Track Build - Part 4
Adding all the auxiliary elements which make up the layout.
J-Trak
Infield & Outfield
In my experience Scalextric border barriers do not provide enough room for magless sliding cars and tend to cause multi-car pile ups when racing half a dozen digital cars. So like my last track build the idea was to create lots of sliding and crashing run off space by levelling the infield and outfield to the same height as the track.
There are many suitable materials available, I chose 10mm black foam board. It doesn't need painting, it is very flat and easy to cut but it is quite expensive. So to reduce costs, rather than stick grass to the top of the black poster board I used some green 10mm foam yoga mats for the grass areas.
Grass has been a bug bear of my previous builds, I have tried green felt that wrapped itself around the axles and railway modellers grass that shed constantly and got all over the tyres.
The foamboard and foam mat were cut with a medical scalpel using the track as a guide.
Underlay
Digital track pieces are 10mm high whereas standard Sport sections are only 8mm high so 2mm underlay for hardwood floors was used under the standard track sections to make the height uniform.
Clips & Screws
Standard Scalextric side clips were used to keep the track secure, these are normally pinned in place but instead I decided to screw the foam board borders down to keep the clips in place. A small notch was cut in the foam board so that the clip didn't pull the track down below the 10mm level.
Tyre Walls
These were added next as their position in some cases affected the location of white lines and curbs. These particular crash barriers are made with sponge foam tyres so they are soft enough to provide some real protection from impact with the retaining walls.
Kerbs & White Lines
I used the same materials as with my previous build, automotive pinstripe tape and Emergency vehicle reflective chequered tape but increased the size for both by 100% so they are now 6mm and 50mm respectively.
The kerbing tape was cut down the middle. To get it around corners I cut it across 95% of the width to create teeth that would fit around the turn.
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Bolts
As detailed in the connections section the bolt holes are positioned in line with the outside of the track exit points.