74 replies to this topic

[sidejobjon]

Here is picture its running now. I hooked up lap counter trackmate this week end.
Thanks

[Carl Deal]

Track looks great John, can't wait to run it...............

[sidejobjon]

Here is picture with color coded lanes. This was alot work.

[mrtc4w]

I have a Yahoo Group just for Tub Tracks:

http://groups.yahoo....auroratubtrack/

I started it with the intention of finding out how many were made and how many still exist. Never did get the info I wanted. There are at least two in the Columbus, OH area plus mine.

Yeah Doug has the mold for making Tub Tracks thanks to me. A friend of mine in WV got a Tubbie and I decided I needed one also. I found one in WV and brought it home. It had AFX track on it that was total junk. I put original Aurora Lock & Joiner track on it. I also added a shelf for cars and controllers. Here it is during "runwhatchabrung" fun day:



My friend and I had several people tell us they wanted a Tubbie also but could not get them down in the basement or down small hallways. If someone made a 2 piece Tubbie to make it possible to get them into the house they would buy it. I found a Tubbie someone cut in half on a Yahoo auction. My friend and I bought it and brought it to my house. Shortly after that I met Doug at a car show. We made a gentlemans agreement that he would make the mold from our Tubbie, we could both sell the repros as long as he doesn't sell them for less then we sell them. Unfortunately the people that said they would buy a 2 piece Tubbie were all talk. They did not sell well. Then Doug started offering them on ebay for LESS then he was selling them to us!! REALLY hard to sell them then now!! So now we have the original Tubbie the mold was made from and Doug has the mold and Doug gets to profit from our cash outlay.

Brad Bowman http://bradstracks.com/ makes a routed track for Tub Tracks and is excellent!!!

Marty

[sidejobjon]

Thats a Aurora Tub track at Nutley. What did they race on that????
Thanks

[John Streisguth]

John:
I didn't see the track you're talking about at Nutley, but that era would have been T-jets with brass pans, lexan or butyrate bodies, and probably screw-on Twinn-K wheels/tires. Some people were starting to work with the small can motors like in the Tyco-Pro and Dynamic anglewinder, but most of them were bullet fast and handled like crap. Magnetic attraction I think was just around the corner, time-wise.

I raced a bit on one HO track Nutley had at the Washington Ave location, and that's what was running at the time. The T-Jet I still have was from those days, all original except for the wheel/tires.

[tonyp]

The original Nutley location had a tub track. When we moved to Belleville Bob Emott built the HO track.

[John Streisguth]

I didn't think the one in Belleville was a tub. My memory was that it was flat, without the "humps" a tub track has.

[tonyp]

Belleville was a flat track made from pieces. Pretty long straight.

[sidejobjon]

John you have a Tjet that you raced at Belleville? I was from Bloomfield i would go to Drews & Race & did not know about Nutley. Drews had small track you could win Time. The owner would engrave TJET model # & date on chassis, many chassis out there engraved. Was there Scratchbuild HO There?
What years were Nutley? What years were Belleville?
Thanks John

[tonyp]

Nutley raceway was 2 blocks or less from Drews. LOL... I am not sure on the years I say 1966 to 69 or 70 in Nutley and maybe 18 months in Belleville.

[Windyracer]

I have a set of original Aurora Tub Track lap counters that I would like to sell. If any one is interested in them, please P.M. me

[John Streisguth]

John:
I went to Drew's maybe one or two times. That was a fair distance from me to go by bicycle, and I had my own HO track from about 1962 on. By 1964 it was a 4 x 12 layout. But I do remember the engraving.
Did you ever go to Brookdale Cycle and hobby on Broad St. in the Brookdale section of Bloomfield? I raced there in the days of the vibrator cars and when the T-Jets first came out.

I never did too much with the HO cars at Nutley, but at the Belleville location one guy gave me a scratchbuilt anglewinder to run. It was a rocket in a straight line, but it had too much horsepower for the tires of the day.

[sidejobjon]

Still have the angelwinder?? If you look at the Team Nutley blog here it shows the Tub in the window. 4X12 track in 64 all i had was a track i slid under my bed. No wonder your so much faster then me.

[sidejobjon]

I have a set of original Aurora Tub Track lap counters that I would like to sell. If any one is interested in them, please P.M. me

Were the original numbered 1-6 Lanes?

[mrtc4w]

Were the original numbered 1-6 lanes?

They have small squares that fit onto the front of the lap counters. They were numbered 1-6.

