25 replies to this topic

[Michael Jr.]

Does anyone know of a commercial 1/24 track that has gone all in with the scenery and created a nice Diorama?

[Isaac S.]

1/24? No

 

1/32? Yes

[MSwiss]

I think you'll occasionally see vintage photos with a fair amount of scenery.

As far as a full-blown deal in this day and age, wouldn't you be afraid of cars that are racing, running into it and damaging it?

[Ramcatlarry]

One of the common differences in 1/32 (or 1/24 or HO) club tracks is that THEY are built on tables, so there is a lot of 'land' to cultivate.  With the 'usual' commercial track design, an infield needs to be created and used as that 'open land' to decorate.  Be careful what you wish for - each added piece can create a different problem.

 

Open Field:  painted green resembles grass, adding green smooth carpeting is easier to keep clean and out of everyones motors over shag or astroturf grass. Sand of other texures also end up in motors and gears.  Simple is fine and easier to keep clean.

 

Trees/hay bales/pylons:  The magic of disc NEO magnets allows you to glue one to the base or anything of this sort and let it stand on a steel flathead screw in the location you like.  Only problem our club has had is the CAT likes to steal small items and hide them.

 

Infields for commercial track does allow the raceway owner the ability to keep airborn cars from landing in the middle of no-mans land where you have not cleaned in years.  Adding skirts to the sides looks nicer as well as making some more out of sight storage spaces. Make sure you buy a long enough GRABBER to get the cars.  A hook on a broom handle works better than nothing.

[Michael Jr.]

I'm aware that setting something up would not be risk free. This was mainly curiosity and any scenes I might use would be simple and not crowded into the center of the track. If I were going to do any at all. I'm just curious if there is anything that has been done. i would like to see it. I just enjoy seeing what others do. It's more on hobby side of the hobby/sport than the sport side.

But no doubt some of you are observing that a growing number of racers like a more realistic look to their cars. The details are catching their attention a little more than a few years back. Hard body is doing better. 

What would be great is a holographic scene. Too Star Trekie? 

[Eddie Fleming]

I think the diorama is kind of the crossover point between model racing and model trains.

 

When Eddie Cordle had his track in Atlanta it had a garage in the infield section that someone had built. The garage was kind of cool in a way but it was old and not in the best shape and kind of ignored by everyone. When Eddie sold the place the new management cleaned up, painted and did away with the garage. I don't think anyone misses it much. I have seen tracks with a few model cars set on the infield sections but they just got old and collected dust.

[rvec]

Michael,

The now defunct Sidewinder Raceway in Sacramento CA. had a great layout with scenery and wall hangings.  Over the years, I wrote several articles about the facility and is business model. See the following links for images of the track, facility and racing program.  Also, these articles discuss the economics of the facility quite different from the typical facility.  The business lasted 5 or more years and the owners claimed that it was making some money. I think the business model has potential but still slots are a tough business.  

 

Racing at Sidewinder - 1/31/18 - Electron's roving reporter - Slotblog

 

Racing at Sidewinder 8/31/16 - Electron's roving reporter - Slotblog

 

Racing at Sidewinder 2/17/16 - Electron's roving reporter - Slotblog

 

Racing at Sidewinder 2/10/16 - Electron's roving reporter - Slotblog

 

Racing at Sidewinder Raceway 9/2/15 - Electron's roving reporter - Slotblog

[SpeedyNH]

some of my friends and i enjoy having some not-too-fragile scenery items on our 32 and HO tracks to occasionally disrupt with an errant car, especially when we're just playing around. it doesn't usually take too much to set things back in place later and is a lot more interesting than just putting your car back on.

of course that's not really suitable for serious racing, but a little scenery makes the track more pleasant and some collateral damage always seems to add a bit of realism to a crash.  

[MattD]

There are quite a few  aspects to the slot car hobby.  Scenery is just one.   A landscaped home 1/32 track is something that provides a lot of enjoyment for a guy in his basement that doesn't have many or any racers.  Much like the solitary train guys.    We don't have so many guys like that on this forum.  The 1/32 guys tend to be more on the forums that are majority 1/32 hobbyists.    A lot of those guys do race pretty hard, though.    There seems to be  degrees of landscaping.      Most of the 1/32 guys have moderate landscaping and it's not enough to interfere with serious racing.      Some guys  don't really race hard, they just play with slot cars and  they spend a lot of time with elaborate landscaping.    Most of the 1/32 guys are into scale race cars. 

 

My 1/24 track is the simple commercial  style (bare bones).    My racers could care less about scenery and scale.

 

 I hope someday to do a small 1/32 track with landscaping.    I do like scale cars.

[Modelville Guy]

We used to put toy cars and trucks on the infield but found too many of the little kids would crawl on the track to get them.

 

On the Blue (Figure 8) we have arrows pointing the direction the cars go. Right now, we have a toy solider guarding the bridge. Like they did at Shopper’s World Mall when I was a kid.

