North London SME track

North London SME Tracks

Welcome to the pits at the current NLSME track

Some of slot racing cars we raced decades ago still survive. There is still plenty of opportunity to build slot racing replicas of classic racing cars. One thing less likely to survive are the tracks. Here's a bit of slot racing history - all the North London Society of Model Engineers tracks used from the 1950s until 2002. These tracks were used for many open and area meetings, and of course were the home of the immensely successful North London SME team (click here to see just how successful). Thanks to Dick Smith for the early history.

The North London Society of Model Engineers was formed in 1944 as a general model society that encourages all branches of the modeling hobby although most of its members specialise in a particular branch, such as live steam, 00 railways and boats. It has a long connection with model cars, having built the second diesel rail track in the country and one of its members built a 3-lane electric rail car racing track in about 1954. A second larger track was built later on, which was eventually abandoned as it was stored under one of the members beds and in the cold winters (no central heating in the 50’s) the rails contracted and snapped the solder joints, very loudly to the displeasure of his wife.

	In 1959 the Society recognised the rising popularity of slot racing and provided money to build the original “N. London” slot track. It was 4-lane, 28ft long. Within a few months it became apparent that the track was not long enough, interest was growing and erecting the track every week was a nuisance, so a permanent space was allocated and the track extended to 58 feet.
	This 58 foot circuit was the version that was taken to the Model Railway and Transport Hobby Show in about 1962/63 and featured in an article in Model Roads and Racing at that time, written by Tom Pinnock. Tom was the driving force behind the foundation NLSME slot racing section and was one of the founder of ECRA. As a solicitor he drafted the first ECRA constitution and rule book and allowed his prestigious West End solicitors office address to be used as the correspondence address for the Association. The pre-1965 information comes from Tom’s article.

Tony Condon's photos taken at the Model Railway and Transport Hobby Show shows most of the 58 foot lap length. Note the steep banking at the top of the photo, and the large dial type lap counters in the foreground. The drivers don't dress like that to go slot racing these days!
	This is the final 70 foot version of the track. It is the 58 foot version with extra straights added between the dotted lines. This circuit uses the first version, as you can see from the top diagram the start/finish loop has been turned through 90º , it had originally attached to the right hand loop. Below is a photo of the bridge from the later version of the track.

Tony Condon and Dick Smith joined NLSME in late 1965 when it was located in a water board hut by the reservoir in Prospect Road, Barnet. They found the track in its final form as shown on the plan. With the extra straights it was about 70ft long. The novel bit was the banking that had a flat left hand kink on the entrance, a 40º banking and a flat left hand kink on the entrance It was very tricky and certainly not flat out with MRRC 3-poles, K’s and rewound Mico/Milliperm motors.

The Society had to vacate the Prospect Road premises in the middle of 1967 and a new track was built at Church Farm, East Barnet. To be precise and Area 6 National Qualifying meeting was held on the old track on 26^th February 1967 and an Open Meeting was held on the new track on 18^th February 1968.

In keeping with tradition the track was built with a banking, although this time is was a lot quicker although not flat out as the height records on the wall behind it testified!

	This is the North London SME track built in late 1967 in the club's Church Farm, East Barnet headquarters. The lap length was nominally 100 ft. The driver's rostrum is on the left of the picture (you can see a bit of the Dexion frame in the lower left of the picture.) Race control was at the small blue desk - you can see the start line in front of it. (just above the bridge in the photo). The direction of travel was under the bridge up towards the banked bend (in the middle top of the photo). The photo was taken by Phil Young - apparently perched at a perilous height to get the whole track in one shot (good job the ceilings were so high!) Thanks to Steve Francis for a copy of the photo.
	This was the first North London track following the move from Church Farm to their current premises in Legion Way, North Finchley in 1983 Thanks to John Goldsmith for the photo.
	Here's the plan of the new circuit that NLSME circulated to other clubs shortly before the opening in August 1983. The lap length was 95 ft. Main Straight 19 ft. Minimum corner radius 9 ins. Maximum corner radius 3 ft 6 ins.
	The second track at North London SME's Legion Way premises was built in 1996 and was used until the current track was built in early 2003. Here are a pair photos taken from the drivers rostrum which between them show a driver's view of the whole track Photos by Chris Frost

For details of the current North London track shortly after completion in May 2003 click here

For more on the society see the NLSME web site

Click here for Home Page