Even the very small town I grew up in had a commercial slotcar track in the 60s. I was smitten with them then and have dabbled with them off and on ever since.
In the 90s there were several tracks in my area where I raced quite a bit but enjoyed building the cars more than the racing. I scratch built the chassis for all my cars except those in classes that required a specific commercial chassis.
In the late 90s I built my own 12'x5' 3 lane track out of MDF. I routed the slots and used copper tape for the conductors. It looked crude but I didn't have room for a permanent set up so I designed it so it could be easily stored on its side in the garage. The track ran well with the 1/32 cars it was built for but was too small for the much faster 1/24 scale cars built for commercial tracks.
If I ever have a shop that's big enough, I'll build another. Some kids never grow up.
Here are a couple scanned photos of the old track. Had to tear it down when we moved as I had no place for it in the new place.
The cars in the photos aren't scratch built... There are several companies that make really nice, detailed cars for home tracks.
