Building Thunder Cave Raceway
Part 1 - The Decision About Scale
Anyone who knows me, or has heard me talk on the subject, knows how much I admire people who open commercial slot car tracks. I personally have never had the available cash nor the dedication to open one. I understand all the problems that exist with running one as I have pondered the idea for many years. It is a task that seldom makes any money and usually is not truly appreciated by the people who race there. The reason it is not appreciated is probably because most people who race have a different idea about how the track should be run. I have been at odds this way with every track owner locally for many years. No matter what my feelings or opinions are, I always respect the owners' right to run his track the way HE feels it should be run. It was his money put up after all and he is there every time the doors open and not me.
I have finally decided to make the investment in a track at my home. I say investment, but I am not especially talking about money. I am more talking about my time, labor, and the sacrifice of space which I so cherish and prize. I have built a home track before but it was not what I really wanted. This time I am going to the expense, time and labor to build what I want. What I would truly like is a warehouse in my backyard with a Blue King in it, but that is not going to happen. What is realistic is a track in my storage building in my backyard. This building is 10'x20' and I can afford to donate a little more than a quarter of that space to a track. I figure the space I could afford for the footprint of the track would be about
5x10 1/2'. The next decision, of many, is what kind of track to build.
55 square feet is just not enough to allow for a 1/24 scale track of any real substance. I guess you could build a figure 8 in that space if you used really slow cars. That would not be satisfying for long and I would want to rebuild quickly just like my last effort.
A small 1/32 scale track could be put up in that limited amount of space. I have very little experience with 1/32 scale other than Womp Womps which I have run at commercial 1/24 scale raceways. This space would not be appropriate for Womps as they would not be able to utilize their speed. The modern 1/32 scale cars use magnets for traction. My experience with magnets goes back to an HO scale track I bought for my kids and a commercial raceway in San Antonio, TX. In San Antonio, I met one of the smartest and best track owners I have ever met, Jim Honeycutt. Jim is a very bright man with a great vision. At this raceway he featured steel braid and used magnets on his rental cars. He also had magnets for sale and had racing with magnet traction 1/24 scale cars. This was not very appealing to me though. As for how it works with 1/32, I can only figure it works well as it is popular and prominent in that scale. So, 1/32 is a possibility.
The track I built almost 3 years ago was a 1/43 scale track. I only had room for a 4x8 table in a spare room so I decided to try this scale. The reasons I decided to go with this scale was the limited space and the price. These tracks and cars are the most inexpensive of all the scales. I set up a nice track layout using SCX plastic track and flush mounted it using project boards so there was no need for guard rails. In effect, I had borders completely around the track. I also used project board along the border walls to make a soft wall. I even went as far as to wire the track for a 12v battery. Anyone who saw the track thought the wiring set up was pretty neat. So, the result was nice table, nice layout, flush mounted, good power, fun for about a month. I was too limited and I did not like how the cars responded. Even 1/43 scale needed more than 4/8' to run on.
Combine the results of 1/43 not having enough space with 1/32 needing even more space and the only conclusion I could come up with was HO would be the appropriate scale for my situation. To be honest, this kind of stuck in my throat a little. My opinion of HO has never been very high. However, there would be enough room to build a decent HO layout. Plus, I have always wanted to have a 4 lane track. Looking at possible layouts I believe I could still get a fun layout in the amount of space I have even if I went with 4 lane. It would have to be a pretty simple layout, but I would rather have a simple layout that is race-able than a busy layout that is not. You can actually get a 35' long track on this size space without too much difficulty.
So, the decision has been made. I will build a 4 lane HO track using a 5'x10 1/.2' platform. I will use the best track I can get and put the work into it to make it the best racing surface possible. Since the building techniques I plan to use will not allow the track to be taken apart again I must be sure of the layout I am putting up. Much thought will have to go into this process.
Final note....since making this decision I have been doing a lot of research into HO scale racing. It is amazing what this scale has grown into. What I am seeing leads me to believe organized racing in this scale around the nation dwarfs what is happening in 1/24 scale. I am truly excited about my decision! Be watching for Building A Home Track (part 2) - Deciding On The Layout.
Building Thunder Cave Raceway
Part 2 - Designing The Track
When you build a
plastic track, part of the benefit is you can reshape the track from
time to time. The track I am building, while it is plastic, will not be
afforded such luxury. Once this track is put together you will have
to destroy it to take it apart, but more on that later. So, the design
is the most important phase of this build since I cannot change it
later. The utmost care and consideration has to go into planning it.
My
attitude toward HO was I will probably be most interested in T-Jets
which do not have magnets for traction. I then saw how far along the
magnet cars have come and all the advancements that have taken place
around the HO cars. No longer does changing out the rear tires and
pick-up shoes constitute hopping a car up. Today you can change your
arms, magnets, front ends, hubs, gears, and even the chassis on these
little cars. I have seen videos of these cars on the tracks and the
people are actually controlling them in the turns. I had heard about
the "Fray" cars, but had no idea of the extent they could be modified.
