Blackpool Slot Car Club

Our Tracks

NEW TRACK BUILD
The 6 lane track that we have loaned from the Highlands Club has provided sufficient interest and commitment from existing racers and newcomers to prove the feasibility of what we are doing. With this in mind we have committed to build a purpose built track that suits our needs better, fits in with the other users of the building and that we can have some fun building. With the input of some very experienced racers, track builders and our knowledge of what we like and more importantly what we don't like we produced a plan using the latest in P&P design techniques. For the less knowledgeable in up to date, state of the art technologies, P&P stands for pen and paper ! This was very much going to be a design and build project, or at times build then design.
	Friday 22nd January 2010 saw us dismantle the 6 lane track and layout the already delivered 8 x 4 sheets of 18mm MDF to see if our P&P design techniques matched up with the physical dimensions of the room, they did , phew! Sat 23rd, saw the start of a production line of various height legs, joining pieces and assorted other wooden support battens whilst in another area of the building the layout and joining of the MDF
sheets began in preparation for the routing of the slots. 4 sheets took care of the most intricate part of the track, the bridge and esses sections. We used the L shaped legs from a previous project (soon to be used on the HO track) as supports to enable us to join together the sheets at a good height for working on.
	Once all of the sheets were joined together we built a radius arm for the router, drilled out at the required lane and barrier spacing's, we used the ISRA standards of 105mm lane spacing and 150mm lane to barriers, and calculated the required pivot points. Then began the noisy and messy bit, the routing of 4 x 4mm wide slots 10mm deep and also the edges of the track using a different router bit, deep enough to cut through the sheets.. This was also a case of check, check and check again before we brought on the noise !
The end result. 4 perfect slots to guide the cars through a tricky esses with a minimum radius of 0.15m and maximum of 0.7m, then around a 1.9m radius bend that will serve as the bridge. When the routing was complete we disassembled the track bed and mounted the 2 x 2 supports underneath which will provide the leg supports from the other assembly line production departments.
	The end result after day 1 of the actual building process. The main part of the track from which all other dimensions will be taken. This is the tail that will wag the dog metaphorically speaking. We have to say that the progress so far was really pleasing on the eye and it gave us impetus the continue on and create a technical but fast track that was going to be smooth, quick and reward good car setup.
Day 2 of the build saw the less glamorous but necessary task of sealing the MDF. We had chosen untreated MDF on the advice of some professional woodworkers but we still needed to seal and prepare the MDF for the painting and braid shelf routing process. The drivers straight was also constructed and the slots routed for a later stage, the straights would be the last sections put in place, to complete the jigsaw after all of the bends were completed.
	As has been said this was a design and build project or build then design. Martin designed this kink instead of a straight run from the corner at the end of the main straight to the beginning of the esses. It will form the beginning of the complex section of the track. Martin thought that one marshall should be able to look after his kink as well as the esses, time will tell but it does add character to the track layout !
As Martin had got his way with the kink it was only fair that he should pay for the privilege, hence he volunteered for the cleaning up, or in this case vacuuming out of the routed slots of the drivers straight ! Due to the size of the club room we have the ability to work in one area away from from the area where the track is being erected, so enabling a planning session to be carried out in the track area while Martin did what he had to do. Another less glamorous task associated with building a track.
	By this time we had made fantastic progress. Martins kink, the esses and bridge section had all been completed. We also had the bends, and the position of them, at the start and end of the main straight so all that was left was the concept of how to join the start of the drivers straight and the lead off from the bridge. This was planned as Martin did his housework. The result was what was affectionately known as "Steve's corner" named after the author. What they fail to remember is that
the author had a major part to play in the esses and bridge section as well. At least I have a corner named after me and not just the straights as had been the initial idea ! With the completion of this corner we were able to link in the end of the bridge section, the drivers straight and the esses and that kink thing. Now the track was beginning to look like a track. Just a quick note that the drivers straight is 21 feet long and by my calculations the main straight is going to be over 23 feet long, ish !
	The completed track bed minus the main long straight. Due to the width restrictions we have in place the main straight will be partially covered by the larger of the esses. Careful planning of the position of the drivers rostrum meant that this would not be a problem, more a feature of the track. Drivers will be able to see under the esses to the main straight.
The preformed main straight was offered up in to position and the total length, and where to join the two corners was calculated and then routed to provide a smooth join. To give some idea of the accuracy of our P&P design and build process, along the complete length of the main straight we had 2mm difference in track length from one side to another. Some feat of building that is !
	The end of day 9 saw the track bed completed. At last we had a view of the complete layout. This was the time that we realized how much we have achieved in a little over a week of hard work and commitment. Unfortunately this sense of well being was soon curtailed as we had to remove the main straight that we had so recently fitted in, to enable us to route the slots. As this was the last piece of the jigsaw our design and build or build and design technique had proved to be very successful.
Once this "last piece of the jigsaw" was complete we had a compete track bed with the 4 slots in. At either end of this straight we had two completed corners that had been routed further "around" than was required, and cut to size when the track section was tried in place. We routed the main straight at the correct spacing's but left about 7 feet at either end un routed. This allowed us to join up the slots with the main straight when the straight was again back in its final position to allow for any "manufacturing tolerances" built in to the corners.
	The start of a busy clean up operation. The track bed was completed with all of the 4mm slots routed out. The edges of all the track sides have been sanded down to give a good join for the barriers.
With the track bed completed and all of the work areas cleaned up it was a time to think about what was next on the "to do list" . Drivers rostrum sprang to mind so that was soon completed after much discussion about the amount of room to allow between drivers. Some measurements of racers girth was carried out, and then some added on for those people who still like to swing a thumb controller about in an aggressive manner, needless to say the resulting spacing is more adequate than intimate !

