So...What Have You Been Doing Lately?

Time flies by so fast - it's hard to believe it's been over 7 years since I posted something on this blog. And a lot has happened since then.

My trouble is the trouble I have with all my hobbies and interests: I have too many of them. I tend to rotate my activities throughout the year on a seasonal basis - and sometimes work and other long-term projects interrupt my hobby interests over an extended period. This has been the case since I went to a new department at work a few years ago and got involved in some historical projects in one of our city's neighborhoods, which has dominated my time for quite a while.

The most direct effect on my slot car hobby is that I have been working on remodeling my basement for the last couple of years and as a result, removed the track I had worked so hard to build--The Schweizering. My wife said I would have to give up the 10' x 12' space where the track was located so we could include some base cabinets and a dining table in the area. Her insistence met no resistance at the time, as I needed little convincing to tear out the whole thing and toss most of it, save some of the buildings, all the figures and a handful of scenic elements.

I had considered building some sort of portable track, but recently settled on a better solution--which is to build a new track that folds up against the wall in the very same space where I had the old track! I'll provide more details on this as I settle on a final plan, but essentially it will be about 11' wide x 5' deep (with a 3' x 2' cut out on one side to accommodate a basement window when folded up against the wall). As a result, track height variations will be limited to about 6.5 inches overall, as the whole thing will fold up into a box that's about 7.5 inches deep--so there will be no "hill climbs" like I had on the old track.

There was about a 16" vertical level change on the old track.

The fold-up track will allow me to primarily use the basement space as my wife prefers, but still provide enough room to enjoy a decent-size track of about 35 feet or so. Of course, any scenery or buildings over the height limit will have to be portable and easily placed/removed with in a short period of time. This will require a lot of planning, as I want to have some lighted elements and this will mean being able to place and plug in various scenery modules, but that will be a fun challenge. More to come...