Tuesday 23rd December 2014

200ft of Scalextric: Time For Tea?

Who needs family and terrible TV when you could do this?

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There's a chance you may have seen this video already given it has had nearly five million views since 2010. However, it's Christmas. And one of the best Christmas presents for PHers has been and always will be Scalextric. So why not celebrate one man's incredible dedication to the cause?

Two hundred feet (60m) is one hell of a long track for slot cars. It twists and turns, rises, falls, crosses over and looks like enormous fun. Assembling it or putting the track back in a box is probably less enjoyable. And you wouldn't want to fall off the track half way, would you? But the races would surely be terrific.

With a camera on the car and the track you get a real sense of the track's scale (no pun intended...). It may also make you deeply envious that such a setup doesn't exist in your own home. Still, hats off to this man for a sterling effort. Certainly looks like more fun on Christmas afternoon than a walk and the Great Escape!

Watch the video here.

 

[soad]

1 hour 40 minutes of construction time?

[kambites]

I used to have that sort of amount, mostly bought second hand, and I always found getting a decent electrical connection around such a long track was nigh on impossible. Looking back at it, I guess the sensible thing to do would have been multiple power supplies.

[Crusoe]

Reminds me of many happy hours spent re-soldering wires (hot poker in the fire) from lights and sound modules back onto the motor to give extra go

[PositronicRay]

kambites said:

I used to have that sort of amount, mostly bought second hand, and I always found getting a decent electrical connection around such a long track was nigh on impossible. Looking back at it, I guess the sensible thing to do would have been multiple power supplies.

I had the same problem, resorted to cooking foil between the joints. Multiple power supplies wouldn't work would it? They still have to have a controller.

[55palfers]

I had one transformer per car and that worked OK an a big track.

[kambites]

PositronicRay said:

kambites said:

I used to have that sort of amount, mostly bought second hand, and I always found getting a decent electrical connection around such a long track was nigh on impossible. Looking back at it, I guess the sensible thing to do would have been multiple power supplies.

I had the same problem, resorted to cooking foil between the joints. Multiple power supplies wouldn't work would it? They still have to have a controller.

Good point, I guess what you'd have to do is have a multi-coil controller with several outputs.

I wonder what happened to mine. Haven't seen it for years.

[hairyben]

kambites said:

PositronicRay said:

kambites said:

I used to have that sort of amount, mostly bought second hand, and I always found getting a decent electrical connection around such a long track was nigh on impossible. Looking back at it, I guess the sensible thing to do would have been multiple power supplies.

I had the same problem, resorted to cooking foil between the joints. Multiple power supplies wouldn't work would it? They still have to have a controller.

Good point, I guess what you'd have to do is have a multi-coil controller with several outputs.

I wonder what happened to mine. Haven't seen it for years.

there's no reason electrically why you couldn't have multiple track feed-in's all wired in parallel back to one controller

[PositronicRay]

55palfers said:

I had one transformer per car and that worked OK an a big track.

Good suggestion.

[PositronicRay]

hairyben said:

kambites said:

PositronicRay said:

kambites said:

I used to have that sort of amount, mostly bought second hand, and I always found getting a decent electrical connection around such a long track was nigh on impossible. Looking back at it, I guess the sensible thing to do would have been multiple power supplies.

I had the same problem, resorted to cooking foil between the joints. Multiple power supplies wouldn't work would it? They still have to have a controller.

Good point, I guess what you'd have to do is have a multi-coil controller with several outputs.

I wonder what happened to mine. Haven't seen it for years.

there's no reason electrically why you couldn't have multiple track feed-in's all wired in parallel back to one controller

Didn't James May do a big track (or was that a railway anyway same principle) I guess he did this.

[TinyCappo]

Whats this different cars on the same track malarky about?

Last scalextric set I had was a set from about 1978 I think. spoon pins and massive blue circular transformer.

[Rude-boy]

PositronicRay said:

55palfers said:

I had one transformer per car and that worked OK an a big track.

Good suggestion.

In the stone age we would do this to power up longer layouts and also put controllers in different places so that they could pick up cars. We would also have booster cables to make sure that there was minimal degradation (and we matched the power outputs of the transformers as there were always a few with a little extra and removed lights and so on to make cars quicker ) !

