Stock cars roar down the Main Straight on their way under the scoring bridge which holds the LEDs using by the timing system.

This is my collection of slot car controllers, as well as more cars that are part of my collection. The section of the table in the corner will eventually house the carnival/amusement park area of the layout.

This cabinet was originally a rubber stamp display which I purchased from a craft shop and added the slot car logos across the top and the automotive art across the back of display sections. The lexan cover was recently added to keep these cars clean.

A few buildings awaiting locations on the finished layout.

A small part of my toy car collection, many from my first childhood and the rest from my current childhood.

The first 5' x 8' table as it looked in 2003 before section two was added to Brooklands Speedway. The plexiglass end of the table is now the home of the computer and the table was extended where the monitor appears here. This is an early picture of the layout soon after the slot car room was built and painted. This was before the display cases were added on the west wall.

This is an overview of the old table in the foreground and the additional part of the Speedway in the upper section without any landscaping. The unpainted plywood sections are the new part of the race track. The small track in the middle of the photo is a Galoob Micro Machine layout which will be the go-kart track. This was how the table looked in early December of 2004.

This is the same part of the layout taken in March of 2005. You can see that progress has been made on the first two tables, but the pit area is still full of cars but no pits yet.

This is the major part of the new section of Brooklands Speedway. Note the four lane intersection and the overpass leading back down to the main straight. Again you will see that at this time the overpass and intersection were not smoothed out for better driving through these curves.

This is a current view of the intersection as of July 2005. Here the track is now painted with Behr Distant Thunder semi-gloss and the underpass is now a Dunlop tunnel using a Scalextric pedestrian bridge which was cut in two. Some of the landscape is in place in front of the tunnel entrance made from carpet padding foam which I painted and and added ground foam and flock grasses. The brown embankment is carved pink insulation and the rocks in front are pieces of tree bark. I have acquired miniature florescent lights to go into this tunnel, but they are not yet installed. This was before the addition of the baseball field on the other side of the tunnel, or the moto-cross next to the #2 Pinto. The camera tower was later moved nearer the track hospital.

Here is a view of a rolling hill made with the carpet padding foam. The ends were blended into the layout using caulk and then paint and scenery textures. As you can see in the middle of this photo, the end of this hill is not yet completed, and will probably be finished with the carved pink foam method. This hill keeps the cars from hitting the concrete wall as they enter the turn.

This is the view looking back at the same four cars while a go-kart runs on the kid's track, as this area looked in 2004.

This is a similar view as of March 2005 as more scenery has appeared.

This hill area was added using insulation foam, plaster cloth, and then coated with Foam Prep. Note the mine hole being formed in the lower right. This was a photo from January of 2005.

Here is the mine hole now that figures have arrived. Note the legs entering the water in front of the gray 'rocks' while another swimmer catches the returning rope that is hanging from the apple tree.

Fishermen seem unconcerned about a mixed-bag race going by.

A close look at the four anglers at the edge of the mine hole.

The project for the end of February 2005 was this stone retaining wall that runs behind the go-kart track. The wall is made up of individually painted pieces of balsa wood glued together. The kiddie track is now recessed in foam that needs to be landscaped.

After building the portal, here is the view of two vehicles coming up the hill from the access tunnel. You can see that spring flowers have sprouted between the track and the tunnel.

A TycoPro roadster cuts inside a GG32 Henry J in front of the slowly blooming hills in front of the main grandstands.

Here is the miniature golf course with some landscaping and the 18 holes on location. The pro shop still needs to be built. In the background are four cars headed downhill on the main straightaway past the wall cases of slot cars. Later photos will show this section after detailing.

This July 2005 view shows the main straight now that the track has been painted "Distant Thunder". The cars start at the black line under the scoring bridge and proceed towards the camera's lens. The first turn goes right soon after leaving the present view. The gray area surrounded by white will be the pits area in the near future.

Another look from the same general viewpoint taken in November 2005 shows the track buildings settling into location and the painting of the track being completed. More landscaping has been done, the press tower and garages are showing in the foreground as well.

This view start at turn two in front of the Country Club and also shows the mine hole area of the track as things looked in July of 2005.

This is the same view showing the garages as of November of 2005.

Here is a closer look with four cars speeding through the Red Bull loop between the garages and the press building.

Here is the media tower across from the garages and adjacent to the track hospital.

A further update as of August 2006 shows the new pits area complete with tower almost dead center on the photo. The race team vans are parked on this side of the new pit area while the garages are just across the the track from the pits.

Campers have started to pull into the Brooklands' campsite behind the ticket office. Later views on this site will show the addition of a program vendor, and the refreshment stand will be moved closer to the grandstand shown in this photo.

On the back side of the Dunlop tunnel neighborhood children have started a baseball game on the sandlot.

Here are a few racers by Alfaslot1 speeding past the baseball game.

A group of racers come around behind the new MotoCross area. Note the three bikes nearest the camera are motorized and run around in a small circle.

Now the Can Am cars run behind the MotoCross while a few patrons have beers on the patio of the Clubhouse. Note that Lance Armstrong is among the bikers climbing the hill behind this scene.

The Chaparral Vacuum Cleaner has taken the lead as the cars continue back towards the intersection, a rare situation in most actual CanAm races.

A spray booth now resides behind the computer at Brooklands. It was built into an old kitchen cabinet that had held a wall oven. The exhaust fan resides in the upper cabinets and the compressor is below the shelf. Many thanks to Mike Krasnihill for helping me obtain used equipment and design this addition.

