![]() …Then Aurora really upped the ante by creating the Railroad Grade Crossing section. And thus, the era of responsible miniature motoring ended in a series of horrific but amusing collisions. …And then another three seconds to realize that crashing the cars was even more fun. ![]() But it took kids about thirty seconds to figure out that it was way more fun to try to beat the other drivers through the crossing without stopping. Play it safe, kids!Ī turning point in the hobby may have come with the introduction of the Four-Way Intersection track piece… as you can see from the photo, the track was intended as a four-way stop, complete with markings on the pavement. While that sounds like an exciting prospect, remember, without the benefit of magnets or banked curves, responsible driving was still the ideal. Here’s something that isn’t really a piece of track, but a useful (and now rare) accessory… The Spiral Roadway Support allowed the creation of 360 degree (or more) climbing turns. The old cars didn’t have a lot of torque, so stopping here wasn’t a wise idea. Here, only one lane swerves, designed to test your reaction as a car suddenly veers towards your lane from the other direction.Ĭobblestone track segments were designed to give a different look and theme to the track setup, but also required a perfect touch in order to not get bogged down between the bumps. On modern tracks, especially with the much wider car designs, a squeeze track usually moves both lanes inward, creating an opportunity to intimidate your opponent in a game of side-by-side chicken. The original Squeeze Track also takes on a different meaning when you think of city driving versus racing. So the Y-track was designed not to separate race cars, but to allow a median between single lanes going in opposite directions. In fact, most layouts at the time were created not for side-by-side racing in one direction, but for each lane to run in opposite directions like a public road. The Y-Split track shows another feature that most modern slot enthusiasts don’t think about… Model Motoring was designed as a single lane experience. It’s not clear how someone could hold the controller on one side of the layout while reaching across to turn the knob, so some teamwork was required. A knob on the side of this segment made it possible for the car to make a turn off the main track and onto some other adventure in civilized driving. The Junction Turnout track gives you a good clue about the intention of these early sets. This track segment came with warning signs, and later versions even had lovely culvert decoration. They probably wouldn’t sail across the room at those velocities, but they’d likely get enough lift to lose their bearings and crash. Heavily magnetized modern slot cars might be able to hug the pavement going over this hump at maximum throttle, but even at low speeds, the old ThunderJet cars could get airborne at the pinnacle. Their track was also made to emphasize skill over speed, with the Bump Roadways section being a perfect example. These cars moved at a much slower pace than modern slot racers, and the track reflected those conditions.Īurora Model Motoring was the dominant brand of HO scale slot cars in the U.S. ![]() These earliest slot car designs were mostly based on regular production cars, although some of them were sporty models. Slot cars were not originally designed for racing, but for simulating a real driving experience, much like the way model railroads did. As I mentioned in yesterday’s column, Thanksgiving week is a time for setting up a slot car track in our household for some good family racing fun. While modern slot cars are capable of ridiculous speeds through wild courses, that wasn’t the case in the early days of the hobby.
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