These days I've gone Digital and whilst I have yet to make a massive track up (only about 3 large sets worth of track used on the largest recent one) there doesn't seem to be the power issue of olden days, especially with the 6 car base as that runs off two power supplies.

When we finally find a house that the Mrs and I like one room is going to be devoted to Scalextric but I am still undecided if it will be a 100% permanent layout of a halfway house. One of the biggest reasons for this is that a lot of the fun is in the building and testing of the layouts. I have Scalextric parties 4 or 5 times a year and it's not just about setting the layout but then fine tuning it so it is a Spa track and not a Tilkeboaradrome after 100 laps...

[rallycross]

kambites said:

I used to have that sort of amount, mostly bought second hand, and I always found getting a decent electrical connection around such a long track was nigh on impossible. Looking back at it, I guess the sensible thing to do would have been multiple power supplies.

Me too, and we used to have link cables that took power from the source section of track over to 2 other sides of the track to avoid power drop. My track was all second hand (I had been buying 2nd hand sets for about 6 months until I had enough track) so the power loss was really bad when the track got massive.

The best power was from the old 1960's performance controllers and metal cased power packs - they could cope with it and even had a built in brake system: they looked like this, and they never melted or over-heated the problem was finding one of these before things like ebay was invented was not easy!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scalextric-Hand-Controll...

Edited by rallycross on Tuesday 23 December 17:10

[Megaflow]

TinyCappo said:

Whats this different cars on the same track malarky about?

Last scalextric set I had was a set from about 1978 I think. spoon pins and massive blue circular transformer.

This. How can you have two cars on one track? And lane switches etc? Are the controllers now link directly to the cars somehow?

[Rude-boy]

Megaflow said:

TinyCappo said:

Whats this different cars on the same track malarky about?

Last scalextric set I had was a set from about 1978 I think. spoon pins and massive blue circular transformer.

This. How can you have two cars on one track? And lane switches etc? Are the controllers now link directly to the cars somehow?

I have no idea, it must be Voodoo or something but the 6 car digital set up is one of the best things I have bought in a long time. No longer are you restricted on radius as you try to set out 4 or 6 lane tracks but can have 6 cars racing on 2 lanes. Makes for great fun with a bunch of mates.

The next step is the one I am waiting for which is the arrival of the ARC Pro set up (if they get round to it) ARC One is pointless to me as it is always just me or a load of mates and it only works on non digital sets. Now once they get the Pro version that they suggested was arriving in 2014 which can handle 6 cars then we will be talking!

[Drive Blind]

best I could manage as a kid was 2 race n chase sets connected together to build one big track.

[eliot]

Me and my brother used to build a drag strip UP the stairs - much burning of controllers and motors!

[cailean]

We build up our's every Christmas, also extended with extra tracks bought 2nd hand from eBay but not like that. Put it up on Saturday and bought 2 new cars today in Bluewater - getting hard to find them in actual shops/malls, as opposed to on eBay...

[russy01]

Here we go, 150ft track!

http://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/p-1402-scalextri...

[Storer]

Still got my 1960's set that came with Cooper cars. Lots of extra bits purchased during the 60's and early 70's but still not enormous.

Sons played with it a few times but computer games were easier to set up!

I may get it out an put it up permanently in the garage. Fancy a Le Mans layout. Have friends days when mates come round for a bar-b-q and beer.

All I need now is some time!



Paul

[pozi]

Megaflow said:

This. How can you have two cars on one track? And lane switches etc? Are the controllers now link directly to the cars somehow?

With digital the whole track is now live all the time and the cars have a chip which is paired to the controller. Hence it does not matter where the car is it will only go when told to, it really does open up a new dimension with cars racing on the same lane and switching tracks for the overtake.

The good thing is you can mix old and new track so the digital upgrade is just the power base, controller and digital chips which is a simple plugin for most cars.

Rumour has it the Pro version of ARC (new phone/tablet app released this year) will simulate tyre wear, KERS, wet race etc. Hopefully they can add ghost cars to the list.