Palmer Divide Raceway (PDR) v3.0 Updated 02/18/2015

[HRWJim]

Track is coming along great David. Looks like you have a great space for it. Are you going to paint the back drop the same on this one? Jim
BTW thanks Marty for bringing back painful memories of sixth grade Cathloic school. Never did like that Nun. She used to say the same thing. We called her sister Bear claw, because of the way she would swat the back of your head when you answered or did something wrong.

[Ember]

Oh great. Now I'm going to have that buzzing around in my head today. And I'd managed to not think of it for 20 years.

Good to see the track returning to its former glory David.

[dreinecke]

You guys and gals crack me up. It is not perfect by a long shot, but I appreciate the comments.

Ember - I will be hitting you up for a long static grass tutorial at some point. I'd like mine to get better when I lay it this time.

[Ember]

Not a problem David. Really not a lot to it. But certainly worth buying the new long fibre options that are available. Noch has 12mm fibres and Heki do 10mm ones. And if you're not into mixing your own blends the Silfor offerings are brilliant even though their longest option seems to still be 6mm.

[AllanI]

Blimey if the grass is going to be that long you'll need a 1/32 Strimmer. Track looks superb, those Trans Ams will soon be racing again.

Allan

[Ember]

The static grass in this shot is done with a blend of 4mm, 6mm and 12mm fibres.


Whereas the blend in this shot is 2mm, 4mm and 6mm fibres.


It depends on what you're after of course. But for anything more natural than a putting green I'd suggest a blend with lengths at least up to 6mm.

[red73mustang]

I like that really long stretch along the back wall with almost no turns in it............Oh and someone stole one of your lanes!

[dreinecke]

Ember - thanks for that! I did a mix last time and it wasn't quite that long.

Chet - You my brother are a TOOL! :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

A few years back, someone did grass very effectively with a static generator and spray glue. It was interesting to see it stand on end. I think it was an HO railroad and he had a vast area to create a grassy plain in.

[dreinecke]

Houston, we have POWER!!!

I mangaged to get one lane powered up and my new Ammeter and Voltmeters hooked up. Still have a few nits to work out such as hooking in the fuses (ran out of connectors!) and then get the rest of it run. Funny enough, with so few splices in the new tape, the track felt a little quicker. It also felt shorter in the new section. It is nice and quick and certainly nice to drive, but I notice the missing 2 feet in the back stretch. I'm whining...

New paint ran well with Paul G. Tires on my tuned Scalextric Challenger. Ran a NINCO 356 that has been tuned running stock tires and it hauled the mail too. So, that seems to have worked well.

I hope to get the wiring finished up tomorrow night and then build a small shelf underneath for the power supply to sit on and the PC for the timer as well.

Slowly getting there!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Sounds good Doc, look forward in seeing some pics of the new kingdom soon.

I'll bet you are bouncing off the walls...I mean in a good way.

[slothead]

I finished bench work tonight for a new road course and am about to finalize the layout on graph paper and start cutting out the track sections. Seeing the PDR rebuild moving forward so quickly is easing my anxiety the process. Very nice track and very good info.

About the AC power setup - at one time I was thinking of using the AC2Car approach and bought a Lionel 90 watt AC power supply. Since I don't see passing lanes or lane change switches on PDR I assume it's more like a typical 3 lane DC track with 1 car per lane and the only difference is the use of AC power. If so, does that mean you're only using diodes at the controllers and not in the cars? Can you show or describe the power hookups? I just might use of the same system because I've heard good things about how DC cars sound and run on AC.

Slothead

[dreinecke]

[dreinecke]

Slothead - Always happy to help and please fire away with any questions you might have. I'd love to see your build! Any pics of the benchwork yet?

As for the power, I use the same 90W Lionel PS. I run only 1 car/lane. You will use a diode only on the controller side - the cars are bone-stock. I've got a complete diagram done that is specific to the way I run my track that I can post tonight.

I'm happy with the way it drives as is everyone that has come over. I had zero plans to go back to DC with this track.

[Indy500Lee]

Looks Good Dave Cannot Wait Till To See It Finished!!

Lee :D