And so with the major construction duties carried out it was back again to some of the less glamorous tasks related to building a slot car track. All of the holes manufactured in the build process have to be filled in and sanded down to provide a smooth track surface. Barriers had to be primed ready for painting and yet more cleaning up and planning on the next stages. Luckily for us the Cricket Club Bar provided an ideal location for these after work was done for the day planning sessions, its all in the planning you see !

One of the problems associated with building a slot car track is that a there is not an available "off the self" bit to route the braid shelf. The nearest we could come up with was a rebate bit that cut 6.5mm with a 4.5 mm guide pin. As the guide pin would not fit in our 4mm slots we employed some of the latest machining techniques to reduce the guide pin to just under 4mm. This comprised two battery drills, a diamond dremmel cutting disk, a mouth operated stick and some verniers to check the results, very Heath Robinson but it did the trick !
	The results of our machining a braid shelf router bit was tested on our router test track bit, purpose built for the task (otherwise known as an off cut from the main straight) Once we were satisfied that the cut depth was accurate to allow a slight recess of the braid below the track surface be brought on the noise again.
We trusted Martin to carry out the final bit of routing. If it went wrong now it would be a frustrating time as we would have to start again with any section that failed the "let's be careful" test. We had thought that this process would be quick, but it took us over 4 hours to route 3 slots, not including the bridge section and esses that had once again been removed to allow us the space to route unhindered.

