# Marchon General Discussion Thread



## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Let's talk Marchon!

I figured I would start this thread as the one place where the (proably) few of us who do anything with Marchon cars can ask questions, discuss tips, make observation and generally deal with cars which are far off the radar screen.

I have been collecting Marchon cars for years now but only recently started to take some of the C8 and below cars I have accumulated outside the collection and use them as runners. I am just starting to learn the quirks of the different chassis types and what needs to be done to get a poorly running car running better. With these cars, QC is all over the lot.

So if you've got Marchon cars and have something to say, post it here. I'd like to hear about it.

Here's my first question. Years ago there was an online store called Slot Car World. It was the only place I know that had inexpensive Marchon chassis and parts. A few years ago the owner passed away and the site disappeared. Anyone know if the stock was purchased by anyone?

Joe


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

I never had a Marchon until recently. Several months ago I picked up a older T-Bird with a 1987 MR-1 chassis that is similar to the Tyco HP-7. It needed a new motor so I put a newer Machuci motor in it. It is the same motor the Tomy Turbos and SRTs use. The body also had provisions for a light, but the chassis did not come with a light, so I added one to it. It runs good, and I currently have it for sale on EBAY.

Several months ago I also saw someone selling three 1992-1994 version MR-1 chassis (two yellow, and an orange) that look very similar to a Tomy SRT, so I decided to see if I could get them. Upon close inspection of the pictures I noticed that all three had the mount tabs cut down to very small nubs. I contacted the seller, and he said he would sell me all three for $10.00. I jumped on that deal. 

When I received those three chassis I tested them, and they ran great, like a bat out of hell. I had a couple of Marchon bodies I could use, but since the mount tabs were cut they would not fit without work. I also had the below Tyco truck with no chassis, and the long wheelbase was a perfect fit for this. I also had some adapters to mount a Tomy SG+ in a Tyco body which gave me the idea to modify a mount for the Tyco truck body. I removed the motor, marking which side was driver and passenger, thus the D and P in the picture. I cut down the big piece that was sticking up off the back of the chassis and hitting the body. Next I lined up the chassis with the body, and marked where I would need to cut holes for the SG+ type mounts. The adapter would not fit across the chassis like it does on an SG+, so I just cut the sides off of it, and discarded the center section. I super glued the adapters in place. While I was at it I replaced the stiff MR-1 shoe springs with softer Tomy springs. Now I have a Tyco truck body with a screamin' MR-1 chassis in it.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

That's a lot of work, but the end result looks great.

For those who do not know, Chris Lukasiewicz put out a Marchon collector's guide about 5-6 years ago which includes Marchon and Empire (which bought Marchon), and a few early Micro-Scalextric that carried the MR-1 logo. He followed that up with a second book which includes Micro-Scalextric which are the decendants of Marchon. The books are still available.

In my brief running of these cars, I have found the chassis you have with the larger shoe hangers are much better than the first two chassis types with the thin shoe hangers. Those older chassis can be a bit fragile around the shoe hanger area. Unfortunately some of the bodies need the older chassis, especially those with the original four point mount. However some of the other bodies don't seem to have the necessary clearance to use the wider shoes which are stock on the wide hanger chassis.

One chassis type looks like almost a complete copy of a Tyco HP-7.

When you get a good Marchon, it is quiet and FAST.

Joe


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

It sounds like a lot of work, but it was not that hard to do.

Here is the one that looks like an HP-7.


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## jph49 (Nov 20, 2003)

Joe,

Concerning Slot Car World, a relative (I think it is the daughter) of the late owner is selling the stock off on ebay, a few items at a time. I have seen primarily 1/32 cars and sets. The seller name is rebekahlackey. You might check her listings to see if any HO items turn up.

Hope this helps.

Patrick


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## grungerockjeepe (Jan 8, 2007)

Ive had a handful of MR-1s in the past. There are several variations of the chassis, some are completely incompatible with one another and yet they are all called MR-1 which is pretty confusing. The above which is a pretty close HP-7 knockoff seems to have some other parts in it. Ive owned a few that have the exact motors as an HP-7, the pickups are nearly compatible too. Those are the only ones where the chassis frames aren't glass jaw brittle. The orange/yellow/grey ones with the greenwire arms run good but suffer from some pretty nasty QC issues. Wheels weeble wobble all over the place. The ones used on the Jeeps are what Im most familiar with. Some parts of those frames are wafer thin and severely prone to cracking. They run amazing, and seem to take some cues from the Tyco HP-7 (mostly in the pickup area) and the Tomy Turbo (everything behind the pickup area). The Microscalextric chassis is leaps and bounds above these, but unfortunately uses totally different body mounts. Im sure they can be adapted, but I only keep the Jeeps and the roadwarrior looking SUV and T-bird for collection purposes, so they get run lightly and Im more interested in keeping them original.

