27 replies to this topic

[brucefl]

Looking on eBay under my searches for 1/24 track Artin came up, but when I spoke to another seller he said Artin never made a 1/24  track. Can anybody clarify this question?

And what's the cheapest best track to buy to recreate a blue King track in miniature?

[Samiam]

Carrera makes 1/24 track.

 

I would suggest moving the driver's panel to the opposite side to facilitate marshaling. 

[Tim Neja]

1/32 Artin track--- no 1/24   but 1/24 will run on it.

[brucefl]

Thanks

[Dave Crevie]

Artin doesn't make anything any more. Their track was crap anyway. If you are going with plastic snap track, and I hope you are not, Carrera is the only way to go.

[MattD]

Dave, I thought the Artin 1/32 track was very good. It had a slot deep enough for a commercial guide, not the shallow guide of the old Scalex style track. Slots were 3-1/4 apart, (I think) not 3 inch like other new 1/32 tracks, so there was a bit more room for cars to run side by side.  A few guys on here may have used Artin, so their response would be welcome. If you ask this question on the Home Racing World forum, you will get positive responses.   
 
All that said, it is too small for 1/24 cars. In plastic there are only four choices I know for true 1/24 track.   From the '60s: Eldon, Strombecker, and Marx. Current stuff, Carrera, the best ever made!

[tlbrace]

Now, Matt, you of all people know that the best true 1/24 plastic track from the '60s was the 1/24 scale, three-lane Scalextric 1/24 Sport track.
 
4" lane centers
Three lanes
Deep slots
Two different radius curves (so if you had enough of it, you could do a six-lane layout)
Flyover bridge sections
Full banked turn set.
 
And lest you point out how rare it is and was never sold in the states, I do have about 150 sections of it, including all the specialty sections, that I could be coerced into parting with... everything has it's price, right?
 
And perhaps I'm biased, but nearly 50 years on, it compares favorable with current Carrera track.

[MattD]

You got me, Todd! It's pretty common track, not! I bet you have the largest or second largest stash of it in America. Bernard S has some and I think you know a guy up north with a bunch. That is all that I know of in America!!

 

But, you can get on the internet and get Carrera flat or banked curves that allow up to six lanes of racing and curve diameters up to about 7 foot. You can have all the track you need within a few days to build whatever setup you want.

 

Not having ever seen any Scalex, how deep is the slot in the three-lane? Is it a full 1/4 or shallow like a lot of the other plastic tracks? Three-lane is about perfect for table top racing!

[brucefl]

So if you've got the best track to build a mini blue King help me out here I'm struggling with this.

 

I'd rather deal with my comades here than this ten-year old I've been going back and forth with on eBay. He's a real shark. first he's got a complete banked track then he's telling me that after I made my offer he was going to remove the ad and show that he didn't have controllers and powerpack, but he could give me from other sets, etc., etc. Whew!!!

Bail me out, guys, please.

[Tim Neja]

Don't go plastic!!  Do the research and make a routed track!! You'll be much happier in the long run!!

[tlbrace]

Matt,

Believe it or not, the slot in the Scalex 1/24 track is a hair under 3/8". It may be the deepest plastic track I've seen.
 
Agree with Tim that if you know for sure how you want your layout, and likely won't be changing it (or wanting to) anytime soon, do wood if you can. SO much smoother... you can minimize the clackity clack of plastic just so much. And routing gives you options with chicanes, 'non-straight' straights, turn radii. But again, once it's up, it's up.
 
My three-lane 1/24 Scalex as it currently sits. Approx. 80' lap length, don't have room for the other 60 feet or so I have in boxes.
 
Not sure how much Bernard has. In the episode of American Pickers in which he was featured, he only had a small layout, maybe just the track from one set, set up. Very possible he has more in boxes. Doctor in Michigan's layout may be about the size of mine, but I know he's got a lot more being unused.
 

 

[brucefl]

I need a temporary mini blue King, can't do permanent that's why I want plastic, maybe later for routed.

So anyone here got what I would need to do a mini blue King with its banks and curves with potential to lengthen and go from two-lane to four-lane to six-lane and maybe eight-lane.

And reasonably priced.

This is for a charitable endeavour club track.

[MattD]

Bruce, I don't think you can find a reasonable price for all the track you would need to build anything remotely resembling a King.  
 
You may want a  Carrera banked turn for the big bank at the end of the straight, but you would not be happy with the banked turns  anywhere else. You would want flat curves for the rest of it. That would prohibit you from  getting the moderate banks at the other turns. You might be best off to buy a large Carrera set and some extra track, then set it up and see what the minimum size is you could be happy with. Start with two-lane and go four-lane if you are happy with it. It is costly to buy that much plastic and noisy!!!
 
Actually your best bet for something to race 1/24 cars would be to watch eBay and this forum for a routed track for sale. Tracks show up frequently for $3,000 and less, usually with power supplies. I think there may be two-three quality home tracks on eBay right now. You may not have a King, but you would get a nice track that you would probably be happy with.

[brucefl]

Thanks, Matt.

[brucefl]

But Carrera seems to be only 1/24-1/32. Track isn't a full-size 1/24 and narrow lane, am I right? So who has a full 1/24?