Then what really turned the world around for me was seeing a picture of a
"Gravity" class car. If you didn't have something for size comparison
in a picture they more compare to a 1/24 pan car than a T-Jet. I was
amazed and wanted one and a track to race it on. In fact, my mind was
open to a lot of possibilities including magnet traction cars. So, my
mind set sail on the possibilities.
I thought to
myself, "Self, what if.....no, that's ridiculous. You could never do
that. Could you?" All my life I have been told what I couldn't do and
have defied people and logic by accomplishing things people said I
couldn't do. Why not try? "Try what?" you say. My favorite track of
all time has been the Blue King. Why, even Elvis had a Blue King in
Graceland, that is how cool they are. Of course, I couldn't build a
full size King or even a true scaled down King. I might be able to
build a 4 lane reduction of one if I didn't try to have the long
straight longer than my allowed space. I am not about to try to route
one and still would have to use plastic track to accomplish this. So
accomplishing this is dependent upon the radius of the banked turn and
the degrees of a circle the turns come in. I mean, if you make a King
without the bank turn, really, you have an American Black. Also, the
banked turn has to pinch in towards the straight to set up the dead man
turn and the finger.
OK, my first track purchase came
in. It is a Tomy Super International set. I know I will ultimately
need more track than this, especially since I am planning a 5'x10'
table. The first thing I did was to put together a few turns and
straights to get the feel of how a "mini King" would shape out using
plastic track. Big problem! The curves come in 1/4 turn and 1/8 turn
segments but not 1/16 turn segments. On a King the big banked turn at
the end of the long straight is more than 180 degrees. It actually
pulls back in towards the main straight to set up the finger section of
the track. With the sections available you could either make a 180
degree turn or a 205 degree turn. If you used a 180 degree turn then
the finger would be not much more than a "nub". I would not be happy
with this at all. If you go with a 205 degree turn, the straight that
follows the bank turn would have to be very short to prevent running
into the main straight (too much pinch back). The reason the bank turn
works on a King is you carry your main straight speed through the turn
and carry it part way down the short straight before having to back
off. With the 225 degree turn, since the largest radius banked curve I
can find is 12", you would have to be backing off by the time you
cleared the bank turn. The bank turn would do nothing for the straight
to follow. Not a good start.
I talked with a
representative from HOPRA about the idea of using a bank turn and was
informed of some drawbacks. One serious drawback is the corner
marshaling in a bank is more difficult. I was also cautioned about the
problems that can occur with over and under sections. The corner
marshaling in these situations can be difficult also. Since I want to
use this track for personal use these would not be that serious. But,
since I also plan on having friends over to race, it does make a
difference. Result of my trial and error, plus what I have been
advised.... the King has left the building! I will not be building a
King even though I think it would be fun.
This left me
exploring other layouts. To be honest, I like the ones that were
suggested with the Super International set. I like the idea of a
replica of a real track. One problem here is space as most of these
tracks require more space than I am willing to dedicate to it. The
other problem is, what may work for real F1 cars will not especially be
as good for slot cars. I just see too many other more race-able layouts
than these. One website I have been going to that has really sparked
my interest is www.hoslotcarracing.com. I have looked at two layouts I
especially like and they both fit on a 4'x8' table. They are the
Ravinia 35 and the Whitefish Bay 33 layouts. I laid out a two lane
version of both of these tracks seeing what they actually looked like. I
have to admit I like both of them. However, I think my choice would be
a hybrid of the two. With the limited amount of track pieces I have at
the moment I could not get the modified layout to work out exactly
right. It will be possible with a bunch more pieces though.
So,
I will be making a "Ravinia Fish" layout. It should be about 35' in
length and it will fit comfortably on a 4'x8' table, which I just happen
to already have, which currently holds a 1/43 scale track. It will
just be a matter of removing the legs, moving the table out of the house
into my building and then installing new legs which will have lockable
casters on the bottoms. This will enable me to have the track
positioned against the wall when not in use or only being used by me.
And when I have people over to race, the track can be pulled out and
locked into place.
As I mentioned, this track will be
permanent. The power supply will probably be two 0-30v 10 amp
supplies. The lap counting system will be photocell set up with a
dedicated laptop. The track will be insulated from the table with
deadening material. The joints will be glued together to make sure they
are rock solid. The rail joints will be soldered together to make sure
the current flows good. The gaps between the side by side track
sections will be filled with plastic compound then sanded smooth. The
entire track will be sanded and will receive a new painted racing
surface. Lane color strips will be used. The walls around the table
will utilize cushioning as will any walls used in the interior of the
table. Lots of work to go. As I progress, and this will take months to
complete, I will be sure to post photos.
One final
note for the day. It seems HOPRA is not aware of any organized racing
clubs or circuits in the Mississippi area. The closest to central
Mississippi seems to be somewhere in Tennessee. If you are racing HO
cars in the deep south or are interested in it, let me know at
slotsnewmonthly@gmail.com.
