H.O. scale home slot car track

[Wolfangel]

Ok...I know a lot of people might not like H.O. as much as the larger scale cars....but I have always liked them. I have always wanted to make a big slot car track to decorate and have fun with. This is what I came up with.........

As you can see...I have combined a road course slot track with a train. And on the outer edge is a drag strip. The whole table measures 5 x 16. But, the outer 1 foot edge where the drag strip is folds under the table....then the WHOLE thing folds up against the wall.

The train can take 2 different paths.......around the outter perimeter of the table....or have it go inside and be an obstacle for when your racing.

Its going to take a lot of time and patience to get this the way I want...but I think Im off to a good start.

A few details......

The rail road crossing CAN NOT be bought. I made it. You can get a slot car track piece with a STRAIGHT train track on it...but there has never been one made that had a curve in it...at least not available through retail stores. I wanted to be different. The drag strip is also 16 feet long with a 30" run off area at the end......it is made to be removed when the track is stored.

I have never seen all 3 aspects combined before....road course....train....drag strip. It will take me awhile to get it done, but it will be fun doing all sorts of things to it.

Any comments are welcome.

[booboo60]

Really nice job! This is what I need due too space and to play with my grandson with! Looks fun..fine job

[wayne swayze]

That'll be a giggle when the train and cars collide eh?

[phantomw]

Cool nice looking set up

[DynoMight]

I have a HO track in my basement that's set up like a really, really big roadcourse. At one time we had a train track and a track going at once, it's pretty crazy..

[Austin T]

I love HO slot cars, can't beat the old thunderjets. I remember I used to build up the track as two tall spirals (One up, one down) just to see how long I could fishtail them.

[cobraman]

I like that.

[Biggie]

Great project, looks like lots of fun ahead of you Will you detail it heavy (buildings, people, trees, other stuff) ?

[Wolfangel]

Oh yeah....it will have buildings...trees...people...some of the track will look like mountain passes...so on and so on. I will have bleachers next to the drag strip...guardrails all the way down. Im looking at about a year or more to get it all done. I will be fully decorated with a lot of scenery. Im even going to have working street lights all along the slot car track....good for night racing. And...off the slot car track I will have fake roads.....kinda make it look like turns off an interstate. Still ALOT of planning to do. Not to mention the control box im going to have to control everything. That will be a a wiring nightmare. And get this...I have figured out how to only have 2 controllers all total....for both tracks...WITHOUT unhooking them. I will show more on that later.

[Nick Notarangelo]

That'll be a giggle when the train and cars collide eh?

thought the same thing "And there goes old number 9 blasted by the dukes car.

[blunc]

I made an HO drag car from a G-Plus, a long time ago, wound a hot armature for it.

It would do the scale quarter mile in about two seconds (we didn't have any precise timing equipment), even with the dead zone at the end we had to have some foam to stop some of the cars from flying off the end of the track.

[deuces wild]

2 years ago, I had 2 Tomy "giant" track sets rigged up in the basement.. Had a blast racing with my nephew during the Holidays... :)

[David G.]

Very Cool!

I had the Tyco railroad and slot car combo back in the 70s and enjoyed the heck out of it.

David G.

[Wolfangel]

I know its been a looong time since i posted about this track...but with switching jobs...and a few other problems....I wasn't really able to make any progress.  As you can see from the first pics I posted...it has changed a lot.  I tore the whole thing apart and started over.  I just didn't like how it was coming together as a whole.  I have added all the supports...made another train crossing for the slot car track.  It does still have the drag strip...i just took it off for the time being until i get other things done.  I like this design a whole lot better than the first one.  I have also built a winch and pulley system to fold it against the wall...as i know it will start getting some serious weight to it.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks

 

 

Edited October 31, 2015 by Wolfangel

[David G.]

Very cool!

 

David G.

[crazyjim]

I don't think the support in the middle of the track will work very well.

[Wolfangel]

I should have mentioned that....I knew somebody would catch it.  That is just for a height reference right now.  Since the upper track is directly above the lower track....I will be adding like an archway to that area to connect the lower and upper pieces of track.  Still alot to do....but its getting there.

[redneckrigger]

Brings back great memories................back when I was a teen, a LONG time ago, the local K Marts had a close out of the Tyco sets right after Christmas. I bought every one my allowance and meager earnings could afford. I had a set up in the basement that had over 200 feet of track on about four levels. It was a nightmare keeping power to it, but when it ran right it was a BLAST. Had both Tyco and A/FX cars running on it............loads of fun. Grew up, got married, and the old track hit the landfill..............sad indeed!

[Wolfangel]

Here is what i gone tonight on my layout. You can get an idea of the direction im going here. These walls are just the base foundation right now. These will eventually be covered by "rock"...kinda like when they cut through a mountain to put a road. Still a very long way to go...but its looking good. This is on the "mountain pass" end of the layout...tight curves and have to be careful driving through there.

[knarf]

very kool!

[WigWag Workshop]

Because of this post, I decided to get my Grandson a small battery powered slot car track, to see if he would have any interest in it.  He would not put the controller down, we went through 2 sets of batteries, and it's just a small figure 8 track.  So now, Pappy is going to build a full size HO track in the train room for him.  Thank You for the inspiration.

-Steven

[Wolfangel]

Here is a looooong over due update on my track.  Forget all the previous pictures....this IS the final layout.  Its been weathered....lines painted....and is now permanent on the table.  Let me know what you think of it now.  And yes...the train is still there.  A lot of people don't seem to like that still (judging from other places I have posted it).

Now that the "roadcourse" is done.....I need to get started back on the dragstrip.

[cobraman]

That's a cool layout. Loved slot cars when I was younger and had several.

[Wolfangel]

Here is another update on my layout.  I have finally got the pulley system done to fold it against the wall....that way I can still have full use of my garage when I need it.   It works really well and does what it should.  The system I use is a series of pulleys with a 110 volt winch mounted at the bottom of the wall (you can see it if you look close enough).  When you click on the link to the movie...just click open to see it in action.  Its safe....I promise.

track movie.MP4

Edited July 4, 2016 by Wolfangel

[Wolfangel]

And this is my control panel for the slot cars and the train.  I have 2 power packs for the cars (1 per lane....both are switchable from 12 volts to 24 volts).  The switches in the middle are for choosing either the drag strip or the road course...cant run both at the same time.  I did this for 2 reasons.....first of all....when you unfold the drag strip from under the table it makes it harder to reach the cars on the road course....and I only need 2 controllers instead of four....saved me some money.  I know the train controller is old school.....but it works great and does what I need it to.  I am planning on restoring that and make it look better.