Because I enjoy naming things, I’m now dubbing my fast-growing collection of original Aurora Thunderjets “The Road Crew.” These cars and their track and layout will exist apart from the 1:64 scale layout of Drag City, but who knows what the future holds when I start expanding the table space in my basement? For now, though, I’m expanding my new HO-scale layout in a big way!
My assessment of the LifeLike track was the same the second time around as it was the first time I used it: I like the controllers, but other than that, its not satisfactory: the surface of the track-although it looks nice-is quite smooth, and the slot is very wide. These traits made it the wrong track for my vintage originals, since they have enough trouble with traction and tracking as it is. So dug into my boxes of Tyco track and the construction project began!
Now THAT’S a highway!
Not sure what you would call this layout; it’s not a “paper clip” exactly; seems like its best described as a very elongated “figure 8”. Its actually a perfect layout for what I want; two left turns, 2 right turns, with each lane of the track getting 2 outside turns and 2 inside turns which eliminates the need for the X-over pieces, which is another thing these old “Tee-jets” don’t seem to like much. Plenty of opportunity for flat-out motoring and passing; each curve could be imagined as a ramp to another section of highway, and the long double-decked section resembles the old I-70 viaduct through Denver which has only just been demolished this year after standing for over 60 years, so this is my homage to it! As you can see, this “double-decking” was accomplished by using a series of AFX bridge supports.
Each lane is separately powered for consistency, and with flat planes and predictable turns this is highway travel at its finest!
A note about the video above: though its no more impressive than any of my other vids, I had to design something new for the “Track Eye II™” as the edges of the viaduct were just a hair too low for it to pass under while mounted on the Tyco 440 X2 chassis. So, I went into my die-cast parts box and came up with a chassis from a Matchbox Superfast that still had good wheels and axles on it, and with a few layers of shelf tape to build a raised area between the axles, the camera fit almost perfectly. I then super glued 2 Auto World guide pins to the bottom of this chassis, and used the Tyco chassis to push the rig around the track. It worked surprisingly well, thanks mainly to the awesome stability and speed of those 4mm wide Matchbox Superfast wheels; they were the best in the industry back in their day!
That is a clever solution for the camera carriage. I think that came out well and the quality is much better than the previous camera. The new layout is great and should make for some fun time with the cars in spite of the track issues you mentioned.