Building A Home Track - part 1
A while back I decided to build an HO track at my house. This track was
to be made as a permanent track using building applications which would
not allow for later dismantling. As you can imagine, a lot of thought
has to go into this process as you can't change it once it is done. You
want to get it right the first time. I even wrote on this a couple
times earlier only to find my thoughts were not in line with what I
finally came up with. So, I have deleted those posts and am starting
over here.
My original thoughts were to build a track on a 8'x4' platform. The
track would be a four lane track, counter sunk into a sheet of some type
of material so it would not need fences around the curves, nor
borders. The track would be made from a sectional plastic track of some
brand. The joining connections would be soldered for positive
electrical flow and the gaps between lanes would be filled. In other
words, it was going to be a pretty serious effort. As I learned more
about HO scale and HO tracks my thoughts went toward making a replica of
an old-fashioned quarter mile dirt track. Having gone to a lot of dirt
track races in the 1950s and 1960s I was really interested in building a
landscaped track to represent memories from my childhood.
This was really my intention until I made a trip to Alabama. In the
Huntsville area I visited the tracks of North Alabama Slotcar
Association (N.A.S.A.). Viewing the N.A.S.A. tracks I started to see
just how good a well-made HO road course could be. You have to
understand these tracks were all larger than anything I had considered
and a lot more professional in the build. I was going to be satisfied
with about a 25' track, but these tracks I was looking at were 40'-50'
in length. All of a sudden I was considering, "Could I manage a larger
platform?" To make matters worse Kevin Riggs, owner of Rivertown
Roadcourse, gave me the original sectional track he had that his new
track was modeled after.
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| Current Rivertown Roadcourse, |
 |
| Original Rivertown Roadcourse |
The current Rivertown Roadcourse is a professionally routed track. I
believe it is sitting on a 4'x12' platform and has about 40' of four
lane racing action.
The original Rivertown Roadcourse was not as sophisticated as the new
version, but it had the same essential qualities except it appears to
have been on a longer table plus maybe 8-10 more feet of track length.
To make things worse, while my wife was looking at the Alabama tracks
she suggested we put one in our living room instead of our building in
the back yard. So, we traveled back to Mississippi with about 50' of
four lane track still in sections of 5'-8' in length stuffed in our
little Nissan Sentra.
Now, the plan of a dirt track replica was on the back burner. After
measuring the area we were going to use, I discovered there was no way
to build the entire track and still be able to bring groceries in
through our front door. The track would have to be shortened. I could
build a shorter version on a 4x8 table or I could build a 4x11 version
on a platform that would pivot up out of the way. I did a lot of
studying on this option and came up with a design of a table which would
be on a strong platform connected to a table frame by 4 door hinges.
To make lifting the top up out of the way easier, it would have counter
weights to assist in the lifting. This would allow a very respectable
version of the original track and would allow me not to go hungry for a
lack of groceries. As the old saying goes about the best laid plans, I
started having some doubts due to what I wanted to accomplish and the
size of the project. Decision.....start smaller and learn more about
what I am doing before I build a remake of the original Rivertown
Roadcourse.
I already had a Tomy Super International set on hand so I decided to use
it as a starter track to learn from before I take on the larger
project. Today I begin in earnest on my smaller track build. There
seem to be several people in the central Mississippi area waiting for me
to build this track so we can do a little racing. There are others who
are considering building a track of their own once I get mine built. I
am not holding my breath about this as desires often change. But, the
ball has to start bouncing somewhere, so I guess it will start at my
house. It may be a ball that bounces down the road to other houses or
it may just bounce up and down in my living room. I did some
experimenting with layouts in my "out" building (dubbed the "Out House")
and came up with a layout I thought I would enjoy driving on. After
all, I am the one who will be running on it the most so it should be
what I want, especially with the work I am going to put into it.
This layout is four lanes with an average lane length of a little over
23'. It features a 225 degree curve (on the far end) that starts with
one radius, increases, then decreases to original entry radius. This is
followed by a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction. The turn
leading onto the longest straight is an increasing radius turn making it
the widest turn on the track. To make it a little more interesting, 5
of the 6 straight areas are different lengths.
With no overpass there is no way to have the lanes equal length.
However, this design achieves an unusual aspect. Counting the most
inside lane as lane 1 and the outermost as lane 4 the lanes are the
following lengths:
lane 1 - 21.07'
lane 2 - 23.63'
lane 3 - 22.65'
lane 4 - 25.20'
This means the outside lane of the inner track is actually 1 foot longer
than the inside lane of the outer track. No, it is not equal in lane
lengths but if you race using lane rotations the lanes are evened out.
Eventually this track will be using photo cell timing and either
H.O.P.R.A. or Trakmate software connected to a dedicated computer.
More information about the build and pictures will follow in more posts to come.
Building A Home Track - part 2
In the previous post I had created a small layout design I could work on
to prepare myself for my larger build. The track would be a 23' four
lane HO track on a 4'x8' table. My desire was to have a counter sunk
track in a table. I laid the track out on a thin sheet of plywood to
trace the pattern for cutting out. The plan here is to cut out the path
of the track, place it on a table then put the track in the cut out
area. This will give me the counter sunk track I wanted. With this set
up I will not need curve rails or borders. I used this technique on a
1/43 scale track I previously built and it worked out fine.