The bodies are a bit of an amalgamation of knock-offs from different places, as well as original designs. The porsches, T-birds, firebirds and maybe the corvettes seem to be Tyco knock-offs. The roadwarriors, and the rescue ford explorers who knows....prolly original designs. The Ferrari testarrosas appear to be taken from Tomy. 

Being the Jeep geek that I am, the Marchon Jeeps kind of infuriate me. The overall body shell most closely resembles the '76-86 CJ-7 with the rounded off hood, curvier front fenders and rounded rear fenders. However, the head and parking lites are squared off, it has lower half doors and a rollcage with center hoop to windshield spreaders which suggest '87-95 Wrangler. The tailgate is pretty featureless as far as anything that would identify which era rig it is replicating. These being released in the '90s it would seem they went for a few of the then-current Jeep's styling cues. The tailgate is pretty featureless as far as anything that would identify which era rig it is replicating. The Marchon Jeep doesn't seem to be at all based on the Tyco Jeeps, definitely not AFX or Ideal's either. BUT its interesting to note that the Tyco CJs were released in about 1980, and had lower halfdoors that almost exactly line up with the half doors that the Wrangler offered starting in 1987. Wonder if someone at AMC or Chrysler had a few Tyco Jeeps in their collection....


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

That HP-7 like MR-1 T-Bird originally had a motor similar to one of these. At the time I replaced the motor I did not have one of those, plus the Mabuchi I put in there is better.


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## rdm95 (May 8, 2008)

I have some NOS parts still on the big dealer cards.. Been trying to sell them on eBay, but really dont get much interest in them. I always thought they were a severely under-rated chassis, but my opinion is based on very limited experience with them. Years ago I had bought a big Marchon set brand new and was blown away with how fast the cars were & how well they stayed on the track. I could hold them at wide open and they hardly ever came off! Theyre great for the kids since all they care about is speed and not having to keep chasing after the cars on every corner..lol


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

rdm95 maybe you could post some pics here of some of the parts you have available. If the asking prices are not too high you might get some interest. In my opinion most of the Marchon parts I have seen on EBAY were a little on the high side for my taste.

Also, I don't like some of the over sized Marchon bodies, like that T-Bird I posted.


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## rdm95 (May 8, 2008)

Yeah that Tbird is about the worst.. There was some sort of battle bot/road warrior type car that Marchon had that was equally out of spec for HO scale. They clearly needed a better design dept when they were in business. Things might have turned out differently, who knows. Ive never posted the parts I have here simply bcz Ive never seen much about them being discussed. I dont think the prices I had on them were out of line, especially considering theyre nearly impossible to find.. Maybe I was asking too much for them, I dont know


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

I am not saying your prices are out of line, especially being that they are harder to find. I just said "were a little on the high side for my taste." Remember I only have a few so I don't need much in the way of parts for them.

Being that you said you did not get much interest in them that means there is either not a big demand for them, or maybe the prices were higher than people wanted to pay.


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

I have about 15 of so of them and not a bad chassis in the lot. They had a pretty nice Porsche Carrera body, but I think most of the bodies are cartoonish. LOVE the chassis though. Real grinders with a lot of power. Great for die cast conversions


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up on the liquidation of the Slot Car World inventory. I'll have to check that out. In addition to a lot of Marchon stuff, I believe they were the only US vendor for Artin 1/43.

Without question, there are a few bodies which are just too big and bulky. The Thunderbird and Firebird are two which come to mind, although the four NASCAR bodies and the Sauber Mercedes are also very long. When a car body doesn't fit length-wise into an HO size case, the body is too big.

A long time ago there was a thread asking for pics of the ugliest HO cars ever made - my vote went to the Marchon Bad City Truck. I really think every other car, even some of the Tyco disasters, come in a very distant second.

It seems to me Marchons would be better served being on a slightly wider track. Running them on a routed track with wider lane spacing would make them "in scale". Plus the speed of these chassis almost requires running them on long tracks.

Has anyone noticed if the guide pins are different lengths, some of which are too long for Tyco and/or Aurora MM track?

