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I just had to have a motor racing circuit on my layout. The name for this seemed obvious - Bricklands - a combination of the UK's Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit and the USA's "Brickyard," (Indianapolis Motor Speedway). However, the size meant that instead of racing full sized cars the circuit races "midgets".
Midget Cars
Reflecting their small size, Midget Cars have an average length of 10 feet and I managed to find such cars at a boot fair. The cars were made by Micro Machines (actually they seem to be models of Indy 500 cars
but are the right size and look right as midgets also they are from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.)
Besides the Midget Cars, the raceway car park was full of sports cars (Kinder Surprise) and there was a race marshal's car (a bright yellow Ford Coupe) parked at the pits.
The Raceway
This was a classic oval with a "brick" surface, pits and grand stands. Originally I thought of banking the track using thin ply covered with brick paper but decided that if I did this it would not be possible to run a car around the track. In the end I made an open top box using 9 mm ply and mounted across the top a sheet of Formica (High Pressure Laminate (HPL)) smooth
surface down. Below this was a section of a slot car track that allowed me to run a car around the raceway.
The Track
Originally I thought that I would be able to use standard HO slot car track below the Formica sheet but found that the standard curves had too large a radius. Then I noticed in a hobby shop a AFX Hairpin and as this was just over six inches wide and just under 8 inches long realised that two of these back-to-back would make a great track oval, Unfortunately the hobby shop only had one in stock but
eventually after some searching I found a second section on Ebay. All that was then required was to find a suitable model slot car and modify it, find a power supply and mount the track at the right distance below the Formica sheet.
Modifying the Slot Car: A slot car was modified by removing the body and mounting a magnet to slide along the under surface of the Formica on an arm.
Mounting the Track: A problem I faced was to mount the track so that the magnet on the slot car was positioned just touching the Formica and this would mean that I had to find a way to adjust the height of the track below the Formica. The solution was to hang the track on 40 mm machine screws. This allowed the distance between the track and the Formica to be adjusted using nuts on the machine screws.
Buildings
These consisted of pits, a stand and naturally the rail station (The Pit Stop).
The Pits were scratch built using the front of a Heljan Garage (forming four bays), a length of stairway, styrene sheet and strip. The roof of the pits is a VIP area with people sitting around drinking and a few watching the track.
The Rail Station was scratch built.
The Stand was built from an Atlas Stand kit (one of several that I bought inexpensively years ago - the others are part of the Serene Rovers football ground).
People and Clutter
Because the model showed a practice session (rather than a race) there are only a few people on the stand but a lot of activity in the pits (including welding).
Additionally there are various items of clutter, - oil drums, tyres (or tires)
The Module
Bricklands uses a standard 22.4 inches by 15.25 inches by 3 inches deep module with a flat surface made from Formica (rather than the usual insulation board).
Sound
At a Pound store I picked up a model Motor Cycle that had a sound unit inside it. This I removed , added a amplifier and speaker to provide the sound of the car driving around Bricklands .
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