Well, I had to temporarily tear down the racetrack so that I could refinish that area of the basement with drywall and suspended ceiling. So for awhile, the racing has ended. However, the good news is that I can expand my track!

We have been racing on a 4x12 straight table, that I was thinking of expanding to 4x16. However, then I thought maybe an L-shaped layout on two 4x8 tables would be a better use of space. The one concern I have is regarding visibility of your car on an L-shaped layout if others are racing with you. Has anyone experienced any problems with this?

These are preliminarily the layouts I'm considering. The other issue is access for de-slotted cars. My son is 7, and I've tried to develop designs that require a minimum of reaching across 4' of table. Any thoughts or advice appreciated.

Ed

Go with the "L"...
Most people have straight tables...
Scott (Wanting to build a Clubman...)

I had an odd-shaped table for a while when I first got back into the hobby... kind of a cross between an L and a U. It looked like this:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/rwurtz/images/layout.jpg

I had problems seeing when I raced with my kid, but in retrospect, it was kinda stupid to lay it out that way, where you stood in the middle of the U. I could have creatively repositioned drivers' stations, but instead, when we moved, I just did a 4x16. Scott has a point... the "L" adds variety and is something different. Just plan it better than I did. :rolleyes:

--rick

I'm thinking this might be an interesting layout if I pull the short side out from the wall 18" or so for the kids to crawl in there and retrieve cars!

I have a 12'x4' that "dog-legs" at 45degrees for 8'x4' then turns a 90degree for another 5'x4'http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/joez870/14.jpg Sorry about the fuzzy track pic. (pic is fuzzy, not the track :smile: )

I have moved the terminals around to various parts of the table and figured out that if I keep the short guys & kids near the dog-leg, everyone has no trouble seeing. (I like to spread them out anyway. Makes marshaling easier)
I keep one of those kids robot pincher-arm dealies handy too.

This was the early stages of the table with a temp layout.

If you put a terminal on the short leg of the L, your son can race and marshal there with no obstruction of anyones view (you just get to cover the rest of the table) You can put the tecnical part of the layout on his end too. It might make him realize that "flat-out" is not as fun as "driving" them when he has to keep puting his cars back on in his area. :) (worked with my* sons. :)
Good luck!

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I'm going from a set of closet doors mounted end to end to an "L" shaped layout. I plan to get mine out away from the wall, but I don't have an exact layout planned yet. I would tend to lean more toward your "L" shaped layout, mostly because that's what I'm planning to do myself. I have a special stick that I use to retieve my deslotted cars. It's basically a dow rod with some slight modifications.

I like AFXtoo's advice on both the driver's positions and the hiring of the chimp. However, my wife might see it differently. Where does a guy get one of those grippy things? That must be what they use to retrieve a car off one of those huge landscaped layouts that Jason Boye does. Otherwise the landscaping would be wrecked!

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I heard he paid off the chimp! :o :tongue:

The drawback to L shaped tracks is that everyone must stand pretty far back for all racers to see the "L" end. We had a taped line on the floor and always had to bark at everyone to stand back or you have to "blind race" into the back corner. After a while you get so used to the rythym of the track you can fly through the back corner without seeing the cars. :cool:

Marshalling cars is a real pain if you build your track into a corner. Track kill buttons are a must! ;)

http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/PHOTOS/Track_Pictures/December2001/1207d.jpg

hey guy we use a magnet taped on the end of a yard stick that you buy at like home depot or lowes and it works great to retreve cars on the back stretch

How about an H shaped layout. I once had 2 8x4 tables with a 4x4 table connecting them. It was only two lane so each driver could stand in the inset and see everything.
hojoe

slot v, nice layout.

anyone have a huge 4 or 6 lane layout?

Depends on what you would call HUGE? :) 4 lane and 63' enough?

My track is 14 years old and is "The Fastest Scale Mile in the Midwest!" at 83 feet. Long straights, 7 different turns, a fast banked turn and mega-detailing adds to the fun. The banked turn is 50° at it's steepest angle and the mountain top is 5' 6" tall at its peak. Standardized wiring with filtered electronic Lambda power supply. Fastest laps are @ 4.20's with a Hot Stock chassis. Our favorite cars are Super G+. Track was recently moved to the basement of my new house last October. Just got it running again over the past couple of weeks. :thumbsup:

Lots of photos of the move HERE (http://www.planetofspeed.net/PhotoPost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1)

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Cool.......my platform is 2-4x8 sheets in the "L" shape. I am doing the complete scenery too, But i'm going to squeeze in some ho trains with crossovers. thanks for the extra ideas and hopes of what mine may look like with hard work.
Oh, and is that an ashtray there too......ahhhh, I remember the butts I could burn thru when I was customizing cars or doing molds. (I quit over a year now and still miss it sometimes)

All this talk about landscaped layouts is getting me antsy to get the track setup again. The last coat of mud on the drywall was finished a few minutes ago, paint tomorrow night and Saturday, new lights, suspended ceiling next week.....hopefully we'll be racing again in just over a week or so.....

Thanks for the comments on the track. It's getting old and beat up. Might be time for a complete rehab soon. My place is in Lombard IL, which is the Western suburbs of Chicago. The Uni-Bomber grew up in my town. :o :tongue:

I think the shape of your track depends on a couple of things:
1.) available space in the room
2.) amount of track you wish to use
3.) amount of lanes you plan on having
4.) the amount of racers you plan on having in the room using the track
5.) the type of cars you plan to run

The goal is to always have the easiest visibilty of the entire track from one location without turning your head or body too much. If you race really fast cars, you can't be turning your head to see an area. If you race only TJets, it is easier to follow the cars. If you have a 6 lane track, you'd better have plenty of room for 6 drivers to see the whole track. :)

69ED:
I plan on doing all that next. The track is on wheels now so it can be moved for the basement improvements. My buddies insisted that the track gets running before the basement remodelling. :thumbsup:

Scott

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For now we are going to stretch the track onto a 4x16. I have an extra 4x4 table we could set up to make the L, but surprisingly it doesn't add a whole lot of track. My son wants an HO train too, so maybe the thing to do would be to add another 4x8 table for the L, use some of that for the 4-lane racing layout, and add the HO train to that table around the track. However, I think a 4x16 plus 4x12 "L" would result in a real neck twister.

Personally, the train isn't that interesting to me (its one of mine from 30 years ago), and I think he'll lose interest in it rather quickly. However, his persistant nagging to have it set up is wearing me down....