Orange track help needed

hmmmm.
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Been awhile since this question was posted, but I thought I would share the process I used to avoid bumps and snags at seams with my Hot Wheels "Arrow" Orange Track pieces. I did this to avoid the initial problems I had with cars jumping off the track as the OP posted.

Over time I ended up having 84 pieces of this "arrow" type of track that I use with the Hot Wheels Six Lane Raceway set.

I use two main setups - one a scale 1/8 mile run (10' 3") and the second a scale 1/4 mile run (20' 6"). I have each piece numbered for each lane and then alphabetically for each piece in order for that lane.

I based this sorting process on the built in design feature noted about the Dragtrack set track pieces in other threads. That is that the entrance end of the track is designed to be wider than the exit end. For the most part, this does not seem to be a part of the manufacturing process of Hot Wheels track types, but you can still apply the design! That is to use your narrowest track pieces first and then add the wider pieces.

The first step in the process is to sort your track widths. I started with one piece and test fit every other piece to it. Sorting as you go to narrower, same and bigger than widths. Tip - Be sure to do this using the inside wall joints. Do the same with each of the 3 stacks you get - until you have each stack roughly all of the same widths.

Now take each of your same width stacks and test fit the other ends against each other. Most should be the same, but a few will turn out to have different widths at each end. I arranged those track pieces to go in between the other stacks based on end widths.

I ended up with 11 different same width stacks and about a half dozen pieces with different widths at both ends. Being that these track pieces have the directional "arrows" built into them - I kept them in that orientation.

Now the next step is to sort the individual stacks into track wall height. Here you would sort from tallest to lowest height.

You can also sort by track bed height from tallest to lowest, but fortunately most of my pieces were uniform enough not to cause bumps. (You do want the direction of car travel to be a drop off if you do have differences.)

Now that you have all your track pieces sorted by width, then track wall height, and finally track bed height you can begin laying out your lanes.

You can either build one lane at a time or lay out all 6 lanes at the same time. Start with the narrowest/tallest pieces nearest the starting gate and build towards the finish line - ending with the widest/shortest track pieces. I recommend you to choose to build all 6 lanes at the same time. This gives each lane the same expanding lane widths instead of each lane being wider than the other. This seems the fairest - to me - as it allows for the same expanding side to side drift/wall rub in each lane.

I then used the finger nail test to see how close the the seam gaps along the inside wall and track bed matched up. I did move some pieces around - to give the best overall fit. I ended up with only five spots where the track width to wall height did not work out as planned, but having to only trim down (the wall height) at 5 joints was a lot better than the dozens of places the track did not line up very well when just joining pieces together randomly.

Once you have everything in place and still connected - flip each lane over and number and letter each piece from one end to the other. I also added "R" for the end of the ramp to the 1st piece and "FL" to the last piece where the finish line would go. Now you can dissemble your track set up and reassemble it in the same order anytime you want!

This sorting system will work with any length segmented track layout where the cars will always travel in only one direction. If you ran the car in the opposite direction - you just created the worst case scenario of bumps and edges that will eventually some cars off the track!

Update 20140407 - I also did not address each track piece length. Most of you probably have discovered that length can vary from track piece to track piece. Since each of the segmented lanes of this layout are open ended I only did my sorting based on the track bed width, track wall heights and track bed elevations. Working in lengths can be down, but can be tedious and end up with a few more joints that dont match up.

