Mixing slot cars with 0 gauge trains.

[Wes Whitmore]

I set up my older Carrara 1/32 set in a 6ft oval just to see how things looked.  Things look ok with the 1/32 cars.  The cars are around 5.5" inches long.  The only problem is that I don't think there is a way to set them to run around the track at one voltage.  I can't seem to hold the trigger at a voltage that the car goes around the track without slugging around the corners, or zooming in the straights.  I think at a minimum, I would have to pull out all of the magnets inside the car to require less juice to move it, then I would probably need to chop off the plug on one of my extra controllers and mate it up to the output of a DC transformer from an HO or N guage set.  That might work.  There are 3 prongs on the controller, so I will need to investigate to see what that third one is for.  All in all, since I own the sets already, they look ok.  the 1/43 would look better.  I don't know if you can get them to creep along the track, but they look OK sitting there.

Wes

[SchemerBob]

Might be slightly off topic, but what about K-Line SuperStreets? These cars are (I think) full O scale, in fact they run on "streets" that are actually O scale track, and they're made by Lionel. I thought this would probably be the way to go for me, if I ever had operating city streets, which I think I may someday. I think having operating cars with the trains makes things look much cooler. You could also still have some side streets where you have other stationary vehicles. Not everything has to be in motion, but I think a good portion of it should be.

[dochooter]

Great topic.  We saw a demonstration SCX digital set up (1:32) at FAO Swartz in Chicago Macys last weekend and the kids and I were blown away.  Have not thought much about slot cars since I was a kid.  I am now considering building a slot car layout under my train layout.  With lots of planning and space, I think it would be fun to have a 1:43 Artin race track on a layout landscaped nicely.

[Wes Whitmore]

Superstreets is still the way I plan to go.  Just for the fact that it's more to scale and you can run trolley's on it.  I don't have enough room to make a real raceworthly track, and I have seen cars fly off and hit stuff constantly with the wrong driver, so real racetrack isn't ideal.  I had a bunch of Carrara track in storage and thought I would try it.  Superstreets finally was delivered to my LHS right before Christmas.  That's probably where the next $100 goes...

Wes

[dochooter]

I set up my first set of Superstreets and I am very pleased.  Love the tight turns weaving through my emerging city.

[phillyreading]

seacoast, I have H.O. race cars and know of two places in West Palm Beach FL that handle H.O. race cars, both cars and track.  They are not dead, just overlooked alot of times, also new company is making the old Aurora style cars called Johnny Lightning, and a another new company bought out the rights for Model Motoring a.k.a. the old track style of Aurora H.O. race cars.  Also one other company is making H.O. race cars, Life Like.

pbjwilson, I like your idea about using race cars from Walgreens for your layout, I did not think about that. Might be too late for this layout as I am very crowded for space right now. You might be able to buy a two train transformer in H.O. to control your race cars if they are D.C.

A quick note about Super Streets, I can run Lionel passenger cars # 6-15104(Reading company) & 6-7012(New York Central) on the small size curves, locomotive was the Plymouth switcher.  Play around with Super Streets and your rolling stock and you may be surprized at what goes through the Super Street curves.

Lee F.

[Rob The Sea Cow]

I've been looking into this.  They make a 1/43 scale slot car, pretty close in size and readily available.  I'm also using Lego's for my buildings and people.

[DavidB59]

Many years ago, back in the 60's, Ideal Toy Co. made a line of slot cars called Motorific. These cars were 1:48 scale. You can find a few still on ebay. Since these cars and trucks were battery operated they wouldn't require special track. If you were handy with power tools you could cut grooves for the slot pins in the roadways of your layout with a power router.

[Boyd]

Wow I started this thread 10+ years ago.

[stebbycentral]

Boyd

Wow I started this thread 10+ years ago.

 

Which is not surprising since this idea has been around for 30+ years.  Those of us who are old enought to remember the early days of slot car racing (those devil machines that alledgedly "killed" model railroading) know that rail crossing accessories were available practically from day 1 in all MRR scales. 

 

In fact SuperStreets is nothing new.  There was a European manufacturer (Faller I think) offering a system like it in the 1970s in HO and N.  Instead of electricity it used track sections with a kind of mini garage-door opener chain thingy embedded in it, that pulled the vehicles along at a realistic speed.  You could use just about any of the manufacturer's vehicles on it by simply attaching a clip device to the undercarriage of the car or truck. 

  

The problem is as it always was, that slot cars are/were sold as racing sets.  The cars are geared for speed.  And it's not very prototypical to have Ferarries and Formula One racers speeding through the middle of your rural community.  That is why the SuperStreets idea works better for our application.

[rtraincollector]

Okay I didn't read every comment but I do remember back in mid 60's aurro or how ever you spell it had a track that ho trains could cross there race track as a friend had it on there layout. we use to see if we could beat the train at the crossing a lot of the time lol. 

I have seen also where some use super streets for a section of track to go thru town for the train the go back to regular track and it looks realistic and nicely done. 

[ADCX Rob]

rtraincollector

Okay I didn't read every comment but I do remember back in mid 60's aurro or how ever you spell it had a track that ho trains could cross there race track...

There was a company called "Lionel" back in the 1960's that had the same set up with road/rail sets in their catalogs with the requisite grade crossing(s) for the slot cars.

[rtraincollector]

that may of been who all I know it was in HO that was when I was like 9 and I'm about to turn 61