Where’s your Dad?
He’s in the loft!
Having moved house, the adjoining garage seemed the ideal place to set up a second-hand purpose built 2 lane 6ft x 4ft layout, which later I doubled in size. As winter set in, damp, cold nights made the garage a no go area, so a move became essential and into the loft I went.
First an installation of loft ladders made the loft more accessible and convenient. Then came the daunting task of using old, discarded, false roof beams to make supports and brackets on which to lay many a sheet of precisely measured and cut chipboard. All this fitted around the many beams and joists that hold up the roof of our Barrett house! Under this shelves have been erected, to house many years of collecting the various makes of slot cars.
The result of which is a 4-lane circuit with a hole in the middle to allow for access to the odd car that loses its way.
Plywood boards were laid around the track and over the beams for the purpose of scenery and protection from falling plaster or insulation. The track used was mainly second hand Classic Scalextric with the odd piece left over from my childhood. Underneath was laid upturned Subuteo pitches to create the grass. This was later replaced with better quality model railway grass.
The layout now consists of 4 pit areas. One is an up to date F1 using SRA buildings and figures, showing a flurry of activities in the many garages. The second is American NASCAR using Scalextric pit buildings. The third is Airfix pits and stands resembling the 1970’s Le Mans, formed using a Scalextric in and out pit lane. The forth is a La Mans start with 2 stationary Ferraris.
Parma hand throttles passing through Scalextric sport power bases operate
the layout and the track includes lap counters/ timers also from the sport
range.
