# Ok, it's track planning time kids....



## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Ok guys, I'm finally going to get my rear in gear (hey I'm a poet and didn't know it :tongue: ) and build my slot car track. I originally wanted to build a 4' X 8' layout.....but after my room has been cleaned out and I've measured a few times, I think It would just be too crowded for that. With that being said, I've chosen to go with a 36" x 80" layout.

I really want to pool ideas with you guys. I prodominantly will be racing Tjets on this track....because of the size I realize that magnet cars will just be too quick....and turn into flying missiles...lol. I prefer the Tjets anyways...because of the modeling aspect of things....so no worries there. I do plan to fully landscape this entire layout.....it's something I've been dieing to do for years. Because I want to take full advantage of landscaping and scenic possibilities I want to incorporate an overpass....and somehow have room left to set up a pit road/garage type area.....

I won't have alot of space in my room.....but I want to make this layout a 4 lane......just in case some friends drop by. I have one power supply right now (I believe it's a 15 volt 4 amp? been a while since I looked at it)...but I may just camp on Ebay in a few months and snag a better supply then when my funds allow for it.

Anyhow, that's my thoughts and ideas......I've looked at the layout plans on http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/ ....and I kinda like the "Neubauer 21" design.....but I wanted to see if anyone else had any suggestions given the ideas I've presented here.

Shoot me some ideas fellas! :thumbsup:


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

My kneejerk reaction is to say that is a bit small and you should grab the 10# sledgehammer and remove a wall to make more room.

I realize this may not be feasible . . .

I guess if you like the Neubauer layout you should go ahead and lay the track out and run some laps on it. You might like it just fine or you might find you want to move a few pieces around to come up with a layout more to your liking.

No matter what you do, you can always pull it back up later and do something different or larger 

'Doba


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

1976Cordoba said:


> My kneejerk reaction is to say that is a bit small and you should grab the 10# sledgehammer and remove a wall to make more room.


Eh, I know it's rather small.......perhaps if I didn't already have one wall covered with cabinet grade custom shelving ...and bookcases lining most of the other walls in the room I'd be able to get away with a 4 X 8..... My wife and I are living in a mobile home....so it's not like a regular home where you could just kick a wall out and add on. Actually, I guess I could add a room on......but that would be sometime in the way off distant future before I could swing that..... so this small layout is my only shot at a track in the room.

I also had thoughts (and discussed with my wife) about building a dragstrip....and mounting it on the hallway wall.....and extending it into the living room........I could easily get 18'...... and I've already built the thing in my mind a few times...so the design would be simple. But alas, that's another project....but something that may aleviate my thirst fir speed that comes from magnet cars :thumbsup:


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## car guy (Nov 22, 2003)

Hey, i'd go with (& I plan on) Roger Corrie's door track he posted on your other post. I've PM'd him for more pics but haven't heard back yet. It looks like a pretty sweet track all decked out. I also like the idea of using the hinges to store against the wall. I was originally going to do this on a sheet of 3' X 5' plywood.

As far as space, i've toyed with this idea in my head more than a few times, something suspended from the ceiling, a nice sturdy base with some pulley action to lower & raise.


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

car guy said:


> Hey, i'd go with (& I plan on) Roger Corrie's door track he posted on your other post. I've PM'd him for more pics but haven't heard back yet. It looks like a pretty sweet track all decked out. I also like the idea of using the hinges to store against the wall. I was originally going to do this on a sheet of 3' X 5' plywood.
> 
> As far as space, i've toyed with this idea in my head more than a few times, something suspended from the ceiling, a nice sturdy base with some pulley action to lower & raise.



In our family garage (actually my dad's garage/shop next door) we do have a routed track suspended from the ceiling using a crank and pulley system. I got the track for a reasonable price about 3 years ago...and haven't done squat with it yet...because of the space it takes up. So for now it just hangs there :drunk: 

I have considered using a pulley system in my room to suspend my new track......I've got plenty of ceiling space to do so (vaulted ceilings)..... so that's under consideration for sure. As a base for the table I'll buy a set of those metal brackets to make wooden sawhorses......I'll cut them to fit exactly into two slots under the table's framework.....and screw both sawhorses to the framework to make it solid.

I do like Roger's layout.....but I kinda want to have an overpass too....... plus it'll give me a bit more of a chance to show off some of my landscaping skills :thumbsup:


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

TX Street Racer said:


> In our family garage (actually my dad's garage/shop next door) we do have a routed track suspended from the ceiling using a crank and pulley system. I got the track for a reasonable price about 3 years ago...and haven't done squat with it yet...because of the space it takes up. So for now it just hangs there :drunk:
> 
> You can send it to my place.. lol.....Hey we might be neighbours soon A&M is making another attempt to seduce my Wife to the campus in College Station..
> 
> ...


I will post up my track layout tomorrow its a door track with a overpass.. witha few options on the overpass location so you could jiggle it around a bit to get what you are looking for.


Coach


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

AFX, man, I really appreciate you cranking out those plans. So far I like #1 ,#4, and #7 that you posted.......specifically #4 and #7 are both REALLY nice. Any other plans?  

The program that you're using to draw these designs....does it also give the piece counts for say Tomy track??? I got lucky a couple months back at a HUGE garage sale and bought one of those "Giant" Tomy track sets in the box for a mere $10! So right now I've got a good head start on alot of the Tomy pieces I'll be using.

I can actually see my track coming together real soon......man, I'm getting excited!


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

*door*

Here is my current door track.. and ya thats a hairpin.. can ya drive or not? LOL...


