# Pics of tracks you had growing up



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

I've seen just a few (maybe 2 or 3) photos of tracks that HTers had when they were kids. Let's say a guy went on an archeological dig deep into the dusty archives and dug a pic or two of his track from way back taken in maybe 1973...

1. Would HTers in general be interested in seeing an old grainy photo of a track and cars from the t-jet/early AFX era? 

2. If so, where to post it? Most logical seems to be in members completed tracks thread, but it not really a great fit there.

3. Does anyone have such pics? More than just one or two folks?

If so, maybe we start a thread for photos of tracks from way back - either your own from when you were a kid or one(s) you raced on. Might be fun... Thoughts?


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

This is an interesting idea!!! I do have pictures... well I used to anyway... of my circa 1987 set up. If they still exist, they're buried in a storage unit 1100 miles away.  Someday, I hope to be reunited with them.  2003 was so long ago...


----------



## rbrunne1 (Sep 22, 2007)

*Old Track*

Here's a few pictures of a slot car track I built when I was in Junior High (about 1975). This was the final iteration in a long line of experiments starting with Hot Wheels & Sizzlers track (I wish I had pictures :drunk. We even tried to make our our Sizzlers track, but building the banked curves proved too hard!

Here's an overall view of the layout.


Here two Porsches battle it out going up the Hill!




Here's a link to the whole album (22 Photos):
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/572928460tPMCfZ

I was a budding photographer at the time and I adjusted the depth of focus to blur the background and edges to try to improve the look of realism.


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Holy frijoles, Bob!! That track is killer. I guess no one took the time to tell you that you can't build a track that nice when you're that young. Great job. I see some incredible detail on the cars, too. Nice!

Sweet that you were into photography then, too. You're lucky to have pics of that quality to look back on. Now so are we! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

Very cool track!!! Lots of work and detail there for a junior high kid!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: RM


----------



## hojoe (Dec 1, 2004)

Here are a couple pictures of the track I had set up in 1965. The Aurora double stall building on this track is the same one I'm using on Carolton today.
Sorry the pics aren't better, but hey, what do you want from a 12 year old.
hojoe


----------



## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

And Mom let you put all those pictures on the wall??? Amazing!!! RM


----------



## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

Cool pics dude!!!

Umm, I was born in 65?


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Wish I had pics of mine. In the mid '80s, I had a 4x8 layout done with Faller track. One end went thru town, the other was thru the mountains. Like some others have said, it probably showed that it was done by a kid, but I still wish I had pics...

oh, and i was born in 1969. man i was born too late.

--rick


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Great!! Thanks for digging out those pics and scanning 'em. That track is extremely cool. Love the wall posters, too. So cool that you stepped back and got the whole thing in the frame all those years ago. Awesome, hojoe!!!


----------



## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

ParkRNDL said:


> Wish I had pics of mine. In the mid '80s, I had a 4x8 layout done with Faller track. One end went thru town, the other was thru the mountains. Like some others have said, it probably showed that it was done by a kid, but I still wish I had pics...
> 
> oh, and i was born in 1969. man i was born too late.
> 
> --rick




Haha you youngster!!:drunk:

At one time I had a 3 sheet layout in mom's attic. Then another time we had a double decker in the basement. It was a 4 by 16 fully lit up and detailed road coarse, 2 lane. On top of it we had a 16 by 3 high speed 4 lane banked oval. I wish I had pictures of all of my layouts.


----------



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

The only thing I have is this shot of my brother Mike and I racing a Model Motoring oval in the summer of 1967. 










I think it was on a 3' X 5' layout, had two crossovers and the old steering wheel controllers. I had this track until I left for the Army in the late 1970's, it disappeared along with about a dozen cars not too long afterward.


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Very cool, Pete! You guys look like an Aurora ad in that shot! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

PS I gotta squint just right, but it does look like you guys are rockin' steering wheel controllers in that shot!

PPS Now if I squint even harder, am I possibly seeing the acorn from which sprung the mighty oak we know as Three Palms?? We better have the boys in the lab check the DNA of those tracks!!


----------



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Rolls, those are indeed the steering wheel controllers, it wasn't until about 1970 that my oldest brother Steve adapted the Cox thumb controllers to our Auroura track.


