Home made tracks...

[Deleted]

I'm considering building a hillclimb course in the shed, but know little about track making.

Would a section about making tracks be a good idea?  Please don't suggest SF.  I ain't welcome there<G>  Or HRW, I can't register there for some reason either.

I was going to do a model of Prescott, but then realised that Shelsley's start area is gorgeous scenically as is Wiscombe's central section twixt Esses 2 and the Sawbench Hairpin.

So, I thought maybe Presleycombe Park might be a good idea using the best bits of the three great courses, but that might be a bit too much for the space in the shed, so I'm back to thinking Shelsley is probably best as it's largely straight with a few little wiggles and would fit the space in the shed better.

Question is, hardboard to allow some proper ups and downs, or MDF for strength?

I think scratchbuilt tracks could have a place on a scratchbuilder's forum.

Cheers,
Martin

[Deleted]

Ok, well, I thought to myself, "why build a new hillclimb, when there's a perfectly good one standing on end, getting in the way in my No.2 son's conservatory?" We'd knocked it up one Saturday as a test track. It's based very loosely on the very curvy Harewood Hillclimb. Not as scenic or as historically significant as Prescott or Shelsely, but I can use some of the stuff I'd started building for my own track and adapt. A phone call yesterday resulted in the track coming over last night along with an H&M transformer and a controller of some kind. We got it in its spot in the shed and this morning I repaired our wobbly routing with car body filler. It is 6x2 ft and with a rise of about a foot. It is routed in 9mm MDF and then scenic foundationed with polystyrene packaging and papier mache. Lightweight filler will smooth the papier mache and then electrostatic grass will be spread using a home adapted bug bat. I am NOT spending £140 for a Noch Grassmaster!!! I'll take some pics later today and put them up here.

Cheers,
Martin

[Deleted]

Here it is so far.


That's half of it.  Here's the other half:-


That's an MRRC chassis I use for checking the guide/slot relationship.

Having cleaned up the joints and the poor routing in a few spots, I mixed up some Polyfilla type stuff and slarred it on the papier mache, with a stick, smoothing it with a finger or four.  Quick, effective.  I shall paint the filler with emulsion test pots and then grass it, but copper tape first, after the filler.  The partially done building in the top picture is a version of Vox Villa at Shelsley, near the start line.

Cheers,
Martin

[munter]

That looks good Martin. No scenery for me though. I used 9mm mdf and had dreams of high altitude for one section. In the end I only achieved about 30cm/1'

[Deleted]

That's so nice and clean, John! But I have to have scenery. Railways or slot cars. Pretty much an excuse to make model scenery for me. Any slotcar will climb any unrealistically steep hill, so you may as well just use a slope as an interesting design device for a test track.

Cheers,
Martin