Well, here we are, first day on the new Blog, havn't got a clue what a Blog is, but, will carry on regardless.

Guess I will start out by saying a little bit about myself, and my connection with Slot Cars. It all started Christmass 1959 (Yes, really, THAT long ago) when Santa brought me my first Slot Car set. It was an Eldon figure eight set, with a pair of Ferrariish looking cars. One red, and one white .Once set up, I played with it most of the day, mostly ignoring any other presents. I just couldn't get enough. I was hooked.

Over the next couple of weeks, I kept at it, and, it wasn't long before I was taking the cars apart, and seeing what made them tick. I didn't try to do too much too them in the first couple of weeks, other than keep them properly lubricated and running as good as they could. These cars did not have brushes as we know them today, but, little spring loaded brass flat headed rivits, with the flat head part pointing down through the bottom of the clamshell type body. These worked quite reliably. The cars also had just simple nylon pins rather than guide flags.

After about the second week, I did pull one of the cars apart and used the mechanical bits to build a car of my own. It was made mostly out of 1/16 and 3/32 brass tubing, and all soldered. Soldering in those days was a much more generaly known skill, that far more people posessed than is the case today. Dad was a TV repair man, and model engineer, so, we had all those sorts of tools and equipement around the house, and, I knew how to use them at an early age. I was 10 when I built this car. It had fully functioning front wheel steering. The car ran quite nicely, and was better than the original Eldon car. I only have a vague recollection of what it looked like and how it was built. I wish I could remember it better, so I could make a copy of it. It really was quite a work of art for a 10 year old I think. Mostly, I can't remember what I might have used for a guide flag, as, the Eldon cars didn't have any (being pin guides with brass plungers for contacts as stated above) and, I didn't have access to any other slot cars or spares at that time. I do know, that whatever I used, was hooked up to the steering link like most early slot car steering was done. I didn't discover trail steering until mid 65.