There was a problem which I had been warned about but was not really
prepared for. I had read, in setting up a 4 lane track, there would be
gaps between the inside and outside tracks in the curves. I figured
this would not be that big of a deal, as it wasn't a factor in building
the 1/43 track. Was I surprised though at how much of a gap there is
between the side by side track sections. The 9" radius curves should
have fit neatly inside the 12" radius curves. They do fit neatly when
just one section is set next to another. But when you string together
curves and straights, you find they do not fit so neatly anymore.
This picture does not really do justice to the gap size. There are
pieces of paper between the lanes spacing it out. The paper is printer
paper folded to a thickness of 8 layers thick and it still had looseness
to the fit. Why did I put pieces of paper between the sections instead
of just pushing them together you may ask? You can try to push them
together but it will spread elsewhere. If you do not do something to
even the gap out, the gaps will be small in some places and REALLY large
in other places.
I centered the track on the sheet of plywood. Then I went all the way
around the track placing these spacing sheets between each section to
get some type of consistency. The white spots on the track are the
paper spacers. I can tell that once the track is complete I will
definitely need to fill the gaps with putty or bondo, then sand and
paint the track to make a decent racing surface.
Once the track was centered and spaced I took my trusty lumber marking
pencil and traced the outline of the track. I now think back to when I
was a kid and had coloring books. I'm sure you probably did at some
point also. The problem was, I never was very good at keeping the
colors inside the lines. The entire time I was using my jig saw to cut
out the pattern I was thinking of this. I tried my best to stay just
inside the cut line so I could sand the pattern for a perfect fit.
Eventually I realized I would be using some kind of filler between the
tracks and I could use the same stuff to take care of any mistakes I
made. I still did my best, but I no longer fretted over the least
little mistake.
The difficult part was having to arrange the sheet where I could cut and
give it the support it needed while I was cutting. You will notice the
small strip along the longest straight. The whole time I was worried
the sheet would lose support as I moved the cutting area around my
make-shift table and this strip would break. After all, it is only 1/4'
thick. I think the cut-out process went pretty well once it was all
done. You will notice on the previous picture terminal sections were
included. However, on the cut-out pattern the terminal sections are not
represented. This is because I plan on wiring for connecting post and
then use controllers with alligator clips.
For anyone thinking about building a four lane HO track I will say
this: I had read over and over again about how the Tomy track is the
best out there. Looking at the Aurora track Kevin Riggs gave me (see
part-1) I cannot imagine anyone wanting to build out of Tomy if they can
find the Aurora track needed. The Aurora track fits together with no
noticeable gap at all. In fact, I do not expect to need filler on the
Aurora track at all. So, do I recommend the Tomy track? If you are
building a two lane track, definitely. It has more track lengths and
curve radius options than any other HO track I have found. But, if you
are building a four lane track, I would spend the time to find the old
Aurora Model Motoring track. I think it will be a much better racing
surface.
Next, I have to take apart my old 1/43 track, disassemble the table, and
rebuild for the purpose of the HO track. Be watching for the table
assembly and wiring to come in future parts.
In the last part of this record of my track build I decided on a layout
and cut the track path out of a thin sheet of plywood. That sheet would
go onto a table to create a counter-sunk track. As I left it, I was
about to dismantle an existing table that had a 1/43 scale track on it.
I had forgotten how well built that table was! I can't even begin to
count how many wood screws I had to remove to remove the top from the
table base. Once I did get all the screws out I quickly came to
understand I was not going to move the table top around without help.
The table top was made out of a 1/2" sheet of plywood. Under the table
were 2x4s going around the table to attach to the table frame legs. The
table top also had several 2x4s running across underneath. Around the
top of the edge of the table top were 2x2 rails to act as a wall to
prevent cars from falling off the table. A facing board made from a 1x6
was across the front of the table to clean up the appearance. I
managed to move the table top and then the frame to the living room,
then the real work began. I had built the table top after building the
frame and legs for the table. That meant the table top was precisely
built to fit the legs very tightly; so tight I couldn't get the table
top to fit down on the legs. After much fussing and fuming I decided
the only way I could get the top on the frame was to loosen the screws
holding the legs on the frame. This allowed for some movement and I was
able to reassemble the table.
You can't tell it looking at this picture, but the underside of the
table is strong enough I could jump up and down on it. The front of the
table only shows 2 legs, but the back actually has three legs with 2x4s
strengthening the legs on three sides. This was set up this way to
allow storage under the table. The height is a little lower than I
would like as there is too much bending over to replace deslotted cars.
After assembling the table I put rubber mats on the table to serve as a sound deadening agent.