The #11 (RC) is just sitting there looking for a new owner.

 

On the King the #8 just fills in the spot in the bank very nicely.

The Yellow Low Bridge sign is plastic and sits a ¼” away from the wall to soften the blows.

I like painted infields that you take up pieces and wash them.

Try to keep whatever you do out of the line of site to the track for all drivers no matter their size.

Whatever you do, make sure you can clean it.

[Brian Czeiner]

Maybe this will be a new beginning. Just because it hasn't happened much in the past doesn't mean we can't raise the bar now. We weren't competing against video games before. Time to step up our game. With some careful thought and planning, I say go for it.

[Modelville Guy]

Okay, I need the directions for posting pictures. I will look and see if I can find them.

[Modelville Guy]

 

 

 

 

Also have the tunnel at NHMS on the Aristocrat on one of the walls.

 

[Michael Jr.]

I love that low bridge caution.  

 

I think we can do a little to dress things up thematically without getting tacky, junky, cluttered, or distracted.  We don't want to make it look like a legoworld track but at the same time, a piece of slotted wood only has so much charisma.  

 

I'm not suggesting our faithful racers are missing scenery. I'm just thinking....it might be good to touch things up a little for new eyes.  Just a dash of the "that's cool" factor for newcomers. 

[Ramcatlarry]

I like to add lights in the 'tunnels' or cross-overs.  Better for the turn marshal to see the cars and to keep the cave gremlins awake to stop pulling the cars out of the slot.

[Dave Crevie]

Although I don't think it is practical for a large commercial track, a home racing track could certainly be sceniced. I used to race with a club which had about six tracks, most of them 1/32nd scale, and most of them had scenery. Two of those tracks were actually dual scale, large enough to run both 1/32nd and 1/24th cars. The cars and figures were 1/32nd scale, but that is irrelevant. The trick is to lay out structures and any fragile details in areas not likely to catch errant racecars. For a group more interested in scale cars, it makes sense that the track looks as realistic as possible.  

[Paul Lindewall]

In the HO slot world, I've seen 3 basic types of tracks. 
First is the "track on a slab", which would be the equivalent of most of the commercial 1/24th tracks I've raced on It's a track with zero scenery, fine for racing, but a bit boring visually.


Second is the "diorama" track, with full scenery rivalling some of the model RR layouts. IMHO, the scenery gets in the way of racing, especially when a car must be marshalled. While you may feel like you're racing through the tight streets and buildings of Monaco on Gran Prix weekend, you can sometimes feel like Godzilla attacking Tokyo as a marshal. 


The third is a blend of the two. A fun track to race on, with just enough scenery to make for a bit more realism visually. The scenery doesn't get in the way of the action. Most of the road courses I raced 1:1 on in my more youthful days were really pretty basic. You had the track, of course, with a pit area, a couple grandstands, and some advertising along the walls trackside. It's how I modeled Copperhead Motorsports Park. 


I think for a commercial 1/24th track, even some advertising stickers along the inside of the track border walls would add a bit of visual excitement without interfering with the racing or marshalling duties. Heck, maybe you could even sell advertising space!

[Tim Neja]

I love that low bridge caution.  

 

I think we can do a little to dress things up thematically without getting tacky, junky, cluttered, or distracted.  We don't want to make it look like a legoworld track but at the same time, a piece of slotted wood only has so much charisma.  

 

I'm not suggesting our faithful racers are missing scenery. I'm just thinking....it might be good to touch things up a little for new eyes.  Just a dash of the "that's cool" factor for newcomers. 

I think you have a good idea that may attract some NEW racers without detracting from your "hard core" set!!  Having a little more "realism" with our racing I personally would LOVE!  But I'd be called the "hard core" racer anyway!! But it sure couldn't hurt maybe bring in some "crossover" guys from 1/32 as well as more young racers.  How could it hurt?

[n.elmholt]

The race track in Neumünster, Germany has a lot of diorama details as well as being fine race track :-)

Here are some pics from the traditional annual 5-liter Race for 1/24 Sports Cars some years ago.

Our team raced a Sunoco Ferrari 512M built by me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niels, DK
 

[SpeedyNH]

very nice! 

[NSwanberg]

Looks like a plumber showed with his micro-bus.

[MattD]

Neils,  you guys do great work, your cars in particular.;

[Tim Neja]

That is really a perfect example of a nice dress up without going over the top!! Beautiful track and the scenery really adds to the racing experience!  Very nice!

[n.elmholt]

Sadly I just heard that the track is closing down due to Covid19 :-(

 

I raced there at their 5l-Races 2009-2013. My codriver and best friend died from cancer in 2014 and I moved out the the West Coast in 2017 and have not been much active in actual racing since :-(

 

Niels

[Tom Thumb Hobbies]

Some day I HAVE to make a trip to Modelville.


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