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Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
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Not something I'd do now, although when the sets came out with crossings to integrate slot with train, I wished I had the money.
Don't have any suggestions or ideas that haven't been mentioned here already.
Being able to get the wife and kid(s) involved in family activity? Priceless. Hope you can come to a workable solution. And if purists object? Tell 'em to go play in highway traffic. Blindfolded!
Walthers build a simple layout to demonstrate their product. It was in the showroom a couple of years back when I visited it. This is an interesting thread
Joe Staten Island West
I was way into slot cars years ago. Here is a pick of my last layout before moving to trains.
And another picture showing my homemade layout during construction. You can make your own track if you really need to although production plastic track is far easier and more reliable. The grooves were cut with a router. High nickel content MIG wire was rolled into the rail cuts using a screen spline tool. Worked pretty dang good. Nice not having any joints.
Be careful. At the velocity slot cars can exit the track they will do some serious damage to model scenery.
Alan
Freelancing the LK&O Railroad
Wow this is getting some airtime again. I've got the slot car idea on the back burner for now, still working on getting the trains running.
Alan, impressive. Did you just router into the ply or is that gray something other than paint? Mig wire huh, what size? Non flux core im betting.
As for speed, well you can always dial down the power pack, though that is kinda not what I'm looking for, slow trains/fast cars ya know. But for the sake of animation running the slots fairly slow (as slow as a slot can go anyway) adds a little variety.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Just routered into the ply. Gray is latex house paint. Tires eventually left very convincing black smudges in the corners. I forget the exact wire size, too many years ago. Used wire that you had to fight to force into the 1/16" groove. I remember it was very labor intensive to press all the wire. Stayed put pretty good for the two years the layout saw service. Tore it down because wanted banked turns. Went back to plastic track.
Problem with low speed operation of slot cars is the gearing. Ring gear max diameter limited by tire diameter. If I recall correctly, 32 tooth ring and 7 tooth pinion were the lowest possible ratio. Even then cars move fast by the time you reach start voltage of motors. Maybe a DCC decoder would overcome the issue. Didn't have decoders back in my slot car days.
Hi!
Back in the mid '60s when slot cars came out, a few of my friends tried their darndest to incorporate them with HO trains. They just couldn't get crossings to work, leaving the racetrack totally separate of the rails. The end result was toylike, and we ended up separating them as they just didn't go together properly.
Well, that was about 45 years ago and it appears like nothing really has changed. But it would be sooo cool if you guys could pull it off.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
willy6 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.........................
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.........................
I think every kid that had an Aurora Model Motoring set either had a Mustang, a Camaro or a Corvette. There really wasn't much you could do to "hop them up" back then with that pancake motor and spur gears. The later G+ cars would scream, but that's hardly prototypical, and they came in really cool bodies; Ford GT40, Chapparal, Cheetahs.
I think that instead of trying to incorporate slot cars into your train layout, that you build him a separate slot car layout, if you have the space. I made one on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, complete with roll-out grass, buildings under construction. I had a blast with it until a layoff at our plant and one of my coworkers who got laid off had no money to spend on his 3 boys for Christmas. I gave it to him to give to his boys, and they LOVED it.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
New Member here, love the story about donating the slotcar layout to a friend who was laid off to give to his 3 Sons for Christmas !
I have a 10 by 12 upstairs room I would like to house a HO Scale layout and my old slot car set. Have a original RR crossing, Aurora turnouts for service roads, etc. Like to incorporate DCC for the trains, and automate the RR crossing, any thoughts as to the style of layout ?
Considering either a L shaped shelf system w/ a loop @ ea. end or a layout I could walk into, w/ a 24" aisle, and 12" shelves down either side to be completely surrounded by the layout. Could even create a overhead arch and connect backdrops overhead.
Thoughts ?
Kent.
If you're going to do both, I'd try to do it in a way that makes sense scenically. I think trying to have the roadway look like a city street, with race cars zipping across the railroad tracks at 200 mph doesn't seem that realistic.
I'd try doing a model of a race car track separate from the railroad tracks - could be a simple oval track, or more complicated. You could have seating for spectators, sort of like a stadium - maybe even have a side track / station for commuter trains taking patrons to and from the racetrack. Even on a smallish layout, like an HO 4'x8', you could have trains running on the outside on 18-22"R curves, with the racetrack with it's sharp curves inside of that.
Thanks wjstix,
A bit frustrated the modeling manufacturers never picked up on the opportunity to add real model motoring. Not interested in featuring race cars, the older Aurora cars and track I have seems to be the closest thing, (short of the Faller Car Systems, can't understand why a lower cost alternative hasn't been developed.
I used to subscribe/ post quite a bit on a Slotcar forum about ways to slow the cars down, make them appear to operate more realistic, believe replacing the gears w/ small pulleys and belts from O-Rings was one approach, the newer cars w/ Neo Magnets whizzing around @ a scale 700 mph make we want to reach for a flyswatter.
