TooOld Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 I built this back around '84 or '85 in a spare room in the mobile home I lived in . Every body thought I was crazy and I guess I was , but it sure was fun and my 9 yr old son loved it ! It was pretty tight in a 14 x 12 room so the whole thing slid back and forth on kind of a rail system made from 2 x 4's . It's four lanes with four 20 volt transformers supplying the power . And yes , there is a train too ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooOld Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooOld Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunkPile Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Nice craftsmanship. Is that a car track inside of a car track? Two separate courses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmvw guy Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Pretty complex set-up, it looks like a long term project. I love the banking on the track. I started a similar set up back around the same time. My son, around 4 or 5 at the time, played King Kong and stepped on all my buildings destroying them. I soon gave up on the trains when all the kids wanted to do is race them and moved on to just HO racing. Really mine was nothing like yours, i just wish it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalbert Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Question I've always had about building a track... What do you use for the slot and the rails? is it just a notch in the wood surface that you lay strips of metal (brass or?) in for contact rails and a notch between them for the pin or is there stuff made specifically for that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2002p51 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 That's pretty cool. Daytona with the option of running the oval or the road course. Neat idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooOld Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 Nice craftsmanship. Is that a car track inside of a car track? Two separate courses? That's pretty cool. Daytona with the option of running the oval or the road course. Neat idea. Yep , two separate course . The outer two lanes ran the oval and the two inside lanes ran thru the infield and turns three and four . This was back before the G-Force cars and such , I raced plain old AFX cars and it was a blast on the banking ! They were plenty fast with 20 volts on each car and they spun easily if you weren't careful . I've got some pics of my cars , I'll dig them out and post some . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CadillacPat Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Very impressive setup. I always say enginering the job is half the fiun. I remember the first HO slot car tracks I saw around 1959 were in Hobby Shops where you could place your hand on the store window and the cars would run around the track. Looks great!!!!!!!!!!!!! CadillacPat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazlow Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 That was cool, lots of options of things to do. laz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 So what became of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooOld Posted May 5, 2013 Author Share Posted May 5, 2013 So what became of it? I was a single Dad raising my son and the next summer my girl friend moved in with us . Nuff said , Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvymtl Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Sorry to hear about losing the track . My Dad and i tore ours down about 20 yrs ago . packed all up in plastic totes for the future. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwolf Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Awesome layout on the set great job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbuzzed Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 I like that layout (even the railroad ) and I can appreciate the time it must have taken to construct it. Too bad you had to give it up . I had an all-plastic Aurora setup in our basement when I was in my teens. I started out in HO cars with the original, "vibrator" "Model Motoring" cars that were AC powered. When I got my first DC powered Thunderjets for Christmas, we almost burned them out trying to run them with the AC transformer. It wasn't too long before I had a couple of hop-up kits and a layout under my bed. That didn't last too long; I relocated the track to the basement on a table where I had a lot of room; soon after, I moved it to our unused ping pong table. Nice, long straight with a banked turn. By then I was into the A-FX cars and heavily modified Thunderjets. But I digress... I do have all my original Aurora track and a lot of my old cars. I hope to have them up and running again one day as long as I can find the room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooOld Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 I like that layout (even the railroad ) and I can appreciate the time it must have taken to construct it. Too bad you had to give it up . I had an all-plastic Aurora setup in our basement when I was in my teens. I started out in HO cars with the original, "vibrator" "Model Motoring" cars that were AC powered. When I got my first DC powered Thunderjets for Christmas, we almost burned them out trying to run them with the AC transformer. It wasn't too long before I had a couple of hop-up kits and a layout under my bed. That didn't last too long; I relocated the track to the basement on a table where I had a lot of room; soon after, I moved it to our unused ping pong table. Nice, long straight with a banked turn. By then I was into the A-FX cars and heavily modified Thunderjets. But I digress... I do have all my original Aurora track and a lot of my old cars. I hope to have them up and running again one day as long as I can find the room. It sounds like we grew up in the same time zone and did the same things ! I got started with Thunderjets around '63 and never looked back ! I always had a track somewhere but really got serious when the AFX cars came out . I always had a track set up in a spare room or in the basement and it always seemed to get bigger every time I redid it . If you ever dig your stuff out , take a few photos . It would be cool to see what you have . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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