The end of day 16 , Sunday 7th Feb. 2010 saw 3 routed slots. The photo on the left shows a close up of a finished slot. If you are eagle eyed you will be able to see that the router bit has put a nice chamfered edge between the slot and shelf. This will help in the replacement of any desloted cars as the braid will sit against the shelf edge and leave 0.25mm gap to the 4mm slot.
	Day 17, Monday 8th Feb was a momentous day. The braid arrived on site, the lane marking tool arrived and we finished routing the shelf, yippee! All of the routing took at least two people to perform. One routing and one with the patented dust extraction system, usually Shep with his sister's vacuum cleaner that he was fixing a dodgy wheel on, it did need testing after all !
A cheeky photo of Martin before the last foot of shelf recess was routed. Once that fantastic sound of the router bit meeting no resistance any more was heard a large cheer went up. We of course struggled to hear the cheer over the noise of the router and vacuum but it was a really satisfying moment when we "topped out" the routing of the slots.
	No time to stop and celebrate. With the Cricket Club closing and locking the gates soon we had a mad rush to clean up (again). Here is a rare photo of the author at work, vacing out the slots while taking a well earned break from photo taking and planning. The mad rush was all in aid of being able to seal and prime the slot and shelf that had now been cleaned of sealant by the routing process, perhaps we would have been better waiting to seal the MDF until all of the routing had been completed. There is always next time !
And the next day as if by magic a fully primed / undercoated track bed appeared ! Also as if by magic please note the appearance of the barriers on the right hand side, again work being carried out in another section of the building. In this case the priming of one side of the barriers that will be attached to the sides of the track in one of the last building processes. Due to a complaint by the "leg man", or as we like to say "hoover boy "who had seen this web page and noted that all he is pictured
	doing is cleaning up after the proper workers had finished doing some technical proper type work, I took the opportunity to take a photo of him doing some more of the technical / highly trained / skillful / important type work. That is after the author had used a router to "plunge" an accurate 5mm hole in the braid shelf at track joins to allow the braid to go from the track bed to "underneath" where it will be joined. Due to the lack of plunge depth of the router we allowed Paul to finish the hole with his 5mm drill, once we had an accurately aligned hole.
Friday 12th Feb.The noisy messy bits of the track build had now been completed, we hoped. So another quick clean up and we retired to the cricket club bar for another "planning" session, it was the end of the week and we deserved a drink, sorry planning thing. The next step was going to be applying the first coat of the paint. Being in Blackpool we had no choice but to have a Black track of course. But our planning session had resulted in a a decision to have a massive clean up / dust extraction / general tidy up before we applied the paint.
	Saturday 13th Feb.For some strange reason the author appeared on time to commence the dust extraction / cleaning duties and then spent 2 hours on his hands and knees with the hoover (other suction/ dust removal devices are available) before he twigged that he was doing it on his own due to the fact that the others were on a "procurement day" :) The end result of this was a very clean club room, the start of the wiring of the drivers rostrum using 6mm cable, and the application of the first coat of paint.
Sunday 15th Feb. After returning from the Area round at Bolton (An Area round is part of the National Championship Qualifying) we returned to the club to start yet another less glamorous job. Sanding down the paint before applying the next coat. As we are our own worst critics we are taking the time to try and do the best job that we can. It is our attention to detail that is coming to the fore here. When we have found a problem we have fixed it, we have not ignored the problem and hope it goes away. This approach is frustrating but it will be worth it.
	So after a couple of hours sanding away the first coat was ready to be added to. Luckily, tonight we were joined by Blackpool Slot Car Club's Entertainment manager, otherwise known as Martin's dog Tilly who kept myself and Martin amused while "leg man - hoover boy" Shep completed another grueling task of painting the whole track with the second coat. This was only fair as Shep had been the most critical of us all in our "snagging session" when we arrived tonight.
While Shep painted away we had a brainstorm about how to form the barriers. As there are only two sections of the track that require anything like a small radius barrier the author came upon the idea of pre forming the barriers using the off cut of the tight bends, and hey presto and as if by magic our 6 mm barriers took on a whole new shape. The drivers rostrum also had its first paint job carried out.
	Monday 15th Feb. With the main construction duties carried out work had started to slow down. Martin announced that he was starting a new contract down south and would be leaving us shortly, tomorrow in fact, oops! So he had a mad last night working away at the track wiring. We are using 2 x 40 Amp Rapid Electronic power supplies giving each lane 20 Amps, enough for the most power hungry motors. A transistorized power dropping circuit has also been figured in to the construction but will be left to a later date to install.
While Martin did his wiring work Shep gave the already undercoated barriers a first coat of our calm and subdued choice for the barriers, an in your face tint of orange otherwise known as Tangerine after the local football club. So two out of the three were busy so I had to find something to do, the already prepared barrier supports were suggested so I set to work on getting these ready for installation. Already made by Shep I must add cos he still feels left out !
