Pete McKay
09-27-2008, 01:38 PM
Sometime after the first of the year my current slot car track will be replaced with a newer, larger facility. My 3X6 layout has been good, we've had a lot of great racing on it and it taught me some things about banking flat corners. But the time has come to build something a bit more capable of hosting the faster CoT Lifelike cars we will be switching to in 2009.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/Speedways.jpg
The new track (top) will only have 45" straights but the corners will be 18/15 radius on a 4X8 layout. They will also be flat, I won't try banking them again as the extended radius corners should allow enough speed. The current Sequoia (bottom) is a tight 9/12 radius track with about 8 degrees of banking but pretty rough through the corners.
The new track will be fully landscaped with fencing, walls and will be sunk into 1/4" foam board so that it's all flush with the track. 1" run off areas will extend outside the corners before the walls. The outside walls will be N scale model railroad cork roadbed with fiberglass fencing another 2" above the 1 1/2" wall. Wood doweling will be used for fence posts, simply because they break instead of bend and will be more easy to replace. In the corners will be a "safer barrier" of corrugated cardboard the height of the cork wall. Painted white, this stuff looks like scale safer barrier and will permit some pretty stiff shunts without hurting the cars. It's also really easy to work with and easy to find for free (at the post office....I love priority mail boxes!).
I know that our HO cars are closer to 1/64th than true HO but in an attempt to force perspective a number of HO features will be incorporated into the layout. Most notably will be the emergency and track vehicles and static spectators. The current Sequoia makes use of 2D pictures of spectators on an angled surface, the new track will have hand built bleachers, grandstands and a Skybox with outside stair cases and individual HO scale people. More people will be added over time, I am hoping to have about 300 in the stands by the time the rest of the landscaping is done. At about $8 for 75 unpainted sitting people this should be pretty easy to deal with.
The surface will once again be painted as concrete, with weathering. One thing I won't do with this track I did with the old Sequoia is use gravel anywhere on the layout. For the first few races we had a lot of problems with the kitty litter (it's what I used) getting into the slots and causing deslotting. There will be grass where grass is appropriate but no dirt or gravel.
The current Sequoia Speedway is up for sale locally, asking price is $250 and it will go with three 75 ohm controllers, a G-Jet power pack and 3 Super G+ open wheel cars. If it does not sell by January, the time when the new Sequoia is ready to race on, it will be salvaged out. I'll take all of the trees, electrical and anything else of use and transfer it over to the new layout. This coming week the track pieces will be ordered and in about two weeks the board and framing will be done. I'll do a step by step but this one won't be as labor intensive as the current track or even close to what LSMR was.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/Speedways.jpg
The new track (top) will only have 45" straights but the corners will be 18/15 radius on a 4X8 layout. They will also be flat, I won't try banking them again as the extended radius corners should allow enough speed. The current Sequoia (bottom) is a tight 9/12 radius track with about 8 degrees of banking but pretty rough through the corners.
The new track will be fully landscaped with fencing, walls and will be sunk into 1/4" foam board so that it's all flush with the track. 1" run off areas will extend outside the corners before the walls. The outside walls will be N scale model railroad cork roadbed with fiberglass fencing another 2" above the 1 1/2" wall. Wood doweling will be used for fence posts, simply because they break instead of bend and will be more easy to replace. In the corners will be a "safer barrier" of corrugated cardboard the height of the cork wall. Painted white, this stuff looks like scale safer barrier and will permit some pretty stiff shunts without hurting the cars. It's also really easy to work with and easy to find for free (at the post office....I love priority mail boxes!).
I know that our HO cars are closer to 1/64th than true HO but in an attempt to force perspective a number of HO features will be incorporated into the layout. Most notably will be the emergency and track vehicles and static spectators. The current Sequoia makes use of 2D pictures of spectators on an angled surface, the new track will have hand built bleachers, grandstands and a Skybox with outside stair cases and individual HO scale people. More people will be added over time, I am hoping to have about 300 in the stands by the time the rest of the landscaping is done. At about $8 for 75 unpainted sitting people this should be pretty easy to deal with.
The surface will once again be painted as concrete, with weathering. One thing I won't do with this track I did with the old Sequoia is use gravel anywhere on the layout. For the first few races we had a lot of problems with the kitty litter (it's what I used) getting into the slots and causing deslotting. There will be grass where grass is appropriate but no dirt or gravel.
The current Sequoia Speedway is up for sale locally, asking price is $250 and it will go with three 75 ohm controllers, a G-Jet power pack and 3 Super G+ open wheel cars. If it does not sell by January, the time when the new Sequoia is ready to race on, it will be salvaged out. I'll take all of the trees, electrical and anything else of use and transfer it over to the new layout. This coming week the track pieces will be ordered and in about two weeks the board and framing will be done. I'll do a step by step but this one won't be as labor intensive as the current track or even close to what LSMR was.