London Toy Fair

A friend and I spotted that last night. The overtaking sections look mighty interesting!

peter

"Kevin" wrote

Scalextric has had a nightmare year with abysmal sales.

John.

Anyhone here remember "Scalextric 124"?

No, thought not.

(kim)

On 26/01/2006 19:31, kim said,

Remember it? Never even heard of it!

Was that a model of a Fiat 124 ?.... ! :~)

I remember 'Circuit 24', which was an attempt by Meccano to capture some of the Scalextric market in the early-mid 1960s. AC motors working a curious reciprocating drive on the back axle. Difficult to control, they might have been called 'Circuit 24' because of :- The Le Mans 24 hour race The scale of the cars The anticipated life of the motor. My dad bought me one, but it never retained its appeal in the way that railways did. Brian

Correct. 50% bigger in all dimensions. Three lanes instead of two. Each car required a 2.5 amp power supply whch was more than a standard UK transformer could supply at the time. Chiefly intended for export to America but never found a market there. My local specialist model shop did stock a set (minus transformer) circa 1970 but I don't know if they managed to sell any. Disappeared after the infamous Triang-Mattel "Hot-Wheels" conflict in 1971 resulting in the sell-off of the company.

(kim)

"BH Williams" wrote

I remember 'Circuit 24', which was an attempt by Meccano to capture some of the Scalextric market in the early-mid 1960s. AC motors working a curious reciprocating drive on the back axle. Difficult to control,

Brian

I saw on Thurday that the latest Scalextric is now very similar to our own DCC system. You fits a car with a chip and can drive more than one car on the same track, with computerised overtaking lanes for passing. The guy in TMC was fitting a decoder for a customer, but it appears that although it is Hornby and they have been making DCC ready models for a year or two now, they have not transposed the idea of the blanking plug and socket over to the cars, so it's take half of it apart and attack a brand new car with the soldering iron and screw driver.

I'll stick to me trains I thank ya.!

ANdy

I recall buying a 'special' Scalextric car and controller in the mid '70s, never seen one like it since. The hand controller had a little steering wheel on the side, which actually reversed the polarity of the output voltage. The car had the brushes & guide pin fitted to an arm underneath the car, which moved across the width of the track when the polarity was reversed, so the car was vaguely 'steerable' . The controller did come in useful when I switched to model railways, with the polarity reversal.

we have 124 track for sale. do you want some?

A little more information would be helpful. If it's slot-car racing you're on the wrong newsgroup!

I want code 55, got any?

And only a year late.