Hi Guys,
I was cruising through the Walther's site when I came across a listing for a new piece of track. It looks like Lifelike will introduce a car/train intersection in January 2010.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-9149

Now that's a positive development.

Joe

Choo Choo!!!

indeed... for a basic layout, I think life life is a very good track. It has great conductivity over a longer span than any of the other tracks, IMO... too bad they made so few curve options.

This is cool!! Glad to see these coming out again. The politically correct crowd axed it years ago. That looks very much like the TYCO crossings of years past.. :thumbsup:

I would be a bit concerned about the safety of my trains. Some of those two generation old Life-Like BLOBCARs, like the Intrepid and Grand Prix, powered by the T-Chassis magnabooster rocket, could inflict some serious damage on a toy train. Pity the 'Po Train!


(P.S. - Thank you again Walthers/Life-Like for righting the ship with your Chargers and COTs. Love 'em.)

Now that's a positive development.

Joe

It is? :freak:

I would be a bit concerned about the safety of my trains. Some of those two generation old Life-Like BLOBCARs, like the Intrepid and Grand Prix, powered by the T-Chassis magnabooster rocket, could inflict some serious damage on a toy train. Pity the 'Po Train!

(P.S. - Thank you again Walthers/Life-Like for righting the ship with your Chargers and COTs. Love 'em.)

I agree, Too. Looks like they're lookin to sell some more trains.
Now, if only they could make a routed slot car section with a train crossing...:rolleyes:
Hmmm, something you could attach LifeLike sectional track to.
Now, THAT would be interesting.

Rich

I don't see why it couldn't be done Rich. I am seriously considering routed next time around, and the RR xings will be in the mix if I do!! :)

It is? :freak:

How could it not be a positive development? Putting a train crossing in a race track wouldn't be very practical or realistic - well, it's about as realistic as some of the yellow flags that are thrown in some series, but I digress. (Actually in the old old days there was a temporary curcuit in Alabama than crossed train tracks, as I'm sure point-to-point races like the Targa Floria did, but I digress even further) Integrating a crossing into a dioroma (next to the body shop) or just for fun is pretty neat and entertaining.

Racing or collecting isn't the limit of what everyone is doing, is it? A return to the idea of broader appeal instead of niche toys from LL seems to be a positive development any way you could possibly look at it.

Don't look at this from a racing point of view. Think of it as a way to maybe get kids interested in two hobbies at the same time. It's a blast trying to race the train to the crossing, and even more fun if you set things up for the crash. Back in the day Lionel made a military set that included a rocket launching car and explosives box cars. If the box car was hit, it would blow apart.
http://slotcarcentral.com/drupal-5/youbuiltwhat
Scroll down to almost the bottom of the page to see what I'm talking about. This is what brought back the faded memory of the Aurora RR Xing, and inspired me to make my own. The sad reality is it takes a heck of a lot of room to set up both on one table. And there's always the scale issue.

I was concerned about crashes when I started. Now it doesn't bug me so much. The train basically pushes the car aside. Plowing into the train causes a derailment. I wouldn't attempt it with high dollar cars, but with runners it is kind of fun. I'm more concerned about the automated crossing gates more than anything now a days. At $40.00 a pair, you can understand why. I have mine set up with a dead zone prior to the crossing. When the gates go down, the track at the crossing goes dead. When the gates go back up, power to that section of track is restored. I also have emergency buttons to power the track in case the car stops in the trains path. This set up isn't just for when the kids are running. I can run the trains and 4 lanes of cars from the control station and have it all run on it's own. (when it's all working..:lol:) A lot of my wiring is on the half @ssed side, and needs to be redone...:rolleyes:

And Rich, Walthers has no problems selling trains.. I think this is being done so Walthers can sell more slot cars!!! Now if they can produce a half dozen good looking street cars they just might have a winner!!! :thumbsup:

It is? :freak:

No more positive than specialized adapters to comingle an as yet unmarketed modular routed track system to sectional track.

Suggest you eyeball what the road and rail grade crossings are fetching these days.

Touché :)

I would have thought some additional curve radii as more positive myself, but maybe this will attract the train geeks to our hobby.

A couple of points of order on the ''unmarketed modular routed track system''. It is available, not sure about marketing, Brad's always been more about WOM.

And you don't have to comingle, you can go for an all BSTS layout.

Life like makes trains...life like makes race sets...

The fact that they didnt have a crossing was kinda lame actually...

I have a few tyco crossings I plan on using to build a smokey and bandit track...

I would have thought some additional curve radii as more positive myself, but maybe this will attract the train geeks to our hobby.

A flat 12" and 15" 1/8 curve would probably have brought more sales and made Lifelike more desireable as a track option, but track isn't a big seller no matter how great a piece you make.

But for those who want the train intersection, it is a great new toy if you were never able to acquire the Tyco (or Aurora) versions. A pair of adapters on each side and you can use it with Tyco or Tomy.

Joe

Nothing more fun than racing semi trucks on a track with a couple RR crossings and a 10 car train. :D

Nothing more fun than racing semi trucks on a track with a couple RR crossings and a 10 car train. :D

Except jumping the train with a Duke's of Hazzard Charger!!!!

YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAA AAAAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do they make a ramp track?

Rich

Do they make a ramp track?

Rich

They should :thumbsup:

I had a Race & Chase Matchbox electric racing set as a kid and it was cool as heck to tip the bridge up just as you went over it, getting your buddy to ram his car into the underside of the bridge :tongue: That was a fun piece. The set had spin-out borders too.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/racechaseset.jpg

My set & cars are long gone save for a couple rims & dry-rotted tars, but I was able to acquire a couple minty versions of the chase car and cop car thru feeBay a few months back. :)

Except jumping the train with a Duke's of Hazzard Charger!!!!

YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAA AAAAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do they make a ramp track?

Rich

Get Ujoe workin' on it!

Ramp track??? Piece O' Cake!!!! The landing track is the hard one to make work!!! :lol: I suppose one could widen the slot on the receiving end to give the jump a slightly better chance of success, but the balance of the car bodies will determine whether or not a jump is even feasible. Of course, slot-less already did the jump route.. "Look Ma!!! No Pin!!!"

I guess this looks promising for a jump track...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLFDqGYs94o


Just be sure to keep ALL Dirty Mary Crazy Larry Chargers AWAY form train crossings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vy_b5-GgVI


Rich :eek:

Do they make a ramp track?

Mattel made jump/landing tracks. One was in the Motocross sets. I think there may also be one in the Harry Potter set. Although I got rid of all the jump tracks, I still have a few of the receiving tracks left (with the wider slot), though I don't know why.

Joe

They made ramps and teeter-totters for t-jets.

Mattel made jump/landing tracks. One was in the Motocross sets. I think there may also be one in the Harry Potter set. Although I got rid of all the jump tracks, I still have a few of the receiving tracks left (with the wider slot), though I don't know why.

Joe

i don't think there was actually a jump track, just a vertical stand piece about an inch or two tall that clipped to the end of a regular track piece and attached that piece so it hung the right distance above the receiving track. kinda like the bricks under the piece of wood, if you were a kid on a bike. no electricity ran through it, so if you had a continuity problem anywhere else, you'd find out in a hurry...

--rick