Scale Car Garage - Scale Car treasure

[Kitmen]

Here is one of the treasures to be found in the Scale Car Garage!

Any and all comments are more than welcomed!

Thanks
😀
John

[Mitch58]

Nice find, I have several of the old brass Monogram cars including both of those, but I've never seen the track before.

[Kitmen]

Mitch58, thanks so much for your post and for watching the video!

Before I found this set, the only place I'd seen Monogram track was in the slot car magazines from the 1960's.

I never thought that I would find track never mind a complete set with additional track!

Thanks again,
😀
John

[chrisguyw]

The Monogram track is quite arguably the best plastic track ever made......and is highly sought after by many folks building home tracks today !!

[mattb]

I love the Monogram track over any of the 60's stuff,,,,,, quality is great and it just plains looks better....The riverside set is my all time favorite and is really a little small for 1/24,,,,, but still it's a great set with 2 nice cars..... I've had 4-5 of those the last 40 years and they were always used and the boxes in fair to poor shape. I have a couple right now and just keep them in case.




I see maybe replicating this advertising picture on a small layout as a project some day. .....I think it says it all about a 1960's scale table top racing. ..I've had the Monogram pit buildings and tower before and am looking to pick them up again and make some molds and copies. ..... That picture could easily hook a teenage boy into wanting a track setup like that.



I agree with all Chris said about the Monogram sets,,,,, but I would argue the AJet Aurora 1/32 stuff was as good or maybe a little better,,,it just wasn't sold in big quantities.....Revell is not as nice looking but was good quality and available.

The best old plastic set for racing ,,, in my opinion,,,,,next post

[Kitmen]

Chris, thanks for your comment! Yes, Monogram made great track, but as I stated in the video, I'm not comfortable trying to put it together as I'm sure some damage would result from my old hands and the old plastic!

Mattb, thanks so much for sharing your treasure of sets!

They look just great!

While I have seen the Aurora track in person and it looks quite impressive, I can't recall if the surface was smooth or textured?

If you have a chance, please take a look and let us know!

Thanks again,
😀
John

[mattb]

for me the best plastic racing set for actual use was the Sears Marx Professional 1/24 sets. .... This stuff is nice and wide..... I think curves are 12 inches wide and the slots are a full 4 inches apart.....The slot is deep like Monogram, ,Revell and Aurora and a car built for a commercial track runs fine without a guide change, unlike Strom or Eldon....It came with useable 16D powered cars,,,a Chap (lt.. blue) and a red Ferrari 250....In all my trading around I was able to pick up enough of this stuff to build a nice 1/24 track at home back in the 80's to replace my 1/32 routed track.....The curves were flat or banked and the banking was maybe 8-10 degrees,,,very nice,,,,not like current Carrera banks....


I like slot cars!!! This was back in the 80's in my garage!

[mattb]

The Ajet track is slightly textured... Use some Vaseline on the tongues when you put that old plastic track together. ...That is good tip for all plastic tracks.

Monogram made the 1/24 Indy Lotus set which is also pretty nice......It is pretty small in size for cars that fast....but great track and outstanding cars.

How about this nice Monogram Riverside design????

[mattb]

One more,,,than I got to go back to work....
kit built

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I remember the Ajet track in sets in the hobby shops. I always preferred the Riggens/Revell track for surface, scale, and variety of bits and pieces. But from the beginning, 9 out of 10 tracks I have had or raced on were hand routed wood. Plastic track, except for Tjet, was always a bit above what I or my mates could afford individually, so we pooled our money and effort and made longer, more complex tracks by borrowing one guy's father's tools. We used to use Homasote, then plywood, then particle board, but then, after I had moved, MDF came into our lives and we all had grown up by then. When I moved away, there were eight tracks, two of which were in the same hobby shop downtown. All of the tracks were road tracks, none scenic-ed, no ovals. Oh yeah, and nearly all the cars were scratch built chassis with DuBro bodies, and everybody ran all three scales, depending on whose track we were at. Funny, I can remember all of this in detail, but last night's supper is a total mystery.

[Kitmen]

Mattb, FANTASTIC!!!

Thanks so much for sharing your treasures and your follow up with respect to the "A" Jet track.

I didn't know about the Vaseline trick, I'm tempted to try it!

Your Monogram Riverside layout is epic!

Thanks for your Marx track feedback, I never realized that it was so good. Your layout looks like it must have been a lot of fun to drive and race on!

And the images of the Indy Lotus set, especially the cars are just great!

Thanks so much,
😀
John

[williamg]

nice find
Can't beleive the shape of the track

[mattb]

Not my sets,,, just pix I have saved of stuff I like to look at!!!!! I have a couple Riverside sets and the boxes are really poor with mostly none of the interior pieces. ....I have a couple Marx sets and the boxes are pretty poor also,....those were big boxes and heavy,,,,they didn't hold up good over the years. .......My Ajet track is mostly just used track in a box with a couple boxes of new outside curves....I have enough to do a 4 lane "L" shaped track with it.

My track is the routed 4 lane I always show pix of.. The Monogram Riverside set is a pic off the net.

To be honest,,,,,, I don't like sets,,,,,, the cost to ship is too high and I don't have a museum,,,,, so they just set in a pile.....When they were cheap, I did buy what I have, ,,,,you never know where this hobby might take you......5 years from now, ...there may be no racers to run 1/24 with and the routed track would just gather dust......maybe then a small table track and switch to some 1/32 cars will keep me amused.

I would like to do that now and incorporate that magazine cover as part of it. .....I got one track and set of cars to take care of...that is enough....

I wouldn't mind running some of my old Lionel trains again, too....

[Kitmen]

Williamg, thanks so much for your comment and for watching! I also could not believe how pristine the track sections were, so I had to buy the set!

Mattb, your routed track looks great!

I hear you about collecting sets, they do take up a great deal of space and are difficult to display. These products were designed to be used, I doubt that anyone who created these sets would have thought that they would still be around over fifty years later!

Thanks again,
😀
John

[modernslots]

Matt- that photo of your garage in the 80s is awesome!!
Rob

[mattb]

Rob that was the old 1/24 Marx track.... It was suited to running the vintage 1/24 cars I had started collecting.... Not terribly fast, but powered with an old battery charger and a couple 35 ohm Parma controllers it worked fine.....I got into collecting this old junk before Ebay,,, and before guys thought every old slot car was worth $100......

I ended up switching to Carrera track ...I got online one Sat morning and one of the guys on the original 132 slots forum posted that Etoys was having a blowout sale of Carrera stuff. ...I went to the site and they were selling figure 8 1/32 sets for $29 with open wheel cars and $33 for the set with protoype cars.......No shipping costs!!!!! I quickly figured the cars would sell for $25 each on ebay,,,,From each set you could sell an oval track setup with one terminal and one straight, a wall wart and 2 controllers for $25 or so. ... That meant a return of $75 or so from each set and keep the rest of the straight tracks and the curves not needed for the oval,,,,, It would be easy to buy the sets,,,sell the excess and have all brand new track for myself,,,, then sell the Marx and buy some of the accessory track pieces and wider curves...... I loaded up my credit card and bought 5 sets....Next day I checked their site and still had some of them left so I bought 4 more....I kept thinking something must be wrong with this whole deal...It worked out fine and I made the switch to the Carrera track.