[Cheater]

I don't think anyone has ever made 4-inch lane spacing plastic sectional track, Bruce. Carrera is the best there is...

 

Don't know if you are aware that there is a Carrera Purple Mile here in Atlanta, owned by Tim Ferguson who was the track owner at Georgia Hobby Center where there was a real American Purple Mile in the late '80s-early '90s. Here's a pic.

 

 

There are more pictures I took of this track on Slotblog somewhere, but I'l be damned if I can find them via search.

 

If you decide to go this route, Tim tells me you will have to cut some sections to make the deadman, but that all the rest is standard Carrera pieces.

 

The footprint on Tim's track is 9' x 28'. What size space do you have available?

[tlbrace]

I don't think anyone has ever made 4-inch lane spacing plastic sectional track, Bruce. Carrera is the best there is...

Per my post above, indeed my plastic 1/24 scale three-lane Scalextric track does have 4 inch lane spacing. Per Matt's point, though, it is pretty much made of unobtainium in the US, but I have lately been pondering selling off my approx 120 or so running feet of it, including the full banked turn and all the straight and curved shoulders (some are OEM, most are 3D printed repops). It would likely not be as economical as the OP would hope for, however.
 
In terms of racing surface, it's grippier than Carrera, and does have two different radius curves (in addition to the banked turn) to either make for a more interesting three-lane layout, or a full six-lane layout with constant/same radius curves all the way around.
 
If I decide to sell, I'll be inventorying all soon in terms of sections (type and #'s) as well as condition (some essentially new, others very good, some repaired but fully servicable).

[Cheater]

Thanks for setting me straight, Todd.

 

But would I be correct in stating there's no current maker of sctional track with 4-inch lane spacing?

[tlbrace]

I'm not sure, is the 1/24 Carrera 4"? 3.75"?, it's got to be more than 3.5". Other than Carrera, I agree there is nothing currently available/manufactured that comes close to being able to adequately accommodate 1/24 scale. Who is even making larger scale (1/32 or 1/24) track these days besides Carrera and Scalex? Is SCX? Ninco's out of business, right?

[Dave Crevie]

In my home racing group we had nine tracks, built from every make of track available in this country. We even had a track made with '60s vintage Strombecker track.

 

As far as quality of joint connection, the Artin was the worst. The way the owner fixed it was to glue the joints with a heavy aluminum plate on top to make sure the gaps met at the same level.

Next worse was my classic Scalextric, with most of the sections having a hump in the middle making a lumpy track surface.

 

Once screwed down, the Strombecker was pretty good, except that it had contact problems at the joints.

 

The Ninco track joints were pretty good, but the track surface was so rough that it would eat up a pair of Indy-Grip silicones in only a couple of races.

 

We had two Scalextric Sport tracks in the group. One owner changed to Carrera because the Sport was pretty narrow, but otherwise wasn't so bad as plastic snap track goes. The other owner left the group because we don't run magnets.

 

We started the group in 2002, and by 2010 all but two track owners had changed to routed wood tracks.

[MattD]

Here's a pic of Carrera. Maybe we are talking in circles. It is not 4 inches between lanes, it is 4 inch slot centers.  
 

 
Here's a pic of 1960s Eldon track and it is also 4 inch lane centers but has the shallower slot like more of the cheaper tracks. It is a bit wider, has add on aprons and flat or banked turns, I have never seen any "outside" curves for this track. I do have a bunch of it.  Strombecker 1/24 is the same dimensions:
 

 
Here is a pic of both tracks:
 

 
Monogram and Revell track from the '60s was 3-1/2 lane centers and both had outside curves, straight and curved aprons, and Revell had banked turns. They had a deeper slot for commercial guides.
 
Strom and Eldon were also 3-1/2", I think, but had the shallower slots. Even with aprons they are tight for true 1/24 cars.
 
Dennis is right, for a permanent track routed is the way to go. I do understand how nice it is to take it apart and put it in a box, though!

[tlbrace]

Once screwed down, the Strombecker was pretty good, except that it had contact problems at the joints.

Matt,
 
The 1/24 Scalextric track is also 4" slot centers, as in your example of Carrera and 1/24 Eldon. FYI somebody has on eBay now the four-lane (with outer curves) of the 1/32 Eldon track.
 
I used to have a 55' layout made of the three-lane Strombecker track. While the rails were far superior to the aluminum 'tape' pickups used in earlier Strombecker track, the section to section connections were so bad I literally had to use jumper wires section to section for about 75% of the layout.
 

[Cheater]

At least as far as I understand it, the terms 'lane spacing' and 'slot spacing' really mean the same thing. Kinda like the term 'air gap' for motors...

[MattD]

Sure don't need more boxes of plastic track, but outer curves would be nice to have with all the Eldon stuff I have.

 

Todd,

 

If you can find the 1/24  again, send me a link.

 

What were lane centers on your Strom track, was it 3-1/2?    

 

The Marx 1/24 track is full 4 inches also with a deep slot outside curves and aprons as part of the curves.  I used it for a lot of years and ran 1/24 exclusivel

 

One of the set-ups I had with Carrera.

 

[MattD]

This  was the Marx 1/24 I had set up for many years.