Thank you but you don't have to bother. I moved away from Cleveland more than thirty years ago. It,s been five years since I have been there. My mom still lives on the west side though.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
My brother in law lives on the west side of Cleveland, there a shop that kind of specializes in slot cars. Not sure if they have a track or are planning one. I can find out more this weekend.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
I remember when I was a tiny lad my dad would take my brother and me to the indoor slot car track in Cleveland ( maybe some other Clevelander can remember). We each had our own cars and customized them. Mine had front wheels that steered with the pickup shoe. Larger motors, gear changes and tire compounds were just some of the changes. The tracks were 16 or 20 lanes wide and it was fun racing them. There were multiple scales in this emporium that catered to different classes of cars just like the real things. Against one wall was a straight line drag course with an actual Christmas tree. It was not very popular but when they were racing it was cool to watch. There was not much room for breaking and there was soft foam that the cars would hit. Cars and controllers were inspected by the man before it could race. I remember being told once that the pickup brushes needed to be cleaned and combed before it could go on the track once. They did not like to retrieve broken down cars and if you could not control your car right they could cut power to your lane and you were disqualified.
After the track closed down my mom tossed out our cars and controllers. We had no place to run them anymore. Darn shame they are worth some serious cash now.
Fun times.
Ahh so that;s what they're using. It's been a long time since I followed the slot cars world.
Slot cars have gone hi-tech just as our trains have over the years.
At the high end of the hobby, custom tracks are built that include lane change turnouts that are controlled just like turnouts on our railroad from the handheld controller. The cars themselves also have onboard decoders which allows a driver to throw a "turnout" to run directly behind or in front of another car. This allows for some four and five lane club tracks to be able to race a dozen or more cars at the same time.
Each slot also has its own "turnouts" for access to pit row where each driver must pit for fuel or tires based on the laps or conditions.
Yes, proto-type operation has even come to slot cars ! ....
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
When I was much younger, I remember how much trouble it was just to keep slot cars powered all the way around the track. Typically, they only have one small set of contacts, and depend on momentum to keep going through dropouts caused by dirty contacts, crossings and the like. DCC does not like power dropouts. Of course, newer technologies like the TCS Keep-Alive decoders could help this.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Something to be aware of. DCC is only one way for digital control of a vehicle. DCC is strictly an NMRA thing. There are other ways to control a vehicle digitally.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Sort of. They have some sort of system that allow vehicles to change lanes. Not sure if it's actual slot cars or something like the old TCR cars.
Since slot cars go mainly in one direction, DCC isn't really needed though operating lights and horns would be neat.