Because finding new Marchon cars is very difficult, many cars in my collection are used, or at least I have to assume they were used. I was lucky enough to pick up some NOS chassis years ago and I think I am going to replace all the used chassis in the case with new ones, even if they aren't the correct chassis (style wise or with the correct rims) for the body. I want to get all the used first and second generation chassis (the ones with thin shoe hangers) out of the case because I don't like them and would prefer to put them in my runners or sell them.

The thin-hanger chassis also seem to be harder to get running well. The pickup shoes don't seem to be locked in very tight and move side to side very easily. Just yesterday I disassembled one of the HP-7 like chassis because I had to bend the shoe spring assembly in order to get the shoes to hang straight. But after some tweaking, it does run fairly well.

Joe


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## honda27 (Apr 17, 2008)

*marchon*

heres what I have 3 nascars complete.

I have 11 new pairs of pick up shoes nos.
I have 1 set of guide pins nos
3 sets new crown gears with pinions nos
and I have 8 pairs nos shoes with springs. 
I have more nos crown gears. 
and a few pinions
might have 3 parts chassis ill have to check Friday.

would like to sell them to u if u need this stuff.
will check and see if I have any other parts ty.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

I have several Marchon chassis and bodies. I bought the two Mercedes/Sauber Group C cars for nostalgic reasons as I had them years ago. One of the yellow chassis underneath crumbled in my hands as the plastic was so ruined. 

There are two versions of the yellow/orange/black chassis that vansmack used with his excellent truck conversion. The wide tab version has a long tab one side and narrow the other side. The other version is the narrow version and this one works really well with the Marchon/Micro Scalextric Ferrari F40 and Porsche 911s. 

Over here the MR1 narrow tab is a pretty dominant chassis in Closed Wheel racing. This is a class which allows the motor to be replaced with the Tomy Turbo one (looks the same except for the colour of the wiring), open choice of gearing, wheels and tyres and stock traction magnets. The reason for the chassis popularity is the enormous neo traction magnets which as has been noted are exceptionally strong. It makes it extremely difficult to beat with an SRT or LifeLike T which are the usual competition in Closed Wheel. 

It is worth noting though that the chassis, traction magnets, buses and pickups are the only standard items left on the car when we race.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Gareth said:


> One of the yellow chassis underneath crumbled in my hands as the plastic was so ruined.


Yeah...QC was definitely not their strong point. 



> There are two versions of the yellow/orange/black chassis that vansmack used with his excellent truck conversion. The wide tab version has a long tab one side and narrow the other side. The other version is the narrow version and this one works really well with the Marchon/Micro Scalextric Ferrari F40 and Porsche 911s.


According to Chris's book, the narrow chassis was introduced by MicroScalextric so technically it's not a Marchon. Marchon had no narrow bodied cars. The earliest MicroScalextric chassis used hard pickups like Marchon and were actually called MR-1; later the chassis were changed to use braid rather than hard pickups.

During the Marchon years, there were two different mounting systems. The one described by Gareth was the later, and probably far more produced (based on the percentage of bodies which use that mounting system) chassis, which came in three differerent colors (see below). The original chassis had four small side tabs of equal size and were black.

As an aside - I have a wide/narrow chassis whose tabs are in bad shape - I'm going to grind them down and see if I can get it to work under a body designed for the original "four tab" chassis. I have a few more bodies needing the original chassis than I have available.

The wide/narrow tab chassis also had a few revisions. The version with the thicker pickup shoe tabs seems to be the more sturdy (not withstanding Gareth's crumbling yellow chassis). The first wide/narrow tab chassis had the same small fragile shoe tabs as the original chassis. As far as I know, any chassis with the small fragile tabs only came in black.

Even with bodies that use the wide/narrow mounting system, some still need the chassis with the small fragile shoe tabs due to clearance issues.

It was interesting to hear you guys race Marchon as I have never heard anything mentioned here in the US about anyone using them. Cool.

Thanks...Joe


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

Grandcheapskate here is how I would probably try to fix mounts on those chassis. I would drill holes in the chassis where the mounting tabs should be then files them with a jewelers file to get them to the correct size for the mounts. Once that is done I would cut plastic strips and glue them in place with something like Plastruct weld. That would be similar to the process I used to add the Tyco mounts to my chassis. 