A mural of a Formula Racer with actual Yokohama slicks used at Nazareth Speedway attached. The area under the rear wheel will be the country section of Cherrington Park. Landscaping materials are stored inside the tires when the Toyota hubcaps are popped off.

Recently I added wheel covers from a Celica to improve the look of the mounted racing tires.

The addition of spotlights has allowed racing with the room dark to highlight the raceway from the mess in the rest of the space. This shows the garage area, and the new pits under construction. 

Another spot lit view shows more of the track using this new lighting. Although there are currently some hot spots, it is easy to follow cars without lights anywhere on the track, and some tuning and filtering of the lights should make it more consistent. This photo shows the pit building under construction behind the line of trucks.

I have finally gotten around to building the pit building and tower in the Brooklands Infield. This was made from an old Faller kit which was missing a couple of pieces, and a few were broken and had to be rebuild. The security policeman guards the entrance to the tower.

This is an overview of the front of the new pit complex. I have not yet decided whether to add the "light posts" over the pits that came with the kit. The cars in the pit boxes are die-cast models, not slot cars to better match with the pit building in scale. Note the checkerboard floor tile inside the office spaces of the building.

Brooklands' new pit building looking down from the main straight. A photographer is leaning out from the railing to take photographs of the Camaros running laps for the Camaro Bash in September. His film was confiscated before he could reveal what is being built at Brooklands. 

As the spotlight lighting over the track resembles the setting sun, the Boy Scouts at Riverbend Campground have built their evening campfire which flickers electronically. A fly fisherman is trying to get a nibble in the foreground. 

The program vendor has set up shop just inside the ticket booth, while a few more spectators have decided to sit in the curved stand at the second chicane. The refreshment stand just beyond the seats has added a cotton candy machine, and a swing set is behind the hedge in the RV campground on the track's grounds. 

The lighted Snack Bar has now opened for Kooper's Karts and the Mini Golf course. A few players are now shooting a round while others enjoy treats from the snack bar. At the far left of the snack bar, a water wheel operates and a grandfather and child stand on the bridge watching it turn. This photo is taken from the main straight looking down over the stone retaining wall.

A young couple has snuck behind the snack bar building that has finally opened at the Mini Golf Course. The flag man with the green flag ready to wave is working the Go Kart track. 

Here is the latest overview of the layout, taken on Thanksgiving week of 2006 from the long view. The timing monitor was temporarily removed giving a longer and lower view than normal. Most of the new details are up behind the twin Aurora Grandstands, but the pit building is in the middle of this photo. Now it is time to clean up much of the room before the next section gets built... 

On the east wall of the room, a few of my trains have been mounted. It appears that there is going to be too much slot car track on the narrow tables to allow the trains to run within the boundaries of Cherrington Park, so this may be the only way the the trains will be appearing at the layout.

As of Thanksgiving 2007, this is a section of the West Wall of the slot car room, showing some of the display of slot car controllers, and part of my slot car collection display. But now that the Speedway is about 90% finished, it is time to start working on the next level of my slot car hobby... 

This is the countryside of Cherrington Park. The light gray track into the mountains is Faller Track, and may need to be redesigned due to the S-curves needing to go so slow, but the cars need too much velocity to get up the hill. There are two other sections of track on the right side that also are part of this suburban and country setting. The three roads are accessed through the Lionel Mystery Track shown in the next photo. 

This is the first attempt at building the City of Cherrington Park. The city buildings will be assembled around the two intersections until the track footprint narrows. From that point on should be the industrial section of Cherrington Park. Beyond the third East-West road there you can see the Lionel Mystery Tracks that will allow the cars going out into the country to take one of the three routes shown in the previous photo. This will be a slow development, but I did have cars running through the city before the end of November 2007. 

While I have been working to develop the plans for Cherrington Park without the mountain roads using Faller track and working on the wiring for the intersections and such, I got started on building the amusement park, Darnnear Park, adjacent to the sandlot baseball field. First the kiddie ride railroad, the Toonerville Railway was installed and the paving company started preparing the lot for the other amusements: games, shows, food stands, and rides. This was the way the layout looked in March of 2009.

By May of 2009 the paving company had left, the landscaping on the hill next to Brooklands Speedway had started to come in, a few food stands were being set up, and the train depot was in place. Note the conductors keeping the children in line until the train pulls back into the depot to reload for the next ride. Since a number of the park patrons have complained that this "N-gauge" train is very cramped inside the closed cars, some open cars are on order to provide open air rides for park patrons who prefer some wind in their hair, and not bumping their heads.

As the Toonerville Depot neared completion, the bumper cars arrived inside the loop of the train ride.

The bumper car display still needs the control building to be assembled over the blue barrel-shaped motor so that the park workers can keep the riders somewhat under control. This unit actually uses magnets moving under the platform to move the cars, and by modifying the mechanism they no longer just go by each other in circles, but they do bump. I need to add a few reverse polarity magnets strategically to help move the cars back towards the magnets when they get bounce off of their control magnets, and strobe LEDs need to be added under the roof of the bumper car building.

This is the overview of Darn Near Park as of early May 2009 with the baseball game going on inside of Brooklands Speedway.

A brief and not real clear video of the Bumper Cars running as shown in the photo above. The cars now can hit each other and knock each other off of their paths just like real bumper cars. The room lights are dimmed about half-way into the video to show the LED strobe lights flashing under the roof of the ride. Near the end of the video you can see the Toonerville Train running around the park. If I ever get a better video camera I will try to upgrade this show.

The next rides to appear will be the carousel with up and down horses, the Thunder Bolt ride (the name was too appropriate for a Thunderjet track), more food stands, games and the freak show. Darnnear Park will be a popular destination.

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