Interesting ...

Somehow, I don't think real physics will allow a scale collision between a train and an automobile to look very "realistic" ... Mass, momentum, inertia, energy dissipation, etc. won't match the real thing.  I'd test something simple before spending a lot of time on it, to be sure the results are what you are looking for.  But, it does sound like a neat little project.  Good luck.  

...

Use the same foil material to make the interior.

weight

The foil car will need to be heavy enough or held in place securely enough so it doesn't just fly away like a soccer ball when it get hit, but not so weighted that the train stops.

This will certainly be interesting.  

Soccer Ball

you bring up a great point Bill & John, I hadn't thought about that? I think to get the initial impact to look ok I might try gluing the wheels to the surface with a small amount of tacky glue. Hopefully the train will cause a descent amount of crumple damage before the car bounces off to the side.

For the interior, I was thinking of using paper, simply due to it being easier to manage. Using foil will be very fragile but that said if I use paper I might have to use very thin paper like 'tracing paper' or possibly 'paper mache'?

Thanks for the ideas 

Cheers
Luke

"The foil car will need to be

    Hi Bill, When I was 12 years old I was riding in the cab of a GP9 that hit a car and it pretty much was kicked down the right of way like a soccer ball. Luckily it was a glancing blow and the car shot off to the right so was not crumpled up too badly. Couldn't feel a thing in the cab ,saw him coming from the left and just heard a crash as he crossed in front of us and got kicked off to the right.......DaveB  

Heavier aluminium?

You might try a heavier aluminum or perhaps several layers glued together for strength. I think your idea of a paper interior may work. You might try using toilet paper soaked in white glue placed over the interior to make a copy- it would be slightly larger but you could trim it to fit.

As for simulating the impact, as John mentioned, the scale physics might not work. I'm a retired auto injury claims adjuster and in all of the car v. train (including light rail) accidents I investigated, the impacted side/end of the car resembled an accordion, which, of course, is what modern cars are are designed to do in impacts. Fortunately, the occupants usually survived. 

However, I'm a big fan of you videos and it will be interesting to see your results.

Tissue paper interior?

A video posted here showed using tissue paper that was wetted and painted with white glue. It might give you the temporary look you want while still being fragile enough to crush. A little weight in the engine might give it that mass needed to react more realistically when hit - no idea how though!

Does Testors still make the liquid glazing? 

Neil E

Foiled

How do you plan to get your electric train to run into anything with a metal foil automobile sitting across the tracks?