The thin sheet of plywood I cut the track path into to create a counter
sunk track was actually a little too thin to match up to the track. To
correct this I cut out rubber to fit the thin plywood and glued it to
the bottom of the plywood. This made the combined thickness fit the
track height almost perfect... I placed the outer part of the plywood on
the table first. Next, I put the sectional track together and fit it
into the cut out. With the track on the table I put the inner part on
the table. The fit was tight and I was happy so far. I went around the
table using wood screws from the top to attach the top plywood to the
table and to secure everything. This also pulled the plywood down next
to the edge of the track. All together there were about 60 screws
holding the cut out plywood to the table. Next I attached the side
rails to the table top to prevent cars from coming off the table.
I had mentioned somewhere previously that the cut out top did not allow
for the terminal track sections. Since I wanted the track up and
running on Christmas day for the family to enjoy I did not take time to
wire the track for driver panels. The track terminal sections you see
here were actually on the track for Christmas and the track just rode on
top of the plywood at that point then dropped back into the bed of the
track before the turn on each end of the main straight. I will take
care of this detail as more time allows.
With the track in place I checked the wires being plugged into the
terminal sections to see if the side rails would fit okay. The first
problem occurred here for the rail in the front part of the track to fit
the wires would have to be jammed really hard. I was worried about
this breaking the wires so I put the rails on three sides of the track.
This will be corrected when I wire up the driver panels. Also, the
rails around the table will have to be replaced as they do not conform
with H.O.P.R.A. rules as they are only 1 3/4" tall. Mind you, I do not
plan on trying to have a H.O.P.R.A. sanctioned race, but I would like to
have it compliant anyway.
Here you will see the track with the power packs and controllers hooked
up. You will also see the rails I talked about on three sides of the
table.
I plugged the power packs up and was ready to run the cars for the first
actual test. I tried each lane and each car, but nothing happened.
The cars wouldn't budge. I nudged them forward and still no movement. I
knew the track had been sitting up for a long time. In fact, this
track had never been run on at all and it was from an old Tomy Super
International set; the set with the Super G cars instead of the Mega G
cars. This set even had the old power packs and not the Tri-Power packs
Tomy has today. Knowing how oxidation occurs on these rails I pulled
out some fine grit sandpaper and went to work. Slowly I saw some
movement come into the cars. After a while the cars could actually make
it all the way around the track. They weren't very fast, but they did
move. The longer I ran the cars on the track the better the performance
became. Ultimately, by the end of Christmas day the cars were running
pretty good and the track was performing almost without hitch.
Previously, I had besmirched Tomy for their tracks not fitting together
very well. Actually, once the entire track was fully assembled and in
the cut out path, the gaps between sections were not nearly so defined.
I still think the Aurora track fits better but the Tomy is not bad.
The performance of these cars has also shown me a 23' track is a little
too short for my taste. I was doing this track as a learning project
before I build a larger track and I believe the longer track will be
much more satisfying.
Next up is mounting locking casters onto the legs so I don't have to
worry about damaging the legs moving the track away from the wall.
After that, I will concentrate on wiring up the drivers panel and the
variable power supply I will be using. Down the line, I will be doing
the following to this track; drill holes in the table under the track to
run wires for two extra power taps, drill hole in table under track
where I will mount a photo cell timing device, attach the track to the
plywood, fill the gaps between the track and plywood anywhere needed,
paint the table top and the track surface, stripe the lanes. I will be
writing more about this as I do these projects. Ultimately, this track
will be used as a portable track for car shows or other events where
racing can be promoted.
In the last part of this on-going saga, I had finished with the rubber
mats which were put under the track and the flush mount top plywood.
The track still had the power terminal sections and the power was
supplied by the power packs which came with the track. The controllers
were still the plug in controllers that come from Tomy. The cutout in
the plywood was designed for the terminal sections to be removed and
have wiring run to the track directly from drivers panels (not made
yet). So the terminal sections were actually sitting on top of the
board instead of setting in the cutout for the track bed. The rest of
the track fit into the bed I had cut out well though.
Since that last posting I have done quite a bit. First, I decided not
to put casters on the legs. I opted for some furniture sliding pads
instead. I already had them and the track slides easy enough on the
tile floor using them, so they are the current answer. The next thing
on the agenda was to set up the proper wiring for the track. I thought I
had a few spools of some decent wire, but I could not find them. I did
however have a trailer wiring kit. I measured out the wire and
discovered there was enough wire in it to do the job. I wouldn't have
the color coded wires I wanted, but it was on hand. I measured out the
needed wire to run to the farthermost lane connections and driver panel
location. I cut the wire so each lane would have the same amount of
wire even though some of the lanes did not need as much wire. My
thoughts here were to make everything as equal as I could. On the next
track I will not take this into consideration. It was too much trouble
with the extra wire needing to be tucked away.
Because I did not have any extra straight sections I decided to modify
the power terminal sections. I took my trusty Dremel tool and cut off
the power tabs of the sections. I then went under the terminal sections
and soldered wire to the tabs which were already running to the power
rails. The ground was a shared connection on each section making the
right lane and left lane grounds connected. Since I wanted to have a
three wire set up on the drivers panel to allow brakes, I cut the piece
that connected the two ground rails and wired each one up separately.
