Yeah I know that "HO" slot cars are closer to "S" trains but thats a compromise I'm willing to live with. And yes the older cars were more detailed and closer to scale than the newer stuff, we are starting to collect the reissues of the Thunderjet cars while the brother in law has a collection of about 100 originals, with no place to run em.
As for grade crossings, I purchased a couple sections of premade crossings but when adding the turns to enable a crossing it end up way too wide for my planned benchwork. Also the limitations of 45 or 90 degree turns, fixed radius and lengths of straight track make a pleasing roadway impossible. Just like the sectional vs flextrack in trains.
In thinking about making the roadway I'm going to try something like a cookie cutter arrangement. Try this on for size guys: using 1/4" masonite do cookie cutter patterns for the roadway using one layyer for a base and adding the second layer to groove out. This will be flexible enough to make rolling hills in the road and I can make the radius of the turns any number I want as long as the cars will traverse it (3" minimum?)
Regarding the grade crossings: I figure I'll have to cut through the rails to allow the cars guide pin to pass which means adding jumper wires across the gaps, thats easy enough. And the same for the road which is also no big deal. I think the hard part will be keeping large enough clearances for the flangeways and keep them samll enough to not catch the guidepins. I guess it comes down to the directional stability of the slot cars. I have seen some slot cars that use a guide "flag" instead of a pin, maybe that would help if I can retrofit such a thing.
I hapen to have an open area of scenery on my current layout that would be an excellent place to try this. If it doesn't work then thats fine since this layout is doomed anyway.
Realizing the poor power pickup of slot cars versus trains I think I'll scratch the dcc slot car idea for now.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
The HO Aurora "Model Motoring" sets were awesome. The cars and trucks were highly detailed. They had a catalog/flyer how to combine trains and slot cars. I wanted to do it but didn't have the money then. I remember when they came out with the Ford Mustang, every kid on the block wanted to first to own one. If memory serves me right, those little slot cars were about $4.00 each which was alot for a 11 year old...what memories.........................
Those Aurora sets from the 60's seemed to be more oriented towards scale modeling than racing - they even had dual pins and could run in reverse. The steering wheel-shaped controller also wasn't oriented towards racing the cars. Plus I seem to recall they had road/road crossings as well as road/rail - and I sort of think they had traffic lights for the roads.
And then there was the Tyco USA 1 Truckign sets, they also were set up to simulate roads and so forth and weren't really for racing. They had THREE pins on the semis, two on the tractor and 1 on the trailer, so you could back them up through the 'turnouts' into that various loaders and unloaders. Skip the out of scale operating accessories and it's pretty much a scale speed trucks on the highway set, also with road/rail crossings.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
ruder-
When I was using HO, I had a small Aurora Model Motoring circuit (road) in my train layout. Not really as big a deal as you might think. There were and I guess are HO car / train crossing sections if you wanted then and you can still get "basic" parts / track on eBay without breaking the back too much.
As far as setting the HO track in the layout, you can either route out a 1/4" deep x 3" wide trench for the track to sit in or just lay it on top and get creative with blending the raised edges into the terrain. Use of guard rails works wonders with that.
As far as prototypical auto speeds, that has to be something you have to figure out. Since you're doing this for your kids, "prototypical" may not be a concern and I think if you get the right components and know how to "tweak" the cars, you should be able to get them pretty close - providing you don't try to actually race them!
Archer
Ever since slot cars were introduced, there were attempts to integrate them into train layouts. The first one to market slot cars was Lionel in 1912, but they disappeared after only a few years.
(Picture source: Wikipedia)
Trains in those days were still more fashionable The 1950´s brought the slot car back, in various scales, down to something close to HO scale. "HO scale" slot cars are closer to 1/76 or even S scale, than HO. Slot cars being oversized, the unsightly slot in the road and the too fast movement prevented the establishment of "moving cars" on layouts. The lack of turnouts added to that . The introduction of Faller´s car system changed that, but even with this sophisticated system, the cars´ movement is rather abrupt. Too much action on a layout distracts the viewer from the trains. In the Miniatur Wunderland, their cars get more recognition than the trains!
In my youth days, you either had a train set, or you were into slot cars. A friendly co-existence was a rare bird. Most "serious" modelers will probably bat an eyebrow at the OP´s wish to add a slot car track to his layout, but it is his layout, and, after all "Model Railroading is Fun!" - even if it includes slot cars!
Lee
Yes the difference in speed is quite apparent but that's one of the pros, varying the pace of action. As for power pickup, it seems that the folks scratchbuilding slot track use copper tape, maybe not the most durable thing but easy to work with. On the issue of horns at grade crossings, folks do that with inanimate grade crossings now so what difference does it make? Heck operators even try to discourage blocking those same inanimate crossings, with road traffic it just gets more interesting and important. And yes a router or rotozip would be a good idea, I was thinking of a jigsaw but that would probably be unweildly.
slot cars and trains are a tough mix, for one thing the speed at which the cars go is a lot more than prototype speed. If you're going for the home built roadtrack i guess a good router is i norder as well as plenty of power bus line ( i think its how they call it, its the piece of metal that conduct electricty to the pick up shoes.) . its not impossible but its sure as hell gonna tax your patience, especially i nthe smaller size. I wouldnt recommend the grade crossing though, thats asking for a lot of complexity for something thats not gonna add a lot ( unless you have a football field size where u can have prototyp length warning distance for grade crossing )
for what its worth, if you wanna go the slot car way, build a small layout and see how easy it is to lay down your own track, in HO, u can squeeze a double track in 2 by 4... see about adding crossing and controlling at scale speed.. itll give u an idea on how easy ( or tough) it would work on the "real" thing
u might wanna try contacting cudaken, he's a bit of a slot car nut as well
hope that helps
OK I know this will irk a lot of folks but I'm thinking of adding slot cars to my HO layout. Reasons being: my kid likes em better than trains and I'd like to find somthing we can do together. Thw wife and I like slot cars too and there's not enough room in the basement for 2 layouts.
I see some pros and cons so I'll start with that. Pros: varies the action on the layout, sometime I just don't want to play with slow trains, adds operational realities; like keeping croosings clear for road traffic (let the slot cars run as drones) or the other way when racing cars letthe trains run as drones. Building scenery just once, less benchwork needed for one layout. I'd be building roads anyway so why not make em functional.
Cons: extra comlexity in construction especially grade crossings, noone makes actual 1/87th slot cars, vehicle path will be permanently set in stone since noone makes turnouts for slot cars, I'll probably have to make the entire roadway from scratch since I don't think the premade sections offer enough variation to accomodate the layout.
I don't think the electronics would be too hard to do, I could keep the slot cars DC though it appears that some N scale decoders could fit into a slot car meaning they can run off the same power bus. I'm aware that slot cars typically run at higher voltage than trains but they should run plenty fast still.
I'm not looking for opions on why or why not but rather how or how not. I believe that there must be some other modelers who have an affection for slot cars and maybe even some who'vebuilt what I'm thinking of. Besides Faller makes it's street system and vehicles which isn't too far removed from slot cars.
Anyone going to fess up?