	Tuesday 16th Feb. Martin reappeared after a day in Weston-super-Mare, the contract does not start until Monday ! We removed the bridge sections again because tomorrow we start the process of laying the braid, yippee! Shep finished of painting the other side of the barriers, Martin prepared the braid shelf by removing any stray black paint, I fixed the remaining barrier supports and then left early after feeling totally knackerd, I think all the time we are spending is catching up on us, well it is on me..........
Wednesday 17th August and the day we have been waiting for, laying the braid. All of the construction was done, sealed, primed and painted now to the important bits. The first task was to measure, cut to length and then clean the braid of any traces of any residue from the manufacturing process, it has to be said that the braid was found to be clean. For the sponsorship terms I now have to mention what the braid actually is. Ref No FLB 2-5-36 from a company called Mettex based in Banbury.
	The cut and cleaned lengths were then placed on a handy piece of unpainted barrier and a thin film of contact adhesive was applied with the aid of a syringe graciously supplied by Shep's better half while another team member Martin applied an equally thin film of glue to the shelf. after a carefully calculated time (usually to have a go at the author) the braid was carefully fed down through the previously manufactured holes and then aligned and fixed onto the shelf before being smoothed down.
Thursday 19th Feb. More braiding, more painting, this time the drivers rostrum to match lane colours a start on the lane markings and the checkered flag pattern at the start / finish line that Shep insisted upon. Friday 20th Feb, day 28 or the start of the 5th week. Not a lot got done tonight as we had a visitor who had requested if he could "come and have a look"
	We had an enjoyable chat about the club, the track and our aims and beliefs and what we hope to achieve with the club. The end result was an offer of sponsorship, negotiated in our corporate hospitality area otherwise known as the kitchen. This was the third offer of sponsorship this week, so I guess we are doing something right ! More importantly than the financial side of this deal we have enticed this ex slot car racer out of retirement (occasionally) to show us how it is done, much like he did the rest of the world in the early 1990's, thanks Mark.
Saturday 20 Feb, day XX who cares now cos the end is in sight ! A fantastic day, despite various distractions such as the authors dog putting paw prints on the track, Shep's daughter putting the club broom up the authors backside, and the authors son who brought along his cricket bat and ball and then distracted Martin and Shep because they just had to show off their prowess at throwing a cricket ball and batting, we somehow managed to complete the braiding of the track, yippee !
	Along with the braiding went the lane colours marking and somehow another rare photo of the author at work appeared. Here seen marking out red lane, I really do hope that is not a bald patch appearing, just a reflection or something ! The lane marking was a time consuming and tedious job. Fortunately we had the correct tool for the job courtesy of Dave Homer from Dudley Slot Car Club who had loaned us the professional Beugler pin striping tool, thanks Dave, you are a true gent.
The lane marking was difficult enough on its own but was compounded by a couple of reprobates who insisted on trying to install the barriers around the track while the author was hard at work. They just kept getting in the way ! But at the end of the night we had a completely braided track with all sorts of pretty colours to donate the different lanes, plus a few barriers, and it looked like a slot car track ! On the downside Shep's better half has now noticed that he his fully trained and proficient in the operation of dust removal systems and even
more worrying is that the authors wife has seen his prowess with painting equipment, I sense some form of payback coming along for all the time we have spent building the track, oh dear!
	Sunday 21st Feb, we arrived at the club to find that the lane markings and some other painting had not dried due to the low temperatures. A quick phone call and within 10 minutes a member of the Cricket Club Committee dropped of a gas bottle and we once again had some heat !
The gas bottle was hooked up to the industrial strength hairdryer we have and at last the authors wife can have her more portable one back, it was taking a while to try and dry the paint with that anyway, so no great loss.
	Myself and Shep went to work on the barriers as we could not carry on with any more painting. All of the barriers had been pre cut to 5 inches in height. On certain corners we have lowered the position of the barriers to help improve visibility on some lanes from the drivers rostrum, a carefully selected "vertically challenged" slot car racer was chosen to test out the visibility, and then he went playing cricket again after doing his bit for the cause!
Meanwhile Sam the authors dog, was wanting to help out with some painting of his own. Construction of the track has been a team effort with every man and his dog offering to help out, but perhaps this is taking it a bit too far ?
	While myself and Shep worked on installing the barriers Martin was very quiet. All we could see was a pair of legs under the track and we presumed that he had just fallen asleep or something. After a while we had a quick look at were he had last been seen moving about and discovered that he had been connecting the lane braid under the track. A very neat job too. This photo shows the braid coming down from the top of the track through the 5mm holes previously mentioned. No chance of a short here................