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| The wire here was soldered in place then hot glued to the track. |
Once the power sections were wired up I cut a hole in the table under
the power section so the wire would have somewhere to go. I will not go
into detail on how you wire up a track with drivers panels as there are
a number of articles on this on the internet already.
Now that the power sections were wired I need somewhere for the wire to
go to. So, I made some drivers panels. To avoid buying them over the
internet, I went to my local hardware store and asked them if they had
plexiglass. They did and they would even cut it for me. The price was
only $0.03 per square inch. Since my drivers panels would only be 3" X
6" the price was only 54 cents each. I bought the appropriate nuts,
bolts, washers, and lock nuts while I was there. Total price to build
my 4 drivers panels was less than $10. At home I drilled the
appropriate holes in the panels and put the bolts on as well. I put a
1" X 4" board across the drivers area of the table so I would have
somewhere to attach the panels. I cut holes in the board behind where
the post were for the drivers panels to allow wire to pass through.
The power supply I decided to use, once again because it was what I had
on hand, was a Gophert variable power supply. This is only a temporary
power supply because it only goes up to 16 volts. It may not be up to
H.O.P.R.A. standards, but it will do for a start. I ran the power and
ground wires from the power supply to each of the drivers stations.
From the drivers stations I ran the wiring to the wired track sections.
Now the two wire track sections are three wire sections and are capable
of brakes. How important this is in HO cars I don't know, but I have
it if I need it. A note for wiring my next track.....I will measure and
cut each wire for its desired distance plus about 12". Why you may
ask? I spent a long time on my back under the track with a hot glue gun
making sure the wires were not hanging down in the way. Oh, it looks
neat now from the front and over the track. It is very clean looking,
but under the table there is wire everywhere!!!
 |
| You will notice the drivers panels on the front of the table. |
|
We tried the track out with the variable power supply New Years Eve and
everything went pretty well except the inside lanes of the 6" radius
curves when the turn was to the left. The T-Jet cars had a tendency to
hang up in the track joints. It did not do this on the turns to the
right only to the left. After examining the section joints carefully I
realized the slots were slightly offset and there were some issues with
the power rail height at the joints in these curves. I talked with
AFX/Tomy about this and they confirmed the problem. It seems at the
time this track was made (this was from a Super International set that
came with the Super G cars instead of the current Mega G cars) they did
have a problem with worn molds. They retooled the track molds and it
corrected the problem. The fine people at AFX provided me with the new
curve sections and the problem was resolved. Do not be afraid of buying
the Tomy tracks due to my difficulties as they have fixed the problem.
This New Years Eve testing with some racing friends did show me how
much I want to build the larger track as soon as possible. In the mean
while I am still learning building this and will continue.
On New Years Eve I only had T-Jets and have since acquired some Tyco
Magnum 440 and 440x2 cars. These cars really showed me the need to have
walls separating turn sections to prevent desloted cars from landing on
another part of the track. The T-Jets were not fast enough to make
this a real concern, at least not at 16 volts. The Tycos are a
different story. To be honest the Tycos are really too fast to run on
this track. There simply is not enough room for them to stretch their
legs. However, since I have a terminal case of stupid and will run them
on it anyway, I decided walls were needed. I am currently working on
these walls. They will be made out of foam project board strips with
pins running through them and into the table. The idea is the walls
will be strong enough to be functional, but will also be removable. Why
I would want to remove them I don't know, but it is kind of like the
brake issue. If I want it, I have it.
Happy New Year to all who are so kind as to read Slots New?. I hope the
year 2019 brings you lots of slot racing action and very few de-slots.
I know for me, I will get in my share of racing and more than my share
of de-slots. I would like to thank ALL the track owners for the great
fun they have provided all of us slot racers over the past year. The
service you provide is what makes it possible for us to race on a
regular basis. I promise the next year will bring more scheduled event
announcements and coverage of national races. I also promise to bring
more tips, product reviews, and racer profiles in the upcoming year. I
also promise the beginning of a new home track club. This new club may
only have two members, my wife and myself, but it will be a club having
races. Hopefully there will be some more people to join in on the fun.
I would like to thank the following people for making my New Years Eve a
very special one. I would like to thank Chuck Hendricks, Bobby
Shivers, and Terry Jensen. These three men journeyed out to come to my
house and play on my new track. You might say it was the tracks
Christening. Mind you, the track is not complete yet, but it is in
running conditioning. Still to come is installation of a lap counting
system with computer program, firmly attaching the track to the table
surface, soldering connections, filling in gaps with putty, sanding,
painting track and table, and installing lane striping tape. All of
these will be done in steps and in that order. You can read about that
process by clicking on Building A Home Track.
The evening began with my guests arriving and being very complimentary
of my track. I then took them on a tour of how it was constructed and
what my plans were.
