When does it start violating the rules, IF I were to....

[whydontu]

And the overpass supports always collapsed

 

[Dabbler]

Eldon slot cars were for the far better off kids. Never held one or its track.

 

[DPittman]

Eldon slot cars were for the far better off kids. Never held one or its track.

Ya I've never heard of them maybe they were before my time.

 

[jcdammeyer]

Eldon slot cars were for the far better off kids. Never held one or its track.

My Dad survived the Japanese camps and working on the Burma Railroad coming back to a devastated Netherlands. As immigrants with nothing, I recall him working evenings and weekends pumping gas at a service station for extra money to be able to afford a couple of strings of Christmas lights for the house.

Perhaps my grandfather contributed to my Eldon Figure 8 Slot Car set but with 3 siblings I'd not consider our family a "far better off kids". Or maybe my parents sacrificed things for themselves to provide for their kids?

And before Canadian Health care they likely had to pay whatever costs were incurred when their son contracted Meningitis and spend time in Hospital: twice!

 

[Dabbler]

We weren't destitute; After slot racing became really big, my Dad made a slot car track out of the soft board made of paper - sort of a soft particleboard. 12V car battery, and resistive controllers.

So we skipped the plastic track phase. I think my Dad thought they were too expensive.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

We weren't destitute; After slot racing became really big, my Dad made a slot car track out of the soft board made of paper - sort of a soft particleboard. 12V car battery, and resistive controllers.

So we skipped the plastic track phase. I think my Dad thought they were too expensive.

I never had room to have any decent size slot car track, si I skipped the plastic tracks too. But we had a slot car club in a strip mall in Scarborough that was huge and didn't suffer any such failures so a half dozen or so cars

 

[cjmac]

I remember putting all the (plastic track) straight sections together to make a drag strip and powering both slots with 12v on a single toggle switch. Stage the two cars, flip the switch and watch them go. I think I had a pillow at the end to stop the cars.

Chris

 

[jcdammeyer]

I remember putting all the (plastic track) straight sections together to make a drag strip and powering both slots with 12v on a single toggle switch. Stage the two cars, flip the switch and watch them go. I think I had a pillow at the end to stop the cars.

Chris

I did the same but I made a ramp at the 3/4 point and then sat with my Instamatic 50 camera and took photos of the cars flying through the air. I think I got one good one. If i ever find it I'll scan it and post.

 

[DPittman]

I did the same but I made a ramp at the 3/4 point and then sat with my Instamatic 50 camera and took photos of the cars flying through the air. I think I got one good one. If i ever find it I'll scan it and post.

Now talk about the "better off kids" Slot cars and a camera to boot! I hope you do find that picture and you should for sure digitalize it to keep a copy of it safe. And do post it here!

 

[jcdammeyer]

Now talk about the "better off kids" Slot cars and a camera to boot! I hope you do find that picture and you should for sure digitalize it to keep a copy of it safe. And do post it here!

Note I mentioned Instamatic 50. Those weren't sold in North America where the Instamatic 100 was the camera to buy. That one included a pop up flash for the flash bulbs. Mine had a shoe to slide a flash unit onto it. Was a number of years before I got the flash.

My parents took the family to The Netherlands for a month long holiday partially paid for by my Grandfather as I remember it. We flew DC7 to Greenland, got out and the aircraft was refueled before continuing on to Schiphol in Amsterdam. All I remember is walking around on the tarmac in Greenland and also puking on the airplane.

That summer I turned 10 years old and my Grandfather refused to give me the camera as an early present. So it wasn't until the last 5 days of our trip that I had a camera with I think 1 cartrdigeof black and white film which is all they could afford.

Kodak Instamatic 50 camera | Science Museum Group Collection

Solid body camera for 126 cartridge film 26x26mm. Meniscus lens, fixed aperture. Two speed shutter bright/hazy sun-flash. Direct vision optical finder. Lever wind. Shoe flash contacts. Overall: 62 mm x 105 mm x 50 mm.

collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk

 

[6.5 Fan]

Never got a slot car or any other type of race setup. Got shotguns and rifles.

 

[gerritv]

My slot cars were HO scale and ran on a friends track.
Like John's parents, we arrived in Canada in 1953 from NL with very little. My parents did everything to give us a good upbrining and along the way I learned to appreciate what I have. I have some relatives including 2 children in graves in Java, died near end of WWII in a Japanese internment camp. My parents survived WWII in Amsterdam. We came to Canada for opportunites, and found them. Hard work, extra jobs on the side etc. but a good life.

Not having much money, we built our own HO layout, laid track with those tiny hooked nails, made scenery and after finding the money for 1 switch, we made our own from then on

pic is 196x's of 2 friends, me in right back and my dad under the 4'x16' table after fixing some wiring.

 

[historicalarms]

My Dad survived the Japanese camps and working on the Burma Railroad coming back to a devastated Netherlands. As immigrants with nothing, I recall him working evenings and weekends pumping gas at a service station for extra money to be able to afford a couple of strings of Christmas lights for the house.

Perhaps my grandfather contributed to my Eldon Figure 8 Slot Car set but with 3 siblings I'd not consider our family a "far better off kids". Or maybe my parents sacrificed things for themselves to provide for their kids?

And before Canadian Health care they likely had to pay whatever costs were incurred when their son contracted Meningitis and spend time in Hospital: twice!

I knew some people (lived in Calgary at the time) that married in the Netherlands and then went to work in the Dutch East Indies just before the Japanese occupation and both survived the slave labor camps for the duration of the war. Two of the nicest & down to earth people I have ever met.

 

[historicalarms]

Family finances improved by the time my kid brother came around and he got the race cars & track and the snowmobile and the motor bike and the used pick-up and the ........(he still runs a race car but it aint no toy, pretty much a full blown funny car)
I was like 6.5 got gopher shells, duck shells and a rifle....but I had to finance them all myself with income from stacking bales for neighbors LOL....I could start a school year with $4 runners than mom bought or a new pair of cowboy boots if I bought and paid for them myself, the $15 cowboy boots won out

 

[jcdammeyer]

Back then I saved my allowance and finally had enough to order a Porsche Carrarra 6 slot car. So exciting. When I sent the money order I even calculated the FST of 12% and included that. Turns out that was dumb as I had to pay it again. Anyway it arrived and that's when I discovered the difference between 1/32 and 24th scale cars. Didn't really fit on the Eldon track.

Did run it at the public track once downtown but generally the people there weren't very friendly and I wasn't very good. Went off the track so many times they stopped putting my car back on.

@gerritv was lucky to have something his father did with him. By mid 60's my father was in full blown undiagnosed PTSD and had trouble going into the basement to try and finish the renovation he'd started.
In fact it was only after he moved into assisted living that my siblings were able to hire contractors to finish that.