Martinsville in Missouri?

November 27, 2002

Recently, things have been mighty busy here in our basement. I am starting to feel like I need to build another house just to cover all the slot car tracks and projects we have been into lately. However, it seems we somehow find a way to make things fit when it comes to slot cars, and this case is no exception.

The latest addition was inspired directly from our Artin 4 lane acquisition. It was clear my children and I wanted a 4-lane circuit, but where would we fit such a beast? Our 2-lane 59-½ foot Carrera track already covered the majority of our small basement, so real estate was very hard to come by.

The only real amount of room available was located in a 5 x 9 foot space, where a once proud HO scale Life-Like layout once stood. All that was left of this great old pike was the bench-work itself: A 4 x 8 table now converted to a laundry table. Not much room for a 4-lane1/32^nd Scale racetrack is there?

Not much, but just enough. The first step was easy: The Track Plan. We knew we wanted a dedicated NASCAR oval, and the Artin 4-lane track does one of these quite nicely. We just had to shorten it by a few straights to get it to fit perfectly in only 8 feet. Not a long track by any means, but enough to still enjoy some fender-banging 1/32 action, just like its 1:1 counter-part!

The second step took a little more effort: Transform a dark and neglected corner of a 55-year-old basement into a clean, well-lit racing area. For myself, this was the fun part, as this meant a trip to one of my favorite stores: Lowe's Home Center!

A few things were needed to make this transformation, but not as much as you might think. The first item in the cart was R-Board blue foam insulation sheets. These sheets come in 4 x 8 sizes and are very light and easy to work with. Not only do they make an excellent “sky” backdrop, they provide a soft cushion in the event your car leaves the track.

Next on the list was a carpet to cover the 4 x 8 plywood. In the past, I have just painted this surface, but since re-covering my larger layout in carpet, I will never do it another way. Carpet not only provides a nice, scale appearance, but as with the foam back-drop, gives your cars a softer landing strip in the event you get a little lead-footed and your car careens off the roadway! To attach these foam boards, we used 4 tubes of bathroom caulk  as adhesive to glue them in place. Yes you heard me correctly, caulk. Our walls in the basement are of course concrete. Since this foam board is so light, it only took 2 tubes of caulk a piece at $0.88 cents to mount them securely to the walls. This saved us a great deal of time and effort in trying to build frames and mounting these foam back-drops to the table.

 Not all carpet is ideal, as some carpet is too long and produces fibers that can get inside your gears, motors and braid. A tight weave carpet is what you are looking for. They were out of stock on the carpet I originally used on our larger layout, so I had to find something else that would work. I found a plastic Olefin (Polypropylene) outdoor carpet that had a decent color to it, and was not too long or thick. Lowe’s cuts this carpet in 12 foot lengths, so I purchased 4 feet wide. This left 4 feet overhang that was simply trimmed off and used on our basement floor.

It was time now to leave Lowe’s and head over to Wal-Mart for a few more items. Since the area was small enough, I only needed 2-48 inch shop lights. These lights were less than $8.00 each, and the light bulbs ran us under $3.00.

After our return from our shopping spree, it was time to get to work. First, we mounted the foam board back-drops, then; it was time to mount the lights. All this is very easy, and took us less than 30 minutes to complete.

Then we covered the table with our infield “grass”. I used small finishing nails on one end, as my wife and son pulled the carpet tight across the table. 

Then it was down to the other end, and while the carpet was held taught, I nailed it secure. We then trimmed off the excess, and my son finished securing the carpet along the 8 foot sides of the table.

Next up, it was track-laying time. Artin track is one of the easiest tracks to assemble, and with our small layout, it only took us 15 minutes from start to finish. The entire project, took us less than 3 hours to finish, and that includes the Power and Control Upgrades we installed on our track.

Click HERE to read more on this simple and quick upgrade we used on this track.

Not bad for an afternoon is it? Although our track is small, do not let the size fool you. Having all 4 lanes racing these 1/32 NASCARS is more fun than you might want to admit. In fact, this track is now a focal point here, with newcomers and regulars both, having a blast on this tight circuit.

You can certainly use these easy techniques on your latest project layout.  I can't think of a better holiday project for you and your family than building a slot car track, track building is a very satisfying and rewarding part of this hobby. If your looking to add some diversity in your basement/garage/attic racing, or just starting out, build a slot car layout!

Harry

As always, feel free to contact me about this article, or just the hobby in general at wiseone@yhti.net or better yet, drop into our Message Forum and let us hear from you.

All controllers, track and power supplies from Slot Car World. They have plenty of Artin track, sets and accessories, so drop in and see what they have today.