You would think w/ today's technology there would be something readily available to offer scale, detailed operating autos, maybe w/ DCC, guess I 'm trying to justify the expense of the Faller System...
I have seen some really nice hand made slot car layouts that feature racing on city streets. You could model the Long Beach Grand Prix, Or Fast and Furious! Now that I think about it, street racing might be cool. My first layout was Tyco slot cars and trains. I discovered that I could easily reverse one lane to run the other direction and could drive my cars around the layout on the road. The Aurora cars someone gave me were the nearest to scale, and slowest. I also used Tyco and AFX cars but they were too big, but still fun to play with when I was a kid.
I ditched the slot cars when I built my first real model railroad. In the future when I build my dream layout I am going to include slot car track even if I have to build my own cars and trucks. For model railroaders who don't think slot cars can be nice models check these out:
You could do a lot of things wrong here, but don't do what my dad did and put it at eye level for your kid. I am so very lucky he never finished it. I may not have had my vision today.
It was also 1980s Tyco, so equipment failure was probably just as much at fault as his lack of ambition :/
However, to be fair, the Tyco US-1 trucks and cars were low-speed. They had a wheel knob and only went about roughly 50-60 SMPH, and only ever fell off the track if they hit a stop too hard. I think these may have been the slot cars my dad wanted me using on the train layout.
Also, I remember the steel tyco track being very prone to corrosion, and we had to sand it often with that brown scotch pad. Ugh.
Julian
Modeling Pre-WP merger UP (1974-81)
Westbound Thanks wjstix, A bit frustrated the modeling manufacturers never picked up on the opportunity to add real model motoring. Not interested in featuring race cars, the older Aurora cars and track I have seems to be the closest thing, (short of the Faller Car Systems, can't understand why a lower cost alternative hasn't been developed.
Once upon a time, stock car racing featured cars that were actually, well, "stock" - real, off-the-assembly line cars that were hot rodded for racing but basically street legal. Stick a number on the door, put tape on the headlights, and let her rip!!
Back in the '50's my brother and his girlfriend (now wife) went to a drag race event in his '40 Ford hotrod. Turned out there weren't very many entrants in the stock car event, so he paid the $5 or whatever and entered his car. Won first place. Helmet? Fire retardant suit? Nah, just a leather jacket and some Brylcream'll do ya.
wjstix Westbound Thanks wjstix, A bit frustrated the modeling manufacturers never picked up on the opportunity to add real model motoring. Not interested in featuring race cars, the older Aurora cars and track I have seems to be the closest thing, (short of the Faller Car Systems, can't understand why a lower cost alternative hasn't been developed. Once upon a time, stock car racing featured cars that were actually, well, "stock" - real, off-the-assembly line cars that were hot rodded for racing but basically street legal. Stick a number on the door, put tape on the headlights, and let her rip!! Back in the '50's my brother and his girlfriend (now wife) went to a drag race event in his '40 Ford hotrod. Turned out there weren't very many entrants in the stock car event, so he paid the $5 or whatever and entered his car. Won first place. Helmet? Fire retardant suit? Nah, just a leather jacket and some Brylcream'll do ya.
I'm surprised to see this back again. I haven't pursued this plan yet. Loss ofspace due to folks moving in. I'm working on a different plan based on having an oval track on the layout. Just happens that there used to be a local short track near the tracks in town. The old Cloverleaf speedway. Now I just need to figure out where on the layout to put it.
Rgr,
Currently thinking of 12' by 5' L" shaped layout, i.e. a walk in bookshelf system @ 48" in height. The aisle would be 24", allowing for a 18" deep shelf on either side. Trains would make a simple loop around around perimeter of the "L", w/ a siding or two for simple passing.
The car track would be old Aurora, I have a RR Crossing, Service Road turnoffs, and Turnouts.
Right now I'm building a 1/12 scale model of this w/ coffee stir sticks from Starbucks and carboard. Building the layout in Visio to print/ mockup.
Hi
My answer is don't do it at least not with slot cars
If you have to do all the work your post sugests
You are better off going with the Faller road system and doing body swaps to get US cars when the road is finished
No ugly slot, the cars can change routes handy if the municipal bus service goes one way and the delivery truck goes another.
To me a much better idea inspite of having a small amount of minic motorway and my railroad on the same board as a child and the two systems where designed to work together.
regards John
On another note, the Europeans have done some amazing things with micro R/C that work well on a train layout. But it's not slot cars, it's intricately detailed fine-scale stuff that is meant to run at low speeds. If I find the youtube video of the convention in Germany these were shown at, I will post it here.
I would be interested in the Faller type system, but I have questions. Do you manually control the vehicles or are they automatic. I would prefer to operate at least some of them myself. Are there American and Japanesse prototypes? Are there trucks, semis?
