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 Posted - June 21 2018 : 12:45:09 PM
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This system will be 60 years old late next year. It was designed by Derek Brand, who later took the design to Aurora, where it became Model Motoring.
It was made in England by Playcraft and was frankly not commercially successful, although the news that it was being developed led Lines Brothers to develop Minic Motorways.
The cars, or which there were only ever four, had the Vibrator motor that went to Aurora, although my vehicles all run sweetly with Tjets chassis that a clever chum squeezed in, as they are smaller than later Aurora vehicles.
The track is fully compatible with Model Motoring track, but is grayer and the contacts are not steel. It also doesn't fit together as well as MM, and quite a lot of effort was needed to clean it, tweak the contacts and get the pins to slide in without too much fighting!
This is going to be the elevated section of my layout, to replace the Tyco US-1 bit that can seen supported on Life-Like peirs in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY5DMEQWBII
I am now using a mixture of Aurora and original Playcraft roadway supports, although annoyingly the maximum height the Playcraft system could support was far too low to get a train below! (the system was first sold as a roadway to be used with trains!) Some mixing of parts and tinkering produced an adequate height in the end!
Playcraft originally came with flexible rubber guard rails, but I will probably use Aurora or Life-Like. Sadly the track is too narrow for me to run any US-1!
James
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Posted - June 21 2018 : 5:58:27 PM
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Great Scott, I never new Playcraft to have made such a thing.
I've developed a soft spot for Playcraft, and Jeouf, so seeing
this is a bit of a jolt. Tell me, would you characterize the
Playcraft as a roadway system or a racing system?
Nice vid, by the way.
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Posted - June 21 2018 : 6:53:02 PM
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Interesting information....and I agree, that video was stupendous!!!
I have never seen the Tyco US1 Mack MR ladder slot fire-truck in action before, until now.  So Cool!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/rpmodelrailroads
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rp_model_railroads/
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Posted - June 21 2018 : 7:31:08 PM
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Oh, oh...now that I know the Shark Master is a fire buff,
I think I see a slippery slope event coming at us...
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Posted - June 22 2018 : 05:40:07 AM
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Thanks Guys,
Really appreciate the comments.
Like all the early HO slots Playcraft was seen as a roadway system to go with trains. This one was short lived so never got as far as being a racing system, as Aurora and most of the others did. Whilst the Jaguar and Mercedes are racy the Impala and that truck are clearly not!
https://www.hoslotcarracing.com/History.html
The 9" straight that Brand chose as the length of his main roadway piece is the same as an Atlas Snap Track rail. Possibly when he was developing it, he had Revell in mind as the customer, as they were doing HO trains at that time, and these came with Atlas track. Brand has sold many other products to Revell
However as we know, the wonderful Revell system was deleted and Brand had to take the product to England to get it made.
http://www.daveshobby.net/derek-brand-tribute.html
If you think about it, nearly all HO slot car systems follow the basic roadway geometry that Brand devised for Playcraft - Tyco does and so do many others right up to Life Like and and Micro Sacexletric. In fact that geometry was vital to me being able to combine Life-Like Railroad track (that mimics Atlas geometry) with Tyco US-1 (that follows Brand's) on my combined layout
In the video the lower deck roadway is all Aurora, and as I expect you noticed the cars are on the US/European side of the road, (which is wrong for England) as I could not bear to scrub out the stop line on the intersection! Playcraft never made intersections or grade crossings!
They also didn't introduce the imported (from Jouef, France) train system until around the time that Highways was discontinued, and the Pola buildings that Playcraft sold came even later, so my combined layout is very much my creation and not repasentative of what you could do at the time!
James
Edited by - Highwayman97 on June 22 2018 08:18:02 AM
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Posted - June 22 2018 : 11:25:14 PM
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Wow, some interesting Model Motoring history, didn't know about the connection between Playcraft and Aurora. That's pretty cool. Hey, James. Could you take some close-ups of that Impala? you said it was? The red and yellow car? is that a 1958 Impala? Love to get some better views of it. Thanks!
Jerry
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" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - June 23 2018 : 5:39:53 PM
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Jerry,
Your wish is my command: 1958? I guess so, but my knowledge of Chevrolet is limited....
Both of them have had the mechanically awful vibrator chassis replaced by adapted TJet chassis. The white one came my way courtesy of the then Train Collectors Society Journal Editor Jeff Carpenter, and was frankly a complete wreck, in pieces, with bits missing, so don't take the different rear bumper on this too seriously... It was fabricated by my engineering Guru Martin, who also built those 1/24 scale Rail and Road Grade crossings I have mentioned elsewhere for me....
Without him a lot of my stuff would still be a dream or a project.....
James
Edited by - Highwayman97 on June 23 2018 5:53:10 PM
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Posted - June 24 2018 : 7:28:02 PM
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Thanks for posting those, James. They're 58 Bel Air versions, the Impala had 3 tail lights on each side, the Bel Air only 2 I believe. As did the Biscayne. Pretty rare to see a 58 Chevy slot car of any kind. Pretty cool.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - June 25 2018 : 01:50:42 AM
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| Ah, so the vibrator chassis not so hot?
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Posted - June 25 2018 : 11:25:59 AM
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Guys,
Thank you.
Chops, to answer your question the trouble it that it does get very hot! It is also very noisy. I have run them and they ran, but needed a lot of nuturing and love to get there. Although they were sold as AC, most DC supplies have a ripple that will make then work. I have run them on both.
I know some folk love it, but I really don't! I like cars to run smoothly and easily, so TJets all round for me please.
New ones can still be had on the Intereb for reasonable money, so that is what I would do with any dodgy HO scale car chassis.....
James
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Posted - April 03 2019 : 03:57:38 AM
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A while ago, I created the thread above, as I was then preparing to celebrate to 60th Anniversary of the introduction of Playcraft Highways (and the origin of all HO slot car systems). Coincidentally this is also the 50th anniversary of the end of the Playcraft Railways system that was launched two years after Highways.
In late March a chum and I took this combined Playcraft Highways and Railways layout to the Train Collectors Society Spring Meeting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FTEkrqRIQ
We are planning to take a similar layout to the (British) National Festival of Toy Trains at Alresford, Hampshire in June.
Here is a link to the Train Collectors Society Web Site that gives more information on both ranges:
https://traincollectors.co.uk/playcrafts-2019-double-anniversary/
James
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