Once the introduction of the track was over I set my power supply at 12v
5amps for them to run T-Jets on the track. I know, you are asking why
would I set my power at 12v for grown men with T-Jets? These guys are
just like me, they had not run HO cars in decades. They are used to
running 1/24 scale where you are on full throttle most of the time. I
don't know if the walls of the track would have stood up to them running
on 22v. After a few laps getting used to the cars I increased the
voltage to 16v and we played for a couple hours. I had wired up the
Tomy controllers to be used with alligator clips and they were used at
first. Then they brought out their Difalco controllers and adjusted
them to run HO cars. Needless to say they were much more comfortable
with these great controllers instead of the ones I provided. I will say
my Difalco Genesis Fanatic controller works really well with these
cars.
Terry Jensen, a great competitor in 1/24 scale and winner of what may
have been the first, even though it was unofficial, race on my track.
Bobby Shivers, whose picture can also be seen on the wall of the U.S.
Post Office, is a top competitor at Charlie's Garage. He is constantly
one of the top contenders if his car doesn't break or the motor doesn't
get fried.
Chuck Hendricks, currently the hottest trigger at the local track and a contender at Dungeon Raceway.
The cars we were running are ones that were built by Kevin Riggs out of
Huntsville, AL. Kevin does an awesome job working on cars. You would
never have known these cars were about 45 to 50 years old.
I especially like this picture as you can get a feeling for how the
track is countersunk into the table. You will notice the gap between
the track and the wood beside the red car. This is a good reason why
the track will get a nice putty job to take gaps away.
I would also like to thank Terry for bringing a gift. He brought me
seven, almost complete, cars to work on. This will help me learn more
about HO in that they all need work. Tires are a given and most of the
other work is centered around the pick-up shoes and springs. A couple
of the cars actually ran a little. At least the motors turned; that is
not to say they could run on the track. He brought 2 AFX, 1 Tomy Super
G, and 4 Tyco cars. Plus several extra bodies which was really nice as
the value of bodies is probably more than the cars he brought.
All in all, we had a great time and found some issues with the track
that needed to be worked on as well. Then we all had some red beans and
rice with sausage, maybe next time we can have some Jambalaya. Once
again, thanks to the guys for coming down and running on my track.
Thanks to my wife who has helped me more than I can tell working on the
track, plus allowing me to set it up in an area of our living room. I
have the best wife ever!!! Most of all, thanks to Jesus Christ who has
blessed me so richly!
Happy New Year everyone!!
It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy working on my
track and to be quite honest, it has taken up way too much of my time.
In the last post I commented I was going to make walls separating areas
of the track to prevent desloted cars from getting on other areas of the
track. I cut strips of foam project board for the walls and figured
out just where they would need to go. I then took drilled holes in my
board for some pins to fit into. These pins were actually small nails
which I cut the heads off of. I then pushed the "pins" into the board
with the pointed end up. DISCLAIMER....I am an adult, mind you a little
stupid, but an adult none the less. I would not recommend this method
if there are children involved. It actually was a little uncomfortable
working with until the nails were covered by the foam board. I
inadvertently put my hand down on some nails more than once. I DO NOT
RECOMMEND THIS FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN MYSELF!!!!
Once my nails were in place I carefully slid the foam board strips down
over the exposed nails. The nails were cut off short enough they did
not protrude above the foam. Once in place the foam boards made an
excellent wall that would not damage the cars upon impact.
I thought at this point I wanted to just enjoy the track for a while
before doing more work on it. That didn't last long! I decided the
track was good enough after some adjustments so some paint was to be
next. I painted red and white curve borders around the outside of the
turns on the flush mounted board. Actually the appearance came out
pretty good and I thought it was time to stop work again.
This work stoppage did not last long. I got a new power supply in for
the track. A TekPower linear regulated power supply providing 0-30
volts/0-20 amps. The wiring in of this unit went smooth and the power
was good. Next I got in a Viasue lap counting system. This is a photo
cell operation and was also easy to install. Viasue claims it is a plug
and play unit and it pretty much is. The only the you have to do is
splice the appropriate device into your track power cable. I opted to
only have the track power to be cut off to every lane as opposed to
individual lane shut downs so the wiring was very easy. Because I am a
tightwad and wanted to save some money I bought the kit version of the
Viasue instead of having it delivered with the photo cells already
installed into a track section. The mounting of the photo cells in my
existing track was easy enough. It only required drilling a hole in
each lane between the slot and the power rail then using hot glue under
the track to hold the photo cells in place. It worked perfectly with
the first attempt. The software (Race Coordinator) for my computer came
as part of the package and was easy to install.
Now that my track had good power, a computer lap counting system, and
race program you might think it was time for me to enjoy it instead of
working on it. No.....not me. I decided it was time to attache the
track to the board since I had my lap counting system in. On one
popular web site they say you can use nails or screws and give
instructions for this. I used a scrap section of track to experiment on
and quickly decided the nail option was not really an option. The
nailing process just wouldn't work out for me. I bought a counter
sinking tool to be able to counter sink the small screws into the
track. This went well and after a few hours of work it was ready to
install the screws. The next day I started installing the screws
avoiding electric screw drivers fearing driving the screws in too hard.
It took a while but I finally got them all in. The track was now ready
to test and enjoy. I was finally through with my track build.