I am most likely going to try this on one of my chassis with the cut down mounts so that I can mount it in a Marchon body.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

vansmack2 said:


> Grandcheapskate here is how I would probably try to fix mounts on those chassis. I would drill holes in the chassis where the mounting tabs should be then files them with a jewelers file to get them to the correct size for the mounts. Once that is done I would cut plastic strips and glue them in place with something like Plastruct weld. That would be similar to the process I used to add the Tyco mounts to my chassis.
> 
> I am most likely going to try this on one of my chassis with the cut down mounts so that I can mount it in a Marchon body.


The tabs on the original chassis are very small and I don't know if I have a drill small enough not to make too big a hole. Plus they are right on the topline of the chassis - there's no material to the topside of any hole you would drill.

I was thinking of filing down the existing wide/narrow tabs and then gluing a strip along the side of the chassis which would fit into the four "pockets" on the body. Or maybe just double sided tape?

Joe


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

Grandcheapskate said:


> The tabs on the original chassis are very small and I don't know if I have a drill small enough not to make too big a hole. Plus they are right on the topline of the chassis - there's no material to the topside of any hole you would drill.
> 
> I was thinking of filing down the existing wide/narrow tabs and then gluing a strip along the side of the chassis which would fit into the four "pockets" on the body. Or maybe just double sided tape?
> 
> Joe


I had not taken a close look at those chassis. I just looked at a picture of one and see what you are talking about. If it were me I would probably cut a notch were the original tabs were then glue in replacement tabs with JB Weld. Below is a picture of a scooter side panel that had broken tabs, and I used this exact type of procedure on it.


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Hi Joe,

They are a very quick and potent chassis to race with although they generally sound like a bag of old bolts going round the track regardless of the internals used! 

I was under the impression that the narrow chassis was available under the Jet bodies which would make it a Marchon chassis still? 

I didn't think Scalextric did anything with the chassis apart from rebrand it until they switched over to the braided design they use today. I might be wrong though!

Cheers

Gareth


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Gareth said:


> Hi Joe,
> 
> They are a very quick and potent chassis to race with although they generally sound like a bag of old bolts going round the track regardless of the internals used!
> 
> ...


Certainly some are very loud, but I have some that are almost whisper quiet. But this again goes back to the QC issue. Or it could be the type of chassis.

In looking at Chris's book, the Marchon Jet chassis were black with the wide/narrow body tabs. It is hard for me to tell whether it is narrower than the standard chassis, though it may be. Based on the picture, it seems as wide as the standard chassis.

He also shows the Formula 1 chassis introduced by Microscalextric. It is also black but the body mount tabs are smaller and do not stick out as far from the body. Chris states in his addendum that the Formula 1 was not a Marchon design.

I believe when first purchased, Microscalextric did use an unmodified Marchon chassis. The earliest Microscalextric cars came on cards labled as MR-1. Chris states Microscalextric MR-1 and Microscalextric are two distinct brands.

Thanks..Joe


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

vansmack2 said:


> I had not taken a close look at those chassis. I just looked at at picture of one and see what you are talking about. If it were me I would probably cut a notch were the original tabs were then glue in replacement tabs with JB Weld.


 That may be the way to go. With my (lack of) artistic skills, this could get ugly.

Thanks...Joe


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Grandcheapskate said:


> Certainly some are very loud, but I have some that are almost whisper quiet. But this again goes back to the QC issue. Or it could be the type of chassis.
> 
> In looking at Chris's book, the Marchon Jet chassis were black with the wide/narrow body tabs. It is hard for me to tell whether it is narrower than the standard chassis, though it may be. Based on the picture, it seems as wide as the standard chassis.
> 
> ...


Hi Joe, 

Have a look on Bob Molta's site. He has one of the jet chassis with the light tube and that's defo the narrow chassis.

I've not heard of the book you are referring to. Do you have a link? I'd like another reference guide for my library.

I wouldn't class MS MR1 and MS as two different brand personally. They're both MS but different chassis types. In the same way as Tomy Turbo and Tomy SG are both Tomy. The branding (as in logo) may have changed but then so has the Scalextric logo over time. It is just logo evolution to stay modern. 

Perhaps this is just a case of semantics though!

Going back to the new bodies vs the old ones, I must say the new ones are ridiculously heavy! Which must be why the later chassis is so good with a new light body on it!


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## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

The Sky Fighter chassis is the same width except the mounting tabs are different, and don't stick out as far making it a slightly narrower mount. Also the front wheels on the Sky Fighter chassis are narrower. They could not make the main section of the chassis any narrower since it is the same can motor. I have pics, and could post them if anyone wants to see the difference.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Gareth said:


> Going back to the new bodies vs the old ones, I must say the new ones are ridiculously heavy! Which must be why the later chassis is so good with a new light body on it!


