I move in less than two weeks. My stuff is all packed up. I was surprised that it took two moving boxes to fit all my track. The cars are going to travel as-is, since I'm only going across town. I'm taking the car boxes as well, but packed away in a larger box.
It's been 5 years since I first moved in to the house and started building a track table. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't get any further in development than I did, as it would have been heartbreaking to lose what I had put so much effort into making. Sure, the table required some effort, but it really wasn't all that difficult. I'm not a woodworker or anything, and I was able to do it.
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| It's a pretty basic job, really, when you look at it. Two long sides connected to two ends with a piece in the middle. Then slap a piece of plywood on top. Not much to it. |
So now that I've done it and experimented for a few years with it, you probably want to know how I feel about it. Well, first I wish I would have had a chance to weather-proof the attic. It made it very difficult to be in most of the year, and left me with really only two short seasons.
The only other thing would be the limitation the table brings to track design. When you're on the floor, if you need more space you move the couch. You go down the hall. You double back under the entertainment center. But when you're on a table and hit the edge, that's it. No more room. So I'm not going to miss that aspect of it. I have enough track now to do some pretty cool stuff, and I'll be picking up more soon. Now I'll be able to expand on my layout designs. That'll be fun.
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| I'll have more room than this by quite a bit. This was a long time ago in an apartment packed with way too much stuff. |
I like that the table made everything quieter, especially when I added the green grass. I was able to race late into the night and nobody ever heard. The green grass did shed a little bit, though, even though I would still use it again if given the opportunity.
As far as the U-shape table goes, I never had a problem with it. You'd think, and I was told, that there would be visibility issues, but there never were when I was racing with friends. It wasn't easy to reach deep into the corners, but I fixed that by designing my layouts with shallower ones.
So I'd say that my experience with a table was a positive one, and I would recommend it to anyone who has the space to do it.
