Portable Digital Routed Track

I must admit that I didn't understand your sketches Dave. Upon further reflection, I decided I needed to shorten the track to 10'x2' (about 3.5x.7m) because that's the maximum width of my home office, and it would be nice to set if up in there when it wasn't in storage. So, two 2'x5' sections now. The swapout section will go along the straight. I think I'll make two swapout sections. First, an analogue crossover section for one car rallying. Second, a digital swapout section that will include both the powerbase and an XLC thereby reversible so that the track could run both analogue and digital in either direction.

Yeah, not the best diagram I've ever done. It was definitely rushed. What can I say, Friday afternoon at work....

I'll see if I can find time to do something a bit more understandable. But like I said, unless you're using a four car powerbase, it's probably not the best solution anyway.

I am a big slot rally fan and when I moved all I kept was a few bits of track and especially the more rally specific stuff.

Where I am now the only space I have is 10' x 2' so you can see why I am so interested in this project - especially after watching the build of your last track.

I am hoping to build this under a kitchen worktop bench that has two lift of sections to reveal the track beneath.

My problem at the moment is working out how to get enough track to make it worth the bother in that space - my previous 8' x 3'6" track was just about as small as I think would be fun. That said any track is better than no track isn't it.

I had hoped to stay with my SCX track but am struggling to design anything worth doing to fit 2' wide

Here is what I had before and is about 2/3rds of the track pieces I kept. The borders were just 6mm MDF - worked great. The SCX rally box is a great addition and one I am keen to keep - the timing makes a world of difference to the fun factor.

QUOTE (RobBG @ 3 Mar 2008, 23:07) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I had hoped to stay with my SCX track but am struggling to design anything worth doing to fit 2' wide Hey Rob, I think you'll be pretty limited if you use plastic track. I'm choosing 2' wide for practical reasons-- (1) it's a nice small footprint and (2) it's half a sheet of MDF. And, this is essentially my test track design.

The other element to my plan has to be carving out a place for my SCX Rally Box, which I bought cheap at a LHS closeout a while back. So, I redesigned (again) to find a place for it. I also want to test the design of the swapout section. I'll build this with elevations of 5", essentially the long straight will be elevated. I'm trying to figure out much length I might "squeeze" in if I used squeeze sections for the right side of the rally section. Is this too tight? I estimated the sections using the width of R1s on my Scalextric track.

This is about the best I have come up with so far using SCX and a few bits of Scalectrix classic too ...



The weird track part is ...

The easy way to do this is of course to go for a single level (flat) design - but as has been pointed out I am VERY restricted to what I can do in my 2'x10' box.

I decided to play about with a bit of elevated track design and using a few r2 lane changers too get some nicer radius bits going on. Here is where I am so far but it's a little over length so I need to lose a bit somewhere ...

what do we think ?

Depending on the direction of travel I don't think the elevated section will prove a problem. Left to right especially, as the track is only two feet deep. I guess it's only one car at a time so crashes aren't going to be damaging, unless you fall on the floor.

In fact if the two R1s are replaced with hairpins and a couple of half straights there would be room for the, now famous, Lane Swerve Chicane!

QUOTE (RobBG @ 10 Mar 2008, 16:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I dont think they will fit will they Graham ? - it's all got to stay in 2 feet wide !

If you can move the two R1s in the direction of the arrows by half a straight each there is room for a, (dare I say it?) now famous, Lane Swerve Chicane in the middle. You need to buy two hairpin sets and cut the overlapping pair.



Sorry I don't have a track planner or I could provide a pitcure. Scaley don't do a, now famous.....etc. yet.

Well, I got started. Went to Home Depot and got the MDF and the wood for the frame. Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have the proper router bit, but we can get started without the router bit.

Here's the frame, and the outline of the track on the MDF. The main straight is raised about 5 inches and I'll put storage under it.


And, here's the general outline--as it currently stands-- of the layout. STill thinking about the details and suggestions still welcome. The main straight will be about 10' and elevated about 5". The road will go offroad and dip down...

I got started on the routing today with the help of a friend from our club. (Actually, he routed his own track-- a very cool 4-laner you can see on YouTube). Basically, we got the left side routed in about two hours work. Now that I've got the hang of it, it should go even faster. We used Luf's flex strip for the routing. I didn't get the turns quite as tight as the plan (because we thought the strip might break), but I'm pretty pleased nevertheless on how smooth these turns are. Obviously, it's a sqeeze section here before the straight so you'll have to make your pass before the switchbacks!

The Left Side Routed

The Plan