Dave


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Dang Dave, that would be a GREAT track to run on.....VERY tight and tricky turns for sure...lol

Those turns may be a bit too much for my wife though :tongue:


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

coach61 said:


> Here is my current door track.. and ya thats a hairpin.. can ya drive or not? LOL...
> 
> 
> Dave


LOL...not with that big ol' gap in the track! :tongue:


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## jack0fall (Sep 8, 2004)

joez870 said:


> LOL...not with that big ol' gap in the track! :tongue:


C'mon Joez, Everybody here knows that isn't a gap in the track, its where the "worm hole" is located. Go in one side and maybe you will come out back on the track, and maybe you will end up somewhere else. LOL

Coach, the layout looks wicked... :thumbsup: The gap does look like it may give a little trouble with the joints when it is attached. Have you had any trouble with one lane or the other loosing power???

Jeff


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## blackroc (Mar 26, 2005)

Great job Dave. I really have to find some time, maybe this fall to come up and crank some roundy rounds with you.

I think quite a few of those layouts AFXToo posted look really great. Like the last one a bit more thinking about the modeling opportunities in that open space.

Eager to see what you finally choose. I'm thinking I'll end up having to come up with a similar size layout once I finally move my current track out into the remodeled storage shed (Velozity Speedway) for those days when I'd rather do my tinkering in the house.

-Marcos


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## Mike(^RacerX^) (Mar 15, 2003)

Tex:Nice to see you getting back into the game again.

As far as tracks go,I still think you can't beat the "tuckaway" track over on the HO slotcar racing site.This was the last track I built before the one that I have now,and for the size,you can't beat it.

I would shoot you some pics of it,but all that remains of it now is the board.I want to build a small routed track with it sometime down the road.


Mike


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## TK Solver (Mar 18, 2004)

*A smooth but relatively expensive option...*

This layout includes four 15" radius 1/8th turns on the right end and three overpasses before ramping down around the loop on the left end. The outside lane may hang over the edge of the table about an inch on each side, so technically, this design doesn't fit entirely on a 36" table. Using the Tomy nomenclature, the track uses 2 A, 16 B, 2 C, 4 D, 2 E, 4 F, 22 G, 8 H, and 2 I pieces. There are no 6" radius turns. There is about 0.75" of slop between the start and end points but that could be easily distributed throughout the elevation changes. It's a little over 29' of track per lane. There are some nice open spaces in the middle and on both sides of the loop on the left end for buildings and/or landscaping.

Besides stretching the width limit, another downside of this layout is the requirement of some relatively expensive track pieces -- 22 12" radius 1/8th turns and 4 15" radius 1/8th turns. But without any sharp 6" radius turns, the driving would be smooth.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

jack0fall said:


> C'mon Joez, Everybody here knows that isn't a gap in the track, its where the "worm hole" is located. Go in one side and maybe you will come out back on the track, and maybe you will end up somewhere else. LOL
> 
> Coach, the layout looks wicked... :thumbsup: The gap does look like it may give a little trouble with the joints when it is attached. Have you had any trouble with one lane or the other loosing power???
> 
> Jeff



I was one guy who actually didn't mind tomy's sloppy workmanship lol..It actually was barely off and I adjusted in increments around the track to spread it out a bit.. I would say though its less then a 1/16th off anyways..I did have to use a dab of spakel on the top of the track in one spot but zero power problems at all..I kinda like t worm hole idea.. goes in a tjet comes out a hammered mess....lol
:tongue: 
Dave


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

TX Street Racer said:


> Dang Dave, that would be a GREAT track to run on.....VERY tight and tricky turns for sure...lol
> 
> Those turns may be a bit too much for my wife though :tongue:



My 8 Year old gets around the track pretty quick... If My Wife takes the Job at A&M we'll have you and your wife over and you can give it a run...Maybe lure the Captian out the texas hot spot of Houston too..lol...


Dave


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## NHawk52 (May 16, 2005)

I've been looking at the same size 'cause a 36 door fits well on the table in my apt dining room. Here is one simple design I've come up with so far. Thinking the front center area might make for a good pit area?

NHawk


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

coach61 said:


> My 8 Year old gets around the track pretty quick... If My Wife takes the Job at A&M we'll have you and your wife over and you can give it a run...Maybe lure the Captian out the texas hot spot of Houston too..lol...
> 
> 
> Dave



Hey Dave' that'd ROCK! :thumbsup: Mike only lives about 45 minutes from me...... we've raced together a few times. I'm sure if he had time he'd love to go also


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

AfxToo said:


> TX, I came get you detailed listings of all of the required pieces. The program I'm using (Tracker 2000) spits out a detailed inventory along with the drawings as a web page. Send me a PM with your email address and I'll zip up whatever layouts you're interested in and email them to you. We can tweak them some more too.



AFX, I appreciate your help buddy.....I'll PM you with my email addy and we'll hammer something out :thumbsup: 

Brian 
[email protected]


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## 69Ed (Jan 23, 2005)

One thing that might help too is to build a small 4-6" wing on your table, even if its only along the short end or just a 3' section along the long dimension. Its often that little extra that helps get another pass of track on the table or opens up a carousel. You might also add an elevated flat ledge across one end or corner of the table. The design posted by Nhawk52 would lend itself nicely to having an elevated wing (3-4" high, and two or 4-lanes wide) on the back corner. Gives you both a little extra room and some visual interest. 

Be creative and have fun!

Ed


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Ed, thanks for the suggestion. I did some more thinking while at work today....and I think I'll make the table maybe 2"-4" wider .....that way I'll have a bit more area for landscaping. I'm thinking I'll do some designing to make the track feel like a vintage TransAm type layout...... :thumbsup:


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