval of track - the purpose of this is to enable you to get the vehicles warmed up - AMS cars perform much better when they are warm, just like Märklin loco's. The difference in performance and smooth running after a few minutes (5-10) is quite remarkable. If you construct an elaborate layout straight off, it may look awesome, but getting the cars to complete a circuit may be a tedious stop-start affair. But there's nothing to stop you doing that, but I find starting with a reliable circuit and then adding track to expand makes trouble-shooting a whole lot easier.

Get one lane working well, then move on to the other one.

The car/s will likely stop-start quite jerky to begin with, but as the wipers burnish the tops of the rails, and the rails burnish the wipers, the contact between them will improve and you'll get better control, particularly at slower speeds.

If you are lucky to have one of the Zinc-Chassis vehicles, these run really well and the armature and reduction gearing give a flywheel effect to allow the chassis to coast a short way (a few mm's) before stopping. This can help the vehicle to keep going and recover if it hits a small dead spot. I've been known on occasion to use one vehicle to 'nudge' another along to help it warm up!! Watch the whiplash

But really, just use whatever you have but remember to start with known-good stages - vehicle (battery test), track connections and rail surface, and warm-up time. Then you can play/race to your hearts content.

Because of the age and fragility of the AMS models, to see one flying off a sharp curve at a zillion kph and crash to the floor might be nail-biting, having carpet below can help.

The only final thing the vehicles themselves. The maintenance items are ...

1: Tyres (Gummireifen) - very important - old hard cracked or loose tyres will make driving a pain. New reproduction tyres are now very freely available and make a huge difference to handling, grip, stability. All vehicles take the same tyres except the Trucks, and the F1 autos (plus the Aurora AFX vehicles but they were not made by Faller)

2: Pickups (Schleifer) - just like the third rail pickup on Märklin. They will get worn. Several styles, and again, new repro's are available. Mostly a single piece part but some early models with a PCB underneath have a different double-blade style.

3: Motor Brushes (Kohle / Kohlenbürsten) - speak for themselves. Two main styles depending on whether you have a 'pancake' / flat armature chassis, or the early original 'block motor'. Each has their own advantage and some enthusiasts like one style or the other.

4: Guide Pins (Führungsstift) - these will wear along the sides from abrasion against the slot on curves. There are a few styles, but again, repros are available. You only need to 'google' "Faller AMS" and the part description and you'll quickly find sources, or just check www.ebay.de

Hope this quick primer is of help to others.

Show us a video Ross when the kids are in the thick of it - but be careful, it's addictive!!

Thank you guys for that. I have accumulated a vast quantity of Faller AMS track and various accessories. I had always hoped to achieve a small layout integrated with M track and this text from Steve and Ross has inspired me to try.
Thanks.