HO Scale Revisited

by Harry Wise

Updated Saturday April 30, 2005

Although I am a dedicated 1/32nd scale enthusiast, there has always been the interest of HO scale, if for no other reason than out of nostalgia. Being 37 years old, my youth was filled with many HO scale tracks and cars in the mid to late 70's. My collection didn't really include any Vibrators or Thunder Jets, but I certainly had my fair share of the A/FX and A/FX Magna-Traction cars.

It seems that there was this time period that I can remember that the only thing I cared about was another new slot car (and now years later...its this way again!). Rushing home from school to my living room to begin racing and thrashing my 55 Bel-Air or 57 Nomad was my life. Yes, my parents were nice enough to allow my miniature speedway to sprawl across all reaches of our living room, and both of them took time to race with me.

Courtesy H.O. SlotWorld

I'll never forget the Christmas of 1976. That was the year my Dad built me an actual permanent layout on a piece of 4x8 plywood. You can imagine my surprise that morning when I ran into our living room to find my track removed from the floor, and an even larger one rebuilt! The only 2 friends I had in our small community would ride their bikes on the coldest winter days during our Christmas break to race on that track! Those truly were "the days"...at least for me.

Fast forward to 1996. This was the year of my retirement from the Army, and I could finally settle down in one place and build the slot car track of my dreams. Well, when I "discovered" 1/32nd scale my dreams got just a little bigger. The main reason for the change was that the new "improved" HO scale cars just didn't appeal to me in scale detail, nor their performance. Strange how your tastes change over the years isn't it? The older AFX cars that I had enjoyed so much as a youth were not as easy to obtain as I had thought.

So in the years that followed, my collections of 1/32nd scale models grew, as did my interest in the hobby. Soon after my first track was assembled, I began writing reviews and articles about them, and now run my own website dedicated to the hobby. I found this to be as much fun as actually driving and collecting the track and cars themselves. Keeping in touch with what is going on in the hobby is fun as well. Finding out what cars are coming soon, new track systems...it can really overwhelm you sometimes, all in a good way. 1/32nd scale also gave me what I wanted...and still does to this day. With more and more old fashioned American Muscle being produced, I couldn't be happier.

However, as much fun as I was having,  I "secretly" kept my eye on HO scale. I still wanted to recreate that pike my Dad had made for me.

I would lurk about on different websites trying to learn all I could about these smaller, yet fun to race cars. I was simply blown away by the vast amount of information on the internet, and the beautiful layouts some modelers have built. Thanks to these people, my knowledge of the HO world grew. As I was building, detailing and racing on my 1/32nd scale track, I was basically a arm-chair HO enthusiast. Then something happened that sparked my interest all over again.

A few years ago, I was in a large hobby store near Kirkwood, Missouri (about 2 hours away) and I stumbled across a Johnny Lightning Thunder Jet body. It was one of those friction cars that pulled back if I remember, but it wasn't the chassis I cared about (it is long gone). They were making these bodies to fit the Thunder Jet slot car chassis and it reminded me of my old collection of HO A/FX. I bought this car and stood it on my desk, this was to be my first "start" in my HO scale endeavors. Then Playing Mantis announced that they would be releasing these cars, with the chassis too...Thunder Jet heaven isn't it?

I wasn't really into the Thunder Jets, but it seemed the rest of the free world was, and still is. You can get a Thunder Jet chassis just about anywhere, not to mention a huge selection of bodies and spare parts. I still wanted my A/FX and Magna-Traction cars however, but these cars were so eye catching that I decided to start with them, and add some A/FX cars over time.

It is now May 2005, and my collection of Johnny Lightning Thunder Jets has grown dramatically. They simply looked great and I couldn't wait to run them. Reading through the message forums on various sites, I began to learn more about them and how to get the most out of them performance-wise. In addition, I liked them because they remind me of those days past, and of the body styles they offered. Along with some excellent models by Road Race Replicas and most recently, Nu-Rora, my small collection is starting to take shape.

We also have built a small 2 lane Life-Like layout to enjoy our models on. This layout is not exactly for the hardcore competition racer, nor was it designed to be. This layout is nothing more than a place for us to just race and chase our models.

Some small amount of tuning is usually all we do and the hours of fun we are having shows that keeping it simple is once again a virtue.

Slot Car racing and collecting, regardless of scale is FUN. You don't have to be an authority on the subject to enjoy a scale-detailed car in miniature.

Harry

As always, feel free to email me at harry@homeracingworld.com about this article, or just the hobby in general.

Thanks goes to J.C. O'Connell of HO SlotWorld for the use of his excellent photos. If you are a fan of HO scale, and even if your not, his site is one of the most complete on the web.

Also to the staff at Slot Car World for providing me with my first Thunder Jets!