Before running on the track a visual inspection showed possible
problems. Some of the connections joints were not exactly smooth. In
fact some of them were ridiculously bad. Remember I had put some rubber
under the track for sound deadening? Well, these rubber mats
compressed as the screws went in and they did not compress evenly.
Sob. There was more work to do. I started trying to smooth these
joints by sanding on them. Before long I realized I would need to use
my Dremel tool to take away some of the plastic that was now sticking up
in some of the joints. After grinding down the offending joints I came
back with sand paper to smooth it the best I could. This helped a
lot. But, I still was not satisfied.
I ultimately decided to use some flexible putty to smooth out some of
the rough and still uneven places. This would also give me the
opportunity to fill in some of the gaps in the joints and between the
track and the flush mounted board. The process of using the filler
putty and sanding it smooth took a week. After doing this the track
showed a lot of improvement and ran a lot smoother. In fact the click
clack noise of the cars going from one section to the next was almost
gone. This putty made the track look really ugly though and I knew I
would have to go ahead and paint the track.
After looking at a lot of post about painting a plastic track I decided
on River Rock paint. This is a paint that has fine grit in the paint
and would give better traction. However, paint does not really want to
stick to plastic so I had to find out how to make it stick. My research
led me to a scientist that painted pvc pipes with latex paint
successfully. He explained how the plastic could be sanded, treated, or
heated. According to his research heating the plastic is the best
way. I will not get involved in all the details here because I don't
want someone to melt their track and then blame me. It involves what he
refereed to as "wetting" the plastic. In this process you heat the
track until the wax on the surface is burned off. Somehow it changes
the molecular structure of the plastic to accept the paint. I started
by scuffing the track with a Scotch Brite Pad. Then I bought a hand
held mini torch to heat the track very carefully. On a test section I
found out you could actually cause the slot to droop and distort if
heated too much. After heating the track the next day I started
painting the track. I was very careful in this process not to get paint
in the slots. This process took a couple days.
After the paint was thoroughly dry I installed the lane striping.
Am I through with the track? Not yet, there are more adjustments to be
made. Has it been a lot of work? Yes, but it was a lot of fun and the
track is better than it was when I started. I have come to realize
though that the track will always be a plastic sectional track and will
never be as good as a one piece routed track with continuous rails. It
is an incredible plastic track though. I have really enjoyed building
it and have learned a lot for when I build my next one which will be
much longer. The next post will be a recap of what I did wrong and
what I did right.
Thunder Cave Raceway Kicks Off
Thunder Cave Raceway in Crystal Springs, MS kicked off with a T-Jet
I.R.O.C. race on Sunday April 31. The race only had 5 participants, but
when you consider this was the first organized HO race we can remember
in the last 40+ years. The I.R.O.C. race used T-Jets that were built by
Kevin Riggs from Huntsville, AL. The bodies were Willys bodies that
were matched to the lane colors.
Thunder Cave Raceway is a Tomy sectional track with an average lane
length of 23'. The track has been sanded, gaps filled with flexible
putty and sanded again, then painted. The track is a flush mounted
track so border sections or guard rails are not required. The track is
powered with a TekPower 0-30v/0-20a power supply and uses a Viasue lap
counting system.
The I.R.O.C. race was a new format to all who raced in it. Instead of
rotations being based on time they were lap based. The race was run in a
round robin format using Europeon rotation pattern. Each rotation was
an independent race to 25 laps with the checkered flag being thrown when
the leader hits 25 laps. The rest of the field was allowed to race to
the checkered flag. Points were given for each rotation, 1 point per
lap turned plus bonus points. The bonus points were 1 point for leading
a lap, 1 point for leading the most laps, and 1 point for the fastest
lap. There were also overall bonus points, 2 points for the racer who
lead the most laps in the race and 2 points for the racer who turned the
fastest lap during the race. Pit Box Plaques were given out to the Top
Qualifier, 1st place, 2nd, place and 3rd place.
I.R.O.C. Results
Top Qualifier - Tim Hendricks
1st Place - Terry Jensen
2nd Place - Tim Hendricks
3rd Place - Chuck Hendricks
In the following race we referred to as a Melee Race used a variety of
magnet traction cars. The preferred cars seemed to be Tyco Magnum 440 X
2 and Life Like M chassis cars. The Melee name was aptly placed on the
race as it was truly a melee. The magnet cars did not get along with
the 23' road course very well. In the future it is doubtful these cars
will be used again unless a longer track is built.
Melee Race Results
Top Qualifier - Chuck Hendricks
1st Place - Chuck Hendricks
2nd Place - Jonathan Hendricks
3rd Place - Terry Jensen
While there were only 5 people racing at this race there seems to
optimism for future races. 5 people racing and three having the same
last name may not seem like many racers, but it is a start. Those
participating were,
Tim Hendricks
Terry Jensen
Chuck Hendricks
Randy Auwater
Jonathan Hendricks
Phil Rodgers (computer operations and corner marshal)
Plans are already being made for future races.