Martin hard at work completing the wiring before tomorrows attempt at working for a living again. This comprised of tidying up all of the braids under the track and completing the wiring from the drivers rostrum to the relays and power supply's.
	Martin decided he had finished so gave the thumbs up, somehow he has a list of jobs for me to finish off now while he is away, how does that work then?
The photos below show more of the barriers being installed. On the left you can see the reduced height barrier to help visibility on yellow lane in this case. Attention to detail again.

Mon 22nd Feb and Tuesday 23rd Feb..........Well the plan was to mark out all of the "hundredth's" on the track and then varnish the track surface. Unfortunately we came up against what is known in the trade as "brain fade". We had measured the total length of each slot, out of interest there is 1/4 inch difference in the total length of the slots. Before applying any markings we decided to follow the tried and tested, "check and check" again technique and some how we managed to end up with something like 5 "hundredths" out when we went around the track checking with our slot length divided by 100 tool, Mmmm! The next night we tried again and after numerous attempts we had it figured out, eventually. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to actually do it. We did start but after a few tries we realized that the method we were using just did not look right. Wednesday 24th Feb...... A mad morning on the phone trying to source some precut Vinyl and eventually the author had a result. Yet another ex racer had just what we needed and an earlier than normal start down at the club room resulted in lots (I got fed up of counting !) coloured vinyl strips 5mm wide and 20 mm long, just the job ! The strips were cut from rolls of vinyl that can also be used as lane stickers. Unfortunately the rolls were of different widths but a quick trim with a knife left 20 mm of vinyl and 10mm of backing tape making it easy to separate them, and then on to the 5mm cutting using an A4 sized guillotine thing from home.
	All we had to do now was stick down the pre cut vinyl in the correct position. 100 pieces across 4 lanes, plus double for every 5 "hundredth's" made for a lot (lost count again!) of fiddley and back breaking work. But at the end of the day we have very accurate "hundredth's" in the right place and not just guessed or "radiused across the bends" as some tracks do, it was still a a pain in the backside to do though!
Thursday 25th Feb and Martin started work in Northern - super - Mare or so he told his boss, I could have sworn he was back in Blackpool ! The last of the "hundredth's" were applied and Martin finished of his "to do list" which apparently wasn't for me but a gentle reminder to him on what needed finishing off ! Shep carried out the last few touch ups of the paint that were still required along with much re decorating of the club room walls, all was good in the world.
	Friday 26th Feb and all that needed doing was the varnishing of the track surface, wiring up the Lap master race control system and then the track would be completed and ready for testing. We still had one small section of barrier to complete, one that defied the authors attempt at performing, so we need to source some thinner material and laminate it to enable it go around a tight radius. The varnishing was completed during the day and the Lapmaster system wired in during the evening.
After an hour or so in the evening everything was ready. All of the "on" switches and buttons were pressed and we had the satisfying sound of power relays turning on and off when commanded, it must be said it was not as satisfying as the sound of the router bit encountering no further resistance, but satisfying none the less ! Martin had brought along a Saloon car and spare controller in anticipation of this moment so we tried out the car on each lane in turn to see if we could manage to get some noise when the controller trigger was pressed, all OK so far. Another quick check and the lap counters worked, this was getting exiting now ! All of a sudden and without any fanfare or warning Shep was on red lane and actually driving a slot car around the track, lap after lap just like that ! It worked !!!!!!
Then it went quiet for a few minutes and as the author checked out something with the computer everyone else disappeared only to return with their car boxes. That was it, cars flying around all 4 lanes, just to test that it all worked and to "run in" the slots of course ! This was a quite a momentous time really. One of our younger members had come along to see how we have been progressing, he ended up racing ! For the author it was a moment to savour but unfortunately I had no cars with me so Shep told me to come and have a go.
I completed a few laps and then it was handshakes all around and huge grins on everyone's faces, what a fantastic feeling. Weeks of hard work, frustrations and elation all came down to this, seeing cars race around our new track. I had expected some sort of snags or problems, but apart from the odd lump of glue or other construction debris that had defied our best efforts at removing them every thing was OK. Within half an hour the track had gripped up nicely and a few 1/32 Eurosports appeared, I did not expect that! It was hard work to drag everyone away from the track but we just had to retire to the Cricket Club Bar to celebrate. Instead of the usual quiz night tonight there was a musicians session going on. It would have been so apt for a rather large lady to come along and do a turn but instead we were entertained by a couple of singers and a band. They must have thought our table was really into them as we all had rather large grins and smiley faces, if only they knew why !
	Saturday 27th Feb saw some more work done on the track, mainly on making it look more presentable by covering up the visible legs, and another general tidy up. For some reason not much work actually got done as we had all brought our cars and controllers to test out the track. It was nice to kick back and relax a bit and enjoy the track after all the work. Even our youngest member took some time to show her Dad, Shep how to get around the track !
We had pretty much given up on doing any more work so we turned the work area into pit space and just enjoyed getting to know the track. Sunday 28th Feb saw the installation of some numbers around the barriers supplied by a returning slot car racer who had volunteered to provide all of the vinyl numbers, lettering and banners that will soon grace the club room, thanks Wayne.
And so after just over a month of hard work we have a nearly completed track. All that remains is cosmetic work. Over the last two days we have had a lot of fun testing it out and although we are slightly biased we have to say that we like it. It is smooth and fast, the parts of the track that we thought would be difficult to drive are not so bad, and after only a few laps you can really get into a rhythm. Over the weekend we have had a few people try it out and there is only a couple of tenths of a second per lap between someone who has not raced a slot car in anger in quite a few years and some of the fastest racers in the country. When it comes to proper racing it is going to be fast, close and really good fun !

The completed track, a picture paints a thousand words !

And on Friday 5th March our first race night was held. 17 racers turned up to give their opinion on the track, everyone left with a smile on their face!
COMING SOON !	We are in the process of acquiring a 1/64th Scale HO track. These miniature slot cars are a real buzz as something that small has no right to go that fast!
	We currently have on loan from our friends at The Highlands Slot Car Club a 6 lane track. In a previous life this track has also resided at Pinewood and Riverside Raceways. A new purpose built track is currently in the planning stages and it is intended to have this up and running in 2010. This 6 lane track is an ideal introduction to Slot Car Racing for newcomers and can give experienced racers a real challenge.