Alfonso Jaconetta,Clearwater FL
ajacone1@tampabay.rr.com

I'm consider myself lucky to have been a kid in a time when slot cars were
replacing trains as the new household hobby. So I designed this track with a
great deal of influence from Train layouts our predecessors enjoyed. It's
17ft by 5ft 6in. Each lane has it's own power pack and capacitor, to store
energy. This allows 28 volts, which can be controlled with a lamp rheostat
to govern how much power you want top end to be. All the track on the second
level is mounted on 1/4in Birch Plywood. The supports are cut pieces of
wallboard. There are no guardrails on this track. I used instead, corking
for the cars to fishtail on. The brick walls were than installed in the
appreciate places, to keep the cars on the table. They are 1/4in particle
board cut to size, bent around the turn and hammered in place, to the
plywood the track it's mounted on.The houses on the second level have brass
tubes which run from the houses, down through the table to allow the
lighting system to be wired. The track on the lower level was countersunk in
a layer of wallboard to act as a damper making the cars run quieter, as
well as giving the effect of grass sitting higher than the road. Many of the
houses have been drybrushed to rid them of the plastic look! The track is
lit by either six incandescent spots on a fader, Black Lights, or both. This
allows you "dusk" , by simply using the fader, turning the house lights on,
and lighting the black lights for an extra kick. Of course there's afternoon
and night racing as well. This Miniature town is still a work in progress.
Living in Florida, I wanted to have a town set up in a valley surrounded by
mountains just as the last snows are breaking up. So I have been adding snow
to it a little at a time. My inspiration for this track, was the Scotchbobo
Raceway which was featured in a magazine when I was a kid. I heard this
track is still up. If the builder of that is reading this, e-mail me. I
would love to see some new photo's of your track.
THUNDER JET CITY

I built my track in a 10ft by 20ft shed. The shed has was reinforced with 2
by 4 supports, then drywall was installed with Rugs, A/C, a Dehumidifier,
Track Lights on a fader, (2, 8Ft. Black Lights) a mirror at one end, and a
work bench. The back round Mountain Scene was air brushed, with the sky
fading to night at the top and black light detail on the stars. The table,
(17Ft. 6In. by 5Ft. 6In.) was built in place with double 2 by 4's staggered
& 4 by 4's for legs, to allow for a very level table. The legs were then
mounted on wheels to be able to get around to clean and add to the track's
scenery.

The first level of track was countersunk into wallboard to not only make
the grass appear to have height, but in addition, to add the benefit of
quieting the cars running along the track. The second level sits on 1/4In.
Birch Plywood mounted on to of Wallboard supports. There are no guardrails.
Instead, I used Train Cork, shimmed with cereal boxes cut into little
squares. This way the cars can fishtail on the outside lane evening out the
advantage factor. The town lights are wired to a light switch on the wall.
There are power packs for each lane, with Capacitors to store power. This
gives effectively 28volts off the line. They do recharge very fast and
consequently, you never feel a power drop. In addition, each lane of the 4
town course lanes is fitted with slide control Rheostats, to allow the power
to be either equalized for I-Rock races, or lowered when young children come
to visit!

There is a 2 lane Drag Strip at the front with a haystack at the end, to
catch the cars. The main track is 4 lanes and measures 91Ft. This is a
Thunderjet Track, which consists of a lot of large sweeping turns (12 &
15In. Radius curves almost exclusively), so it takes about 15 seconds to
complete a lap or 13 seconds modified to the hilt! The main back Straight is
17Ft. long. There is also an over and under intersection, 2 tunnels, (one
lit), a large "S" turn section. The town is divided into 6 basic areas:
Factories, Amusement Park, (School & Church), Neighborhood, Downtown and
Race Circuit. Brick walls keep the cars on the track. There made from 1/8th
in. Masonite bent around the turns and hammered into ¼ in. Birch Plywood.
The rock detail is mostly Plaster of Paris. There are lights in most of the
houses, a Ferris wheel that turns and a river. Many of the houses are
detailed painted with Acrylic Paints, using Dry Brush & Wash techniques.
(This makes them look more real, by removing the plastic look). I am slowly
adding snow detail to the town, to give an accent of "Late winter/early
spring, last of the snow"