[mofman]

Hello all, I am getting into Scalextric and have a couple of sets and extra track and cars I've bought as the months have gone by. We have recently moved house and i am able to put a track down in the Studio. However, as I work on an Apple Mac there doesn't seem to be any software out there for designing track layouts for a specific size. Can any one design me a layout please?

Table size is 210cm (long) x 150cm (high) I need room to allow crash barriers around the track too. I am not bothered about raising the track so there are bridges etc… also I would like to use the hairpin bends (c8201). I also have the straight crossover (c8210) if you wanted to use that too. I want to fill the space as much as possible to make the overall track length a good length.

Any ideas please?

Many thanks

Ian

 

[bacardibeast]

Well I guess you are using Scalextric Sport so I had a quick go.

Oh, and there is one track planner for Macs but it's OS X only. I think you'll find it in the links section.

BacardiBeast

 

[pault86]

Hey Ian!

There is a great Mac layout design program that runs in both OS 9 and X. It is called Railmodeller.

Railmodeller is super easy to use. It comes with a library for Scaley sport track. It is drag and drop, lets you color track pieces, will calculate a lap length, and will print a parts list.

Take a look at the homepage for my layout and the layout design page.

All the track graphics on my site were exported from Railmodeller - lets you do that, too.

On my layout design page you will find lots of tips for building a long and interesting track in a small space. I squeezed 78 feet of track into 1.6 x 3.96 m.

Do try out Railmodeller - I really enjoyed playing around with it to try different layouts and then using it to tweak what I finally settled on. I think it is part of the fun of the hobby.

Happy New Year,
Paul
Circuit TrustChrist

 

[mofman]

Thanks guys!

The layout you have done looks great, I'll give it a go.

The railmodeler, I have downloaded. It'll take me some time to learn how to use it, but I'll try and find the time.

Thanks again.

ian

PS Any more track ideas? I'll give them a go!

 

[pault86]

Hi Ian,

Here are a couple of designs I did for someone with slightly tighter space constraints than you have.

The first design is 203 cm x 114 cm, lap length 7.36 meters

I didn't put a powerbase in the design but just replace one of the 8205 standard straights with a powerbase and an 8207 half-straight.

The second design is 203 cm x 106 cm, lap length 7.55 meters.

Bacardibeast's design looks more fun than either of these because these are completely flat - elevation changes add a lot, but as you like it. I wanted to show you a little more Railmodeller output and show you nested turns again - saves space.

Both these designs and BB's suffer from having regular R1 turns. These are quite difficult to negotiate, at least for me. I have to come to almost a full stop. The new sport R1 hairpins that pull the inside lane out toward the outside are very easy for all cars to get around.

On BB's design you could use one of the new R1s for the R1 90 degree turn - just use side swipe straights for the lead in and lead out. You might also want to rework BB's design to eliminate the R1 at the entrance to the corkscrew turn on the left of the layout - try to replace it with at least an R2.

Have fun. Jan Barnholdt, Railmodeller's author, is very helpful and you can post questions here, too. The steps to use Railmodeller are real simple. Have a quick gander at the included manual and you will be up and designing in no time!

Paul
Circuit TrustChrist

 

[mofman]

Thanks. I appreciate the designs. I have made up BB's track on the living room floor. It works OK. The R1 on the end of the corkscrew is fine. However in order for the cars to go round in his direction I had to put the power pack on the inside (ie the wrong way round). Hope that made sense? I suppose I could make the track up by flipping it 180 degrees?

Its great there are folks out there who are quite happy and willing to help us Apple Mac people out! And us who are Newbies too!

Being checky now, is there a design that could have the straight running diagonally? That's either top left to bottom right or visa versa. I await your designs?

Again, many thanks. It is appreciated.

Ian