21 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

Before anybody gets upset, or just puzzled about the title, it was an article I wrote for Slotcar Bulletin back in 2002 or so (no dates, but No. 76 & 77) to show folks that there were other motors in the history of slot cars besides 16D "cans" and their derivatives. From my intro, I must have been reacting to a remark by the publisher and editor, Paul Meiers, that the early slot car motors were a dead end... 

 

I ran a lot of Champions, Dynas and Muras, but always had a soft spot for these "real" powerplants, mostly derived from model train motors. Feel free to add your photos, memories, etc. 

 

In three posts because of file size. You can enlarge the page with Ctrl and the wheel on your mouse. 

 

Don 

 

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

 

PS: I left in the Professor Motor ad, so Andy owes me residuals! 

[Cheater]

Good luck with that! LOL...

 

BTW, I think all people have to do to enlarge the images to the uploaded size is simply to click on them. That's the way it works on a Mac and I think it's the same on a PC.

[Phil Smith]

Great stuff, Don! Lots of info I wasn't familiar with.

 

When did the Classic Manta Ray and Mabuchi 36Ds come out? I got an inline Cox something and my brother got a Manta Ray when I was 7 or 8. At least that's what I thought. That's would have been '62 or '63. Way to early, right?

[don.siegel]

Right! 

 

Early 1965.  

 

The first 36D would be Revell's SP600, actually an FT36, without the heat sinks, in 1965, then the FT36D version, with heat sinks and can drive came out later that year, in all three sizes (although first cars with it seem to be in 1966). 

 

The Cox F1 cars were also released in early 1965, when there was a whole new wave of manufacturers entering the field, after Revell and Monogram. 

 

Don 

[don.siegel]

For those of you interested in these early motors, here's an article I ran into while looking for something else, in the August 1962 issue of Car Craft - CC and Rod & Custom were the earliest magazines to have any regular coverage of slot cars, or even rail cars in some early 1957 issues of the pocket size R&C. 

 

Bet you never heard of a Bubochie! (hyper-rare...)

 

Multiple posts again, because of size limits - and because I still don't know how to zip... 

 

Don 

 

 

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

Less than a year later, the motor landscape had changed, and we also had the second model/slot car magazine, after the pocket-sized Car Model. Model Car Science appeared as a bimonthly in April 1963 and quickly became a monthly. In the June-July issue, they also reviewed the available slot car motors - already announcing the new Pittman DC704A - the first dedicated slot car motor in the USA, along with the DC196 - and six years after the VIP and Scalextric models for their new sets! 

 

[don.siegel]

[don.siegel]

 

Note that the article includes a chart with motor dimensions, along with no-load and operating speed, horsepower and amp draw - that wouldn't be so common in the future! 

 

Don 

[Dave Crevie]

Open frame motors are what we had to use until the quality of can motors improved. Some guys swore by the Bonner type motors

shown in post 8 above, I never found them as reliable as the Pittman and KTM model train motors.

 

circa 1964

 

Some motor manufacturers added a die-cast bracket to make mounting the motor easier.

circa 1964

 

But when it came to designing a frame for a padlock style motor, it became a little more complicated. 

circa 1964

 

circa 1964

 

The bottom line is you kept trying things until you found a competitive combination. And just as with real race cars of the period,

that combination varied according to the driver and his builder.

 

 

 

   

[don.siegel]

Those are great Dave, thanks for posting. Really like that last one, which looks to be a Kemtron with Pittman brushes... or is it just an old Pittman with black endplates? 

 

You're right about the brackets: both the Pittman DC196 and the DC704 came out in 1963 and really changed the whole game, because it made it so much easier to build a car and/or for other companies to make a frame for them - it really became a bolt-on deal instead of absolutely having to solder. 

 

Don 

[Alchemist]

Hi Don,

 

Thank you so very much for taking the time to post these vintage magazine articles.

 

So much slot car history to learn about!

 

Thank you for sharing Don!

 

Ernie

[don.siegel]

My pleasure Ernie. 

 

And it really is - I love looking through these old magazines, and always seem to find something I didn't notice the first time. 

 

Don 

[MSwiss]

Before anybody gets upset, or just puzzled about the title, it was an article I wrote for Slotcar Bulletin back in 2002 or so (no dates, but No. 76 & 77) to show folks that there were other motors in the history of slot cars besides 16D "cans" and their derivatives. From my intro, I must have been reacting to a remark by the publisher and editor, Paul Meiers, that the early slot car motors were a dead end...

Don,
Thanks so much for posting this.
 
With getting involved with vintage drag racing, I'm going to give this thread a good read, some evening.
 
I just caught the highlighted comment you made.
 
This article, from issue #74, must of been what you reacted to.

[don.siegel]

Yep, that's it, thanks Mike, 

 

Don 

[Dave Crevie]

Don; That's the weird KTM with two magnets that we talked about before. Endplates are die cast and chemically blackened. Never saw another one like it. 

[don.siegel]

Yep, really strange Dave! Never saw one either, or heard of any other than this. 

 

Don