Hi Gareth,
I send a PM with Chris's e-mail address. He has published three different reference guides. I have two (I do not have the Atlas book) and the work is excellent. 

By new bodies, are you refering to the current Microscalextric?

Thanks...Joe


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## Gareth (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks Joe, very kind.

No I actually meant the difference between the body I got on the HP7 style chassis compared to the Nascar-ish body I got on the Odd Ears chassis (in reference to the mounting tabs, as good a name as any). 

But it is true that the Micro bodies tend to be lighter.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Anyone have the AC chassis - the one with the little circuit doohickey on top? These are found on the Rescue 911 SUVs - one chassis is yellow, the other is orange. Should that be removed when using the car on regular track or just leave it on? It seems to have no effect, although on one car I can't get it to run if I put one in.

Update:
After thinking about this overnight, I am beginning to believe that the circuit board on the two chassis is not identical. This would make sense since probably one is designed to use one side of the AC wave while the other is designed to use the other side of the wave. It appears the car with the orange chassis will not work with the circuit board in place, whereas the yellow chassis does work.
I have two pairs of these cars I am going to take to the next show. On both pairs, the yellow chassis worked and the orange did not until I removed the circuit board. I have a few extra boards I removed from other chassis, and I did find one that allowed one orange chassis to work - however, I'll bet it was from a yellow chassis and it has disabled the ability to use it as designed.
So I have a dilema. I want to try to sell these cars, but if the orange doesn't work with the board in place, do I remove it - especially if I don't know if the board is good or bad. Or do I try to see if I have another board that does work and then I have possibly disabled the ability to run them on the same lane?
I do have a train transformer that can output either AC or DC. Maybe I will hook the AC side to a terminal track and see if the orange responds. If it works under AC but not DC, then I can leave the boards in place and just tell the buyer to either remove the boards themselves or leave them in place to keep the cars original.
Thoughts?

Thanks...Joe


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## carlosnseattle (May 12, 2009)

Hello, I found this old post and was hoping for some help. A buddy of mine just bought a pair of Marchon Monster trucks and the motor on the Bigfoot truck is fried. I want to get in there and replace it but I'm not sure of the best way to pull the wheels off the axles. Any ideas about how to pull the wheels off the axles so I can open the case?


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

I don't know if this will help.
Marchon on You tube

Maybe not now that I have watched it.
Carlos, zip on over to the HRW board. I posted something there and we will see what comes of it.


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

Nothing yet. It looks like this site has a Marchon guide for sale. But I don't know if the info you need is in it or if it is worth the money.

Marchon Guide for sale


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## carlosnseattle (May 12, 2009)

Looks like nothing on HRW either. No bother, he sent the trucks back to the seller since we couldn't find any help.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

I see where the trucks are no longer in hand but was consideration made of pulley puller type of tool.

I think one that was available to push the wheels off against one another or the frame would have work best.

My vision of the tool would require a device like the one found in a gate leveler kit. The piece with the two thread hooks. Replace those with threaded rod and fix to them on each side 2 'Y' shaped bars held in place by 2 nuts that would to fit behind the wheels. As you unthreaded the rods - the 'y' would push out against the wheels. The problem would be finding one small enough to fit between the wheels.

For assembly they could be used in reverse to reinstall the wheels by press fitting them from outside the wheels.



https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/26649e7b-5101-42a3-a653-18f111e74c6f_1.e5f1018b6b9b1c55203ca831d75c23f4.jpeg?odnWidth=undefined&odnHeight=undefined&odnBg=ffffff


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

I just like the mounds of track you can get for nothing. You can make one heck of a 2 lane setup...


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## charelvanbiljon (5 mo ago)

Is the Marchon track maybe compatible with other brands?


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

I am not sure what you mean by compatible. Marchon track will not connect directly to any other make. I am not aware of any adaptors made to connect Marchon track to another make.








Here is a reference for the various connection types: ModelMotorist: Identifications: Connection HO Scale Slot and Slotless Car Tracks 
You should be able to run other makes of HO cars on Marchon track.


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## charelvanbiljon (5 mo ago)

Rich Dumas said:


> I am not sure what you mean by compatible. Marchon track will not connect directly to any other make. I am not aware of any adaptors made to connect Marchon track to another make.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you. I did mean if the Marchon track will connect directly to other brand of track, but thanks for clearing it up for me.


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