I saw it run years ago, and it suffered from the common problem of all automated displays maintained by "staff", when the train stalls, they tweak the speed up so it won't happen again. The action consisted of a 0-6-0 pushing hoppers up the ramp to the elevated coal dock, and it did so at 'warp speed', stopping a mere inch or two before it leapt into space off the top, paused, then flew back down. I figured 1/4" scale would have a better chance of continuing to run at a more reasonable speed.
I ran a auto running 2' x 6' HO layout in the Accurail booth at the Chicago Model & Hobby show for about ten years. It was an urban scene, with ground level track, and track on an embankment with a ramp in between; the track plan based on the Chuck Yungkurth designed Gum Stump & Snowshoe beginner layout written up in Model Railroader magazine in the sixties. A SW-1 and caboose reversed three times as it climbed to a perch directly above where it started, then the conductor said, "Damn, I forgot my lunch" and they ran all the way down again. Repeatedly. It used Circuitron control modules and was quite reliable. One thing I learned is kids don't have any attention span to speak of; I set the delay while the switch was lined and the engine reversed to what felt right to me, and almost every kid turned away before the engine started moving again. I forget what I found the maximum delay was to keep their interest, but it wasn't very long at all.
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