Marty

[sidejobjon]

WOW i only seen 1&2 with 3&4 on back. Any pictures? Also my Tub has the paint worn off the raised Aurora emblem do you have close up of this area? On Aurora boxes this is painted couple differant ways ,not sure of color combination for Tub.
Thank you
John

[spudboy]

Modelville Hobby in Ashland, MA had a tub track stored there for some time. No racing surface, just the tub. John Stezelecki of Nantasket Raceway (Hull, MA) bought it last winter and is having a new CNC routed lexan(?) surface made for it. The plan is for it to be assembled Modelville Hobby later this summer.

The track I am describing is different from those pictured. It's an orange fiberglass tub that could accomodate 6 lanes of plastic track. But, it was layed out as a sort of mini-Engleman track. The tub was ~13' by ~5'. Manufactured by ...?

You can see it leaning against the wall - bottom facing the camera - in a few photos at the link below.

http://www.modelvill...om/gallery.html

[Bill from NH]

Nate, I recall when Dick Cafferelli, who owned Modelville in Framingham at the time, brought an orange tub track, might be the same one, into his raceway in the 1971-72 timeframe. Modelville was my home raceway back then. I never saw it get much use there & not being involved in HO myself, I always thought it was an Aurora.

[John Streisguth]

Nate:
I did one race at Modelville maybe 15 or more years ago while I was up there on business, and I remember they had one of the original Engleman/Car Model tracks at that time, I think laying up against the wall. An miniature Engleman, and if I remember correctly it had square copper as the conductors, an early "continuous rail". Could that be the one? If so, it's a rare bird. I'm sure I have a Car Model magazine issue with an advertisement for it; I'll have to scan and post it, maybe you could check to see if that's what it is.

While it would be a shame to modify it, a modern surface would turn it into a very unique track to race on.

[spudboy]

John and Bill,

Yes, I think your recollections are correct.

Bill, Dick closed Modelville Hobby in Framingham, MA in the mid '70s. A couple or three years later he reopened it nearby in Ashland and I am very sure that the track we are all speaking of is the one I observed there recently. Peter Lentros helped Dick reestablish Modelville Hobby those many years ago and it is my understanding that when the track was sold to John Stezelecki it was Peter who sold it to him not current raceway owner Richard Payne.

John, yes Car Model would be the manufacturer, I'm certain. I couldn't recall the manufacturer so I was hesitant to mention it in my original post. Sadly the track was not nearly in operational condition when it was sold. It was nothing more that a fiberglass tub, the racing surface was gone.

A friend had considered buying it and putting a 1/32 track into it - Scalextric (or routed wood). Ultimately it wasn't a good fit for his plans. A few months later John bought it. He is a very enthusiastic HO racer with 2 club tracks at his Hull, MA raceway. I think he is likely to do an excellent job of restoring the tub and laying down a high-tech racing suface. I'm not familiar with such things but apparently there is a fellow who routes HO tracks in lexan (this fellow perhaps? - http://bradstracks.fsmra.com/). I understand that John is working with him to complete the project. *If all goes to plan* there will be a new and very unique HO track available in Ashland later this year! Many exciting things could happen and not all of them in HO scale either. Another "rare bird" may see the light of day.

Not to end on a down note, but - the sad news we got a couple of months ago was that Dick Cafferelli passed at his home in Florida last October. He was a really great guy who - along with his mother Mary, a steady presence at the counter - brought a lot of joy to many of us who raced slot cars in this region druing that era. There has been discussion of a memorial event at Modelville sometime TBD.

Cheers fellas!

[Bill from NH]

Nate, I worked at Modelville on weekends during the winter of 1973. I got to know Dick, Mary, & his step-dad very well. Dick always had a funny story to tell you, usually from his days as the meat dept. manager of a market in Newton. Mary ruled the roost with a firm iron fist. She made sure none of the kids at the raceway gave her or anyone else any sass. I'm sorry to hear of Dick's passing. You must remember his light blue Caddy?

[spudboy]

Bill,

You must have some great memories. Dick, and Mary, behaved like surrogate parents for many of us kids who spent sooo much time at the raceway. And you are right - Mary was no pushover! It's a testament to their values that parents, mine anyways, were comfortable leaving kids in their care for hours and hours.

I raced there from '66 - '71 or so. Like so many kids I dropped out when I got 1:1 wheels and interested in girls. I was very active in the weekly G12 races held on the Monarch track. I loved that track. Never really warmed up to the Sovereign as it seemed to be more of a curiousity than a racable track. It seems to me that someone was *always* having to use the broom handle to hook a car from the bottom of that big bank. The Windsor was just too boring after I got some skill.

As for the blue Caddy - oh yeah, I remember. Always parked nose-in on the left side of the building in that dirt lot. I think it was Dick's one extravagance.

WOW! So many memories coming to mind.

Cheers!

[Joe65SkylarkGS]

I can't believe you sold it, Johnny!!!

[sidejobjon]

Deal fell apart so no longer for sale.

Sorry,

John