Shangri-La Speedway. A new HO layout work in progress.

[downtowndeco]

Since my 2 lane AFX Speedway is coming along nicely I decided I wanted to try my hand at an oval. The corners are 9" & 12". I used a bank on one end to break it up a bit. It's named Shangri-La Speedway after a band I used to have.

I'm reusing some of the track & benchwork from my Little Le Mans layout. It was a job scraping off the scenery residue (including a sand trap!) from the old layout but I'm cheap & believe in recycling so I guess it was worth it.

Yes, I know it's butt ugly at this point. Trust me, it will look decent by the time I am done.

[/URL]

I used track clips at every joint & found that the Tomy clips would also work to attach the two tracks side by side as long as I added a 1/4" styrene shim.

[/URL]

A very preliminary test run tells me that I'm going to have to do a little work on the inside lane of the banked oval. The pickups of the Mega G's snag on the rails at the joints. Anyone have a simple fix? I'm thinking of dremeling the points of the rails down a hair where the shoes catch.

I'm going to do a build log on this so stay tuned if you like that sort of thing.

[RV Racing]

This is gonna be good! Another masterpiece in the making.

Thanks,
Rick V.

[TuscoTodd]

Looking forward to seeing this one progress! :D

[downtowndeco]

I want to use the AF Lap Counters but had to make a few modifications to get them to work teh way I wanted.

They are designed to snap underneath the track & sort of "clip on" using the tabs molded into it's base. They work great like that, but since my layout is going to be sceniced, I needed to cut off the end tabs so that when I mounted two of them face to face the tracks would still be able to be neatly side by side. If I didn't cut off these tabs then there would have to have been a gap of about 1/4". No good for a sceniced layout. : )

Stock.

[/URL]

With tab cut off.

[/URL]

The next issue was I were to use these as is they would elevate the track a bit & cause a hump. Again, no good for a sceniced layout.

[/URL]

What I did was to measure out & cut out a hole.

[/URL]

[/URL]

Next I took a piece of plywood that was slightly larger than the hole & screwed it in from the bottom to create an inset "base". I did need to add a few sheets of foam core until the lap counters were pressed firmly up against the bottom of the track. Since the track is now screwed down, the lap counters should stay in place. Will get some batteries & test it in a day or so.

[/URL]

Questions?

[TuscoTodd]

Like the mods and the update!
:handgestures-thumbup:

[dge467]

Coming along nicely, good pic's!

[vins123]

Hi
look nice so far, nice idea about lap counter, for sure i will follow this one, i am sure you will came up with something very nice, for info AFX ever made tracks clips for this purpose but the price now???
Sylvain

[RV Racing]

Another simple but elegant solution! Looking forward to further installments in scenic track building.

RV

[vins123]

Hi
Are you gonna keep the single power track or put a dual powertrack?
Sylvain

[downtowndeco]

2 power packs for 4 lanes. On my other layout I have one for each individual lane but I'm skimping on this one.

[downtowndeco]

The track seems to be running pretty smooth so I started to add supports for the banking & skid aprons. These are just cardboard wedges hot glued to the table. I did not glue them to the track.

I wish I could say that there was some fancy way of using math or geometry that I used to figure out the size of the wedges but really I just did trial & error. When I was sure a wedge was "just right" a marked the spot on the table, pulled out the wedge, put hot glue on the bottom of it & then quickly slid it back in place. Be careful not to push the track up higher & higher w/each wedge you add.

[/URL]

[vins123]

[vins123]

[vins123]

Hi
did you work on your layout lately?
Sylvain

[vins123]

Hi
any update?
Sylvain