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My earliest surviving track design

Posted: Sat May 15, 2021 7:17 pm
by gordon
Today while cleaning out a drawer, I came across something I've been wishing I could find for years. I thought it was lost with time, but there it was in a folder with other "artefacts" from my youth. Back in our teenage slot racing years, I always wanted to - get this - build a permanent track which would be lowered from the ceiling of the bedroom I shared with my brother (sounds familiar, doesn't it?). To that end, at about age fifteen I got out my graph paper and geometry set (no computers back then) and designed these two layouts. The first is based on Scalextric track pieces which I carefully measured and checked the angles of the corner sections. Finding the second was a big surprise, as I only remember the first. All I can think is that it was for a routed track rather than Scalextric. Note the elevation changes, banking and 6" driver stations, not unlike our own FRC track.

It really was a nice surprise finding them and taking myself back to the 1960s.

Scalextric Design
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Routed Design
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Re: My earliest surviving track design

Posted: Sat May 15, 2021 7:41 pm
by steveaca
Amazing design skills at such a young age. Any idea of the running length of the Scalextric one ? I particularly like the long straight.

Re: My earliest surviving track design

Posted: Sat May 15, 2021 7:49 pm
by gordon
steveaca wrote: Sat May 15, 2021 7:41 pm Amazing design skills at such a young age. Any idea of the running length of the Scalextric one ? I particularly like the long straight.
I suppose its close to the other one which I probably used a piece of string to measure at the time.