I found a huge box of Scalextric tracks dating from about 30 years ago. I have made up the circuit, but the cars in the box are all in bits, and there's a doubtful looking transformer.
Is there a kit I can buy that would have a couple of cars, a couple of controllers, and a transformer? All of which need to be compatible with the very old track. And preferably without yet more track!
Yup you can buy all the bits separately.. there may also be kits of bits available for independent dealers.
You can even get converter sections that allow old style track to join new style track
Is that the type where one bit locks to another? I had some of that, but also the original design where they simply pushed together (and sometime came apart by themselves). It needed two adaptor straights to link the two types. In later years, the whole lot became present for a younger relative.
My recollection is that the cars used to need to have a capacitor added across the motor, to prevent radio interference. It was a rule at most club circuits. There was quite a strong market in chassis for putting Airfix etc. bodies on and a whole array of different wheels and tyres, to get the best performance. The Scalextric original tyres lost traction on bends too easily. Fun at home, but not much good in a competition race.
Long time back but in the {cough}s I had a 12V battery charger because it was cheaper than the transformer. Hmmm...it was switchable between 6V and 12V and I can't remember which voltage.
Also mixed track with the converters from push to clip.
If you get a power supply then all you need are the controllers which should be available individually.
Then again, a long time since I looked.
I think I passed my Scalextric on but the loft is an area of many mysteries.
Cheers
Dave R
The third party ones were always better than the OEM ones. More comfortable to hold and more responsive.
Well they ran on raw DC around 12v. Did you get the resistive controllers with what you had. I think you can still buy slot racing plunger type controls, but not all have the dynamic breaking wire, otherwise known as a way to short out the track when power moves to zero. It might be also interesting to suggest that you may find what you want in some shops for model hobbyists. There were certainly motorising kits for the plastic car kits you could get. Who makes these these days? Used to be airfix.
The main difference between the main makers of the tracks was the pitch of the brushes on the track. Scalextric are narrow, and Airfix were wide, but often they were made of braid so could be angled to run on either system. Unfortunately I no longer have my cars or you would have been welcome to them. There seem to be three scales out there these days,1/32 1/24 and a very small one which seems to be bespoke for novelty things like batmobiles etc.
Myself I agree the mains units were not that good, for example, some motors used so much current they cooked the controllers and slowed all the other cars down when mixed with them on a track. Far better was separate power units per lane. They did not seemingly work well with smooth DC supplies I found, being lazy to start.
Brian
Yes you used to also able to make your own track out of hardboard and copper tape. I remember our old school had one. It was far better than the plug together ones, since fewer connections between sections to lose volts over. I guess the next question will be on model railways, as the technology is much the same, though these days there is a lot more sophistication and computer control. Brian
Yes, some had capacitors across motors, but many did not. I found the older Air motors used so little current interference was minimal, it was the use of bigger motors that started the noise issues. Not a problem as much as plug in wifi modules are today though. Brian
ya big wean......ha ha
Yeah they don't connect the track to 100V DC any more as kids these days are such wimps.
That was more like Trik-Trak than Scalectrix in that the cars carried the power source rather than having brushes pick the power up from the track.
I had T-T as a child and one thing I remember was that most of the track wasn't lumps of plastic. It only needed corners,chicanes, that type of thing as actual track pieces were just untracked gaps between pieces that controlled something.
Look on Market Place - often for sale
I had some of that - but I don't remember having many of the tricks. although quite a number more track corners etc. I think my car was a bit more lame as well!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.