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

My older brother Steve adapted those black Cox thumb controllers to our track, too! That was after we blew out several of the tan Aurora "stack-o-nickels" controllers, or as my thumb would call them, upside-down drill presses.


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

From deep in the archives... Note Cox controllers, lighting, O-gauge sections, Green Nomad... all kinds of stuff, but hard to make much of it out. 

Power I remember - 3 power taps and a transformer for each lane, plus a separate train transformer for the street lights and the lights in the buildings.





















Pics must've been taken a coupla years apart, judging by controllers. Those big O-gauge turns flanking the main straight were crazy fun.


----------



## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*The Waaay Back Machine strikes again ! !*

:thumbsup: Nice pics Rolls... Brings back memories... You were bitten by the bug a long time ago. Just goes to show how the hobby grabbed ahold of some of us and never let go. Was cool... IS cool still.


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Yes it is!!!! Very cool indeed! Sadly, no one ever had the presence of mind to snap a picture or two. I was more into trains at that age, and the slot cars were a short lived little blink's worth of time. One AFX set and those stupid tabs broke so fast, I don't think me and my little brother even wore out the original pick ups. Believe it or not I didn't hear about T jets and L&J track until 2 1/2 years ago. Life would have been so much different if I knew about them back then...


----------



## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

Cool pics Rolls!!! That was some refreshment stand you had there too!!! RM


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Bottles from victory lane celebrations!


----------



## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

Great photos. Look at all the Red Oil bottles you had there on the track. :thumbsup:


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

All I have is a very poor quality Polaroid, which was taken on May 9, 1973 in my Mom's dark and dank basement. I can see the remnants of a TycoPro translucent blue Cobra and an Oscar track cleaner and a bit of the Aurora garage and McDonalds. I remember this 4x8 track very well and it had a lot of good times and fond memories surrounding it. I wish I had taken some better pictures at the time.


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Well ya gotta squint on most of these old pics 'cause you're looking back through time. Great pic! Especially for a Polariod! 

I can see all sorts of cool details. Love the Aurora garage and the cool cars around it. I'm trying to make them out. Maybe a Corvette in the bay of the garage? I see the Oscar. Possibly the back of a red Willys? The low black body on the ground... maybe a Shadow? Great stuff and thanks for sharing.

And isn't it kind of amazing how an H.O. track turns a dark, dank section of basement into a great place with warm memories that endure for decades?


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I can see the back end of my orange DynaBrute VW bug - still have it.

The car in the right bay of the garage is a slimline F1 car- still have it.

The dark body is a TycoPro Cobra - still have it.

I don't know what happened to Oscar...


----------



## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Spectacular!! That it is so great that those cars have made the long journey with you! And they're not looking any worse for wear, that's for sure. Just beautiful. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Wish I had the foresight to stash a couple of my favorites aside. Sometime after I left for college, the whole track layout with cars went to someone for $50, I'm told, as best my brother can recall. My two favorites, by far, were my green AFX Nomad, which is actually in my picture, and my Tuffy Willys, yellow with purple stripes. Both of those cars were absolute take no prisoners racers and a dream to drive. 

P.S. I noticed your LL guardrails. I think they did a great job on those - simple, smooth and not orange! Also, more connection posts per foot than AFX, which helps in some instances.


----------



## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

Wow look at that McDonalds building. Haven't seen one of those before. The basic body looks similar to the Freezee building.


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Those McDonalds go for big bucks now!! And yes, it's the same mold as the Freeezee. The McDonalds building was a very short run before it got shut down. The same story for my Pizza Hut building. They were pulled from the hobby store shelves for trademark crap. I want to scratch build a Micky Dee's and light up the arches... Someday maybe...


----------



## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

*McDonalds building kit*

I was scanning general HO stuff on the Bay the other day and saw one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Very-Rare-Lifel...879497?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item33619afd89


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Wow, and not built too!!  Gonna be some serious bux laid out for that one!!!


----------



## resinmonger (Mar 5, 2008)

SCMan travels into the future to predict a high sales price! It went for $170 and change - nice prediction Joe! :thumbsup: :hat: :freak:


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Got into this thread late, but before I read SlottV and SCMan's responses, I thought the same thing... that looks like the old Freezee building! I have 3 Freezees in various states of disrepair... wonder if one could be built into a McD's like that. Time to start scanning the Intarwebs and collecting reference pictures...

--rick


----------

