[GRAH1]

I first saw this in a copy of model cars mag when I was a lot younger but recently I found a copy of model boats which had a more detailed discription of the project.Basicaly the idea was to suspend a slot on sky hooks over a tub of water and race electric speed boats round. If any one is daft enough to want to give it a go (Inte) then email me and Ill send you a better copy of the article but dont blame me for your untimely death by electrocution or the damage to your carpets when the thing leaks.

Graham

 

[Fergy]

Oh sure... give us vague details!

C'mon, where should the magnets be placed?

 

[GRAH1]

Right next to the glassmagnet I used to send my aprentices for in the garage to hold the windscreen as we fitted it
Graham

 

[JohnP]

Thanks Graham, this brings back great memories - I attended that Model Engineer Exhibition and saw this very item

I remember picking up a sheet explaining how to make it too - may still have it somewhere in the attic... (disappears into attic)

 

[GRAH1]

I seem to remember there was also a drag racing version too with contacts on the wall sides , no guide I might have some pics if I search hard enough.One thing abouth the slot boats is they will acually lean in the corners
Graham

 

[Intergrali]

QUOTE If any one is daft enough to want to give it a go (Inte) then email me

I'm not daft.. oh I KNEW that track would some in useful sometime!! oh good, got an old back in the back garden at the mo, quick send it over!!!

Rob.

 

[GRAH1]

All we need now is Geoff to invert a rail car and Al Penrose to fashion a hull out of popsicle sticks and were in busness.

Maybe I can persuade Simon next door to let me use his pond I dont think the coy carp will be to impressed though.

Graham

 

[Tropi]

I take it the windmill was to generate the electricity?

 

[MRE]

I did this !! Yes, I really am that old and sad........!!

I have built and raced slot boats, as a member of the club I belonged to at that time. 1967 would be about right, I had been racing for a couple of years by then, and recall dismembering a Revell 1/24 car to get the 36D motor to use in a boat.

The Enfield and District Model Engineering Society (EDMES) built a track or whatever you could call it, and one of the members made a mould for fibreglass hulls. 36D's were the motor of choice for most people, and the guide was attached to a spring-loaded arm similar to a trolley bus. They used to go quite fast if my memory is correct, and I remember boats being ballasted to set the trim and handling.

Most members built a boat, but the track wasn't used very much except for exhibitions and shows that the club attended. The Enfield Show was the obvious one, but I recall others including Dagenham and South London somewhere. I don't actually recall the Model Engineer Exhibition (maybe I didn't attend that one) but I do remember that club track being a very similar kidney shape to the one pictured.

EDMES got up to all sorts of other strange things, but those stories can wait for another time........

 

[Difflock]

If slot boats are going to make a comeback, then might I suggest looking at the Hydro Thunder video game for some interesting ideas on hulls?

Mark.

 

[GRAH1]

The pound shop would be the first place I would look for a suitable donor boat for this project I have seen 1 or 2boats which may be suitably modded

 

[howmet tx]

Hi Gary! Nice to see you.

One thing though... you were racing in 1967?
What hair dye do you use???

 

[JohnP]

...you can do wonderful things with Paint Shop Pro howmet

Welcome to SlotForum Gary

 

[MRE]

Oops !! Maybe I am older and sadder than I thought !

I joined my first racing club (EDMES) in 1965 and my first cars were the Airfix Rapier kit and Airfix Mercedes W125 for GP races. A Revell Mercedes 300SL kit soon followed, then a succession of scratchbuilds as I tried to keep up with the club aces. I recall buying my first MRRC 3-pole for 12/- from Rayken at Winchmore Hill, and saving up for the Cox GT40 that I got from Beatties at Southgate.

I raced at Tottenham Raceway when they opened, and also at the Thirties club in Tottenham (near the Spurs ground and the Lone Star factory). Suffice to say I have been around racing for more years than I care to remember. Not always succesful on the track, but you could say 'been there, done that' !

Photoshop is a great programme, I use it all the time !!

 

[JohnP]

Ahhh Southgate!

As a youngster Beatties was my local hobby shop - or should it be shops as they seemed to occupy most of The Broadway at one point. Heady days for slot racing!

I bought most of my track from their secondhand shop and longed for the little black Cox Cheetah kit

sitting in the window display. Never got one sadly although I do have one of those tasty Bauer kits (think I will spray it black too!) waiting in the project queue.

Still, this has not got much to do with slot boats so I'll stop now

 

[Guest]

And I thought I was nuts to bring back rail racing!!! I what to see the first slot boat built.

RR.

 

[Dick Smith]

I saw the slot boats track at the Model Engineers Exhibition at Seymour Hall at the same time as I was running the ECAR track stand and competitions in either 1970 or 1971, the date on the Model cars magazine article will confirm which. So I was at the Exhibition everyday and as far as I remeber they ran it one day, fiddled with it occasionally but gave up. It was basically hopeless. Perhaps Gary Cannel and his fellow members of E&DMES manged to make it work, but unless one has a great love off boats, no slot racing projects to do, no motor racing videos to watch, no pub to go to, no grass to cut or no paint to watch dry, I won't bother.

 

[MRE]

Hi Dick - long time no see !!

The EDMES club did make the slot boats work, I even tried to find some pictures but no luck. There were around 12 - 15 people who built boats, so it was never as popular as slot cars, but I do recall it was a huge novelty. Whenever the track (????) was taken and operated at a show, there was a lot of interest. From a club member point of view, it was a bit of an encumbrance, having to fill the track before use and drain it afterwards, and with only a few people present each clubnight with a boat it was hardly competitive. But, I can say been there - done that, and I suppose its part of a club members rich tapestry.

 

[MRE]

I just thought about the dates. I left Enfield in late 1967, and the boats were around about a year before that. Maybe Dick saw a development from another origin at the ME show.