The idea of the old Tyco US1 Trucking was cool but the trucks were too toy like. I'd love to have something like that to supplement my trains, but it needs to be on the same quality level as nice scale model locomotives etc.
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe I would be interested in the Faller type system, but I have questions. Do you manually control the vehicles or are they automatic. I would prefer to operate at least some of them myself. Are there American and Japanesse prototypes? Are there trucks, semis? The idea of the old Tyco US1 Trucking was cool but the trucks were too toy like. I'd love to have something like that to supplement my trains, but it needs to be on the same quality level as nice scale model locomotives etc.
Many years ago I did have one of the usa1 sets. The trucks weren't that toylike except for wheels and tires. They were probably about 1:80 scale but close enough. Most slot cars are closer to 1:64 (S) scale.
Faller is just too expensive. And faller doesn't satisfy the need for speed like slot cars do.
My original plan was to use one at a time and let the other run in the background.
The Aurora cars used pins but the Tyco and some other brands used the blade type guide. I realize the commercial track is pretty restrictive but using it will save a lot of work and frustration. I once tried the copper strip conductor but it really did not work well for me and I just abandoned it to use the 15 inch straight track to make a drag strip for a school based club I was running then (I was a teacher.) It may work in the larger scales but for the nominal HO scale it seems to have problems.
I have some of the old T-Jet cars and they seem to be close to HO but the ones that followed did seem to grow and are now more like 1/64. If you are really serious about realistic look an S scale layout would be a better fit.
Back in the late 90's I was a member of an asphalt NASCAR modified team and we spent the weekend at Martinsvilles Speedway in Virginia. As I was standing in the stands with my stopwatch in hand, I noticed a huge freight train running behind the speedway, parallel to the backstretch and instantly thought that this place would make a great layout someday!! I could build a speedway and have a yard just behind the backstretch!!! Maybe my next project.
Rich
Here is how i did my slot car/train layout. I wanted a huge layout. My main focus is on the slot car track. I do like the trains....but i love the racing more. SO FAR there is about 70 feet of slot car track....and im thinking of adding more. The train crossing i made myself. You can get train crossing for slot car tracks...but...they are 90 degrees to the track. I need one that was at an angle to fit my layout needs. The train can take 2 different paths....it can go around the outside perimeter....or it can be switched to go inside and become an obstacle for the cars. As you can see....i have the train going under the track and around it. It works great...already raced on it a few times. The part your not seeing tho...is a 1 foot sectoin that folds out from under the front edge...that is a 16 foot long dragstrip. I have never seen all 3 elements combined before.....train....roadcourse....dragstrip. It will be fully decorated with trees...buildings...lighting...people...etc. Also...to help save space in my garage....it folds up against the wall using a winch and pully system. I hope this gives you some inspiration.
Very Cool layout Wolfangel ! Like the idea of a 45 deg crossing, opens up more options.
I always wanted to automate the crossing, maybe use a Circuitronics system to control a rely which would cut power to the section of slot car track prior to the RR crossing.
Like to better understand how you made this crossing. What kind of car track are you using ? Tyco or AFX ? I have the older Aurora pin, and clip style, I may be willing to experiment w/ a 9"straight piece.
Right now I'm just farting around w/ the 1/12 scale model of the model layout ;)
Wolf......that looks badass!!! With bandit cars too!!
Wolf, if you have some time to spare, I have a project for you...
That looks great except for the wide benchwork against a wall. May make construction and scenery difficult.
Thanks for the comments. I am using AFX track. I started out with one set (GIANT RACEWAY)....and it wasnt enough track and didnt have the pieces i needed. So...there was a guy who was selling ALOT more track and a whole bunch of train track and cars. So...i lucked out on that one.
As for decorating the table....its not going to be that bad. I probably wont decorate the very back edge or the "other" side of the train track or slot car track....for 2 reason....first of all...you wont see it...and second...it would most likely get messed up being folded against the wall. I have 5 inches i can work with in height on the layout. If you look close....there is a peice of wood....5 inches wide....attached to the wall. The table is attached to that....that way the table is that far away from the wall and not crush everything. I will post more pictures as i go along. I know its not going to be prototypical train layout....and that is fine with me. Its built to have fun with....not look like anything current....and can have fun with when the family is in for the holidays. Should be a competitive track.
So far its all working out as planned. Im going to see if i can add more track today.
I am sorry, but I find this set-up to be completely out of place here. This is a slot car set-up and not a model railroad! I don´t think there is any place in the world where a railroad line crosses a race track.
Again - nice toy, but no scale model railroad!
I have both the Aurora Turnouts and the Service road turnoffs. I'd have small houses at the intersections, and long straights heading off into a Western scene. I really like the Faller System, but own slotcar track, so may try it, can always take it up. Here's a sketch of what I 'm thinking of doing: