This story begins with me, Jerome A. Lepinski. As a young boy in
1970, I used money from my paper route to buy a used Model Motoring HO scale slot car set-up from a
neighbor. The set-up was about the size of four factory sets and included several cars.
I continued to buy tracks and cars from every source available, friends, neighbors,
relatives, garage sales, as well as hobby and retail stores. Gathering track has always
been my real interest, or obsession; cars were a secondary concern. Track brand was not
an issue to me because adapters were always some of the first tracks that each manufacturer would
produce as they entered the market, or I would make my own. In the early years everybody
made adapters to my first Aurora Model Motoring Slot Car Tracks because they had the biggest market
share. I quickly discovered that as the track got longer, the power would get weaker the
farther the car got from the terminal track, so I added more terminal tracks. The
addition of more terminal tracks solved the power problem and seriously complicated the wiring.
My track soon became so long that the early cars would only get a lap or two before they
would overheat and need to be rotated for a cool car.
It wasn't long before I added HO model railroads to increase the excitement
of racing my slot cars around the track with my friends and family. I considered trains
to be nothing more than obstacles that needed to be avoided. The rule I set was; If you
hit any part of the train other than the engine, your driver's license was revoked for the day.
This rule was well accepted, since the train cars were no match for the speed and
velocity of the slot cars. The slot cars would only cause damage to the train's
delicate cars. It also made "Pushing your luck" at getting past the train possible.
Sometimes you would hit the engine, sometimes the engine would hit you, and sometimes
you would get past the engine. Most of the time the train would not fall off the track
when a collision with the engine would occur.
When my family and I moved to a smaller house, space became a bigger issue.
My track was now limited to a five by ten foot table at the head of my bed.
Rather than settle for a smaller, shorter layout, I built my track up in layers. This
track had a small oval of H.O. scale trains on the second level. The slot car track
quickly became fourteen levels deep with all the feature tracks available built into it.
The only way I could get a fast section of track was to use bank turns at the end of nine consecutive
lengths of the table. It was a difficult track to master, but a lot of fun to race or
drive on for hours on end.
This is two pictures (from 1985) taped together, since I wasn't able to get the whole layout in one
picture.
During this time I took a Fluid Power course at the local Technical College.
I learned a great deal about hydraulics, pneumatics, and electrical wiring.
I continued to work as a production machinist, learning everything I could about various production
technologies.
Because I could not find what I wanted to improve my layout, I sat down and
designed an entirely new line of slot car tracks, vehicles, and accessories. I contacted
a patent research and development company who took my money and provided no results. When
I got no response to my complaints to the company, which I am not legally allowed to mention by name,
I contacted the Minnesota State Attorney General's Office to complain about the company.
The Minnesota State Attorney General's Office convinced the company to return my money to me.
The company then changed its name to avoid being sued out of business.
When I bought a house of my own, I quickly built a table the full length of
the house's basement, 26 feet. On this table I built a high-speed track with 13
straight-aways the length of the tables. This track had only 9" and 12" banked turns and
some 15" flat turns. This track turned out to be almost exactly 5 scale miles long.
I continued to buy every version of slot car track and vehicle set I could find to expand
the layout upwards and outwards. Having been a machinist for several years, I began to
build functional proto-types of non-existent tracks and vehicles that I had designed years earlier
that could be added to my layout. I made tracks in sectional components that could be
easily added to the massive layout. With the help of my brother (an electronics engineer)
I built a dual electric eye lap counter, which I connected to a Commodore Vic20 computer.
It provided as many functions as I could program into the 8K of memory in the personal computer.
My brother and I traveled to the International Toy Fair in New York where we
attempted to contact the manufacturers who consistently refused to accept my letters as "Unsolicited".
We met with representatives from all of the major manufacturers of slot car products,
which resulted in no response after the fair ended.
My track had grown to such enormous proportions I contacted Facts on File.
Facts on File is the company that gathers information for the Guinness Book of World
Records. Facts on File said, It is an uncontested category, so we will not publish your
name or track information. In the same year I contacted a news channel to come interview
me and report on my track. I was hoping to gain some response from someone involved in
manufacturing or maybe to start some competition in track size. I got neither, but what
I did get was about five minutes of coverage at the end of the 10:00 News and a few teasers earlier
in the day about the upcoming story.
In 1994, I married a loving and supportive woman, Janice. My
brother and his wife presented us with a trip to San Diego as a wedding present. My wife
agreed to spend part of our honeymoon in a meeting with Tomy U.S.A., who had an office in California.
The meeting went well and I received very positive reactions from the Tomy's
representatives we met with. Over the course of the following year their reactions turned
from one of great interest to one of indifference.
Soon afterwards, Tomy sold out to Racemasters and Tyco sold out to Mattel.
I can only assume I scared both of them out of the market, for fear I would manufacture
my ideas and put them out of the business anyway. Rather than invest in the future, they
chose to get out of the market all together.
In the years that followed, I continued to attempt contacting the
manufacturers in the slot car industry, to no avail. No one seemed interested in trying to
expand the role of slot cars from their status as novelty toys to real hobby status they once had,
for a short period of time.
As a change of course, my wife and I purchased the web address, Model
Motorist dot Com. The web site is dedicated to the promotion of H.O. Scale Slot Cars as a
hobby. This site is operated with the intention of creating a place where people can find
useful information about Slot Cars to the rest of the world.
When the site now has enough members and traffic, so we added retail and hobby stores and rental
track locators, to the site.
I have learned from many of the mistakes that have been produced by the
various manufacturers of slot cars and tracks over the years. I have many ideas for the
enhancement and expansion of slot vehicles, which still have not been produced. So join our
site and help me improve the slot vehicles, tracks, and sets that will be available in the future.
Thank you for reading my story.
Jerome A Lepinski
ModelMotorist right menu
Digital download site for 'HO Scale Slot Car Track Layouts 123' Book Series.
J Squared Inc original HO slot car products available at.