I MADE SOME CONNECTORS, USED 4' GARAGE LIGHT DISPERSER CUT INTO STRIPS THEN CUT TO 4"... HOT WHEELS CONNECTORS HAVE LITTLE DIMPLES,[THEY SLIGHTLY SINK INTO SOFT H W TRACK] MY CONNS WERE ALL THE DIMPLE THICKNESS, FILLED THE CONN SLOT TO THE FULLEST, PULLING THE SIDERAILS IN... 3" INTO THE UPPER SECTION, 1" IN THE LOWER DID THE TRICK... BUT THEY ARE TOO MUCH, TOO TIGHT A FIT...
...
WITH SHARP SCISORS CUT 4" OFF THE END OF A SO-SO TRACK SECTION,
SLICE THE CONN SLOTS OFF WITH A KNIFE,
CUT BOTH SIDES TIGHTLY ALONG THE CONN SLOT'S RIDGE,
DRAW A LINE ACROSS AT HALFWAY, 2"...
TAPER [SNIP] ONE HALF 2" OF THE CONN TO ABOUT 1/32" NARROWER,
...
IT SOUNDS WRONG... BUT THE WIDER [UPHILL] END OF THE CONN WILL PULL THE TRACK SIDES IN FURTHER THAN THE NARROWER END WILL !
MILTON FOX, CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE ONE AND REPORT IN...THANK YOU... MF...
TRACK SECTION, HOME MADE DIRECTIONAL CONNECTOR, TRACK SECTION ;

WIDER / UPHILL END OF THE CONN IN THE UPHILL TRACK SECTION ;

BOTH TRACK SECTIONS CONNECTED... NOTE THE SECTION WITH THE WIDE CONN [LEFT] IS NARROWER THAN THE SECTION WITH THE NARROWED CONN [RIGHT];

SOME TRACK SECTIONS ARE TOO WORNOUT FOR THIS TO WORK... THEY ARE YOUR RAW MATERIAL...

SOME TRACK SECTIONS ARE TOO WORNOUT FOR THIS TO WORK... THEY ARE YOUR RAW MATERIAL...

Could you show pictures or illustrations of the part of the instructions I made Blue?

WIDER / UPHILL END OF THE CONN IN THE UPHILL TRACK SECTION ;

Sorry, but I dont have the worn out pieces of track to cut up, so I have a different technique to offer to achieve the same effect.

Take any existing joiner piece and find the mid point (or track edge line on an interlocking type of joiner) and wrap that half of it with duct tape so that it at least goes over both side edges. In the photo above you would be covering up where the arrow (direction) is drawn. It may take more than one piece of tape to get the desired effect. Assembly as shown and the duct tape ends of the joiner will push out on the connector rails, which in turn rolls in the upper side track walls. Remember you are creating a one direction only track layout if you do either the custom joiner like Smitty engineered or the Red/Green duct version I describe! Also the tape will eventually tear or move if you dissemble and move your track often.

MILT, YOU'RE OFF THE HOOK...
cut old junk track section to 4" ;

slice the conn slots off ;

cut along the conn slot's ridge ;

trim, taper about 1/32" ;

fat end in, skinny end 1/2 way ;

fat conn end makes the track narrower ;

Oh now I dig it...

In reference to using duct tape from my post above - if you go to this thread

http://www.redlinederby.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1749

I show and talk about the Red Green engineering process I used to raise a Hot Wheels track bed height to match that of a Dragtracks track piece.

In setting up the Smittsburg International Dragway layout - I needed to have two equal lengths of Hot Wheels orange segment track to go in between the Dragtracks starting and end pieces.

As you probably already know - Hot Wheels segment track pieces are also not always cut to the same lengths!

With the newest Hot Wheels orange track button and inter locking design at both ends - the old fix of spreading the seam gap a bit in different places is no longer possible to do. And cutting to fit both ends will makee that piece unusable with other new button track pieces. (You can still use the uncut end as the last piece of a segmented track run or as a custom piece.)

So to get around this I used the track sorting process from above. Start by standing all the track pieces on one end and sorting the track into different lengths. Now turn all the pieces 180 degrees on their vertical axis and re check the lengths (the other track wall side). If you have some that are off from that second look try flipping that individual piece 180 degrees on its horizontal axis. (Flip it around so it stands on its other end instead. With just the 16 pieces of new button track I ended up with 7 different lengths of track pieces.

If you then use the build two lanes at the same time process - you should end up with two equal lengths of track runs. For best results, if you have a stack with an odd number of track pieces in it - take one out of each stack to even things up.