In 1960 when the first Aurora Vibrator cars came out as Model Motoring it was a companion for the HO train set. Aurora had the slot car market, free of competition. Train companies however took notice of the emerging slot car craze and soon came out with their own products. Tyco, whose trains were marketed with Aurora’s cars, introduced their Speedways slot car series in 1963. Although the cars paled in comparison to the Aurora Thunderjets, the Speedways quick lock track was a major innovation in track assembly. It wasn’t until almost 10 years later that Aurora would join Tyco with snap together track in the form of A/FX. Tyco controllers were also an improvement in that they were controlled with the index finger rather than the thumb. The TycoTrol controller also contained a cruise control feature, a switch that would hold the throttle at a fixed setting. A Motoroar attachment could be placed on top of the controller to give you that real racing sound – much like the Magna-Sonic units of the AFX era - it was mostly annoying noise.

Atlas, another train company to hop onto the slot car bandwagon, did a better job with their chassis design and their early cars used a unique 5-pole motor. Later Atlas chassis would run competitively in speed with a Thunderjet but with their can motor couldn’t compete in the handling department. Early Atlas bodywork was no match for Aurora’s modeling expertise but later Atlas offerings such as the Mustang and Avanti are excellent representations of good quality. Atlas also introduced the snap on car body with their Zinger offerings. The screw posts were untapped and held the guide pin in front and a placement pin in back and the car snapped into grooves in the side of the body. Atlas also advanced the controller design over Aurora’s with thumb controllers that actually were contoured to fit the hand rather than the circular Aurora units, which were hard to hold and had a small button. Atlas track varied the construction technique by using the connector pins as the electrical contacts, eliminating the troublesome tab contacts found in Aurora track. Atlas intersections were a flush 3” square piece allowing 4 lane or larger layouts to be built flush and yet still have crossing pieces added. This was a departure over the Aurora intersection which was basically two 9” pieces of track crossed. Atlas also made a junction turnoff that was electrically switched like train turnoffs were at the time. Lionel copied the Atlas track design, the next train company turned slot car seller. In fact it was copied so well that Lionel and Atlas track are interchangeable.

Lionel cars were crude in comparison to Aurora cars. Their bodywork lacked detail and accuracy. The Mercedes SL made by Lionel represents a coupe that was a body style that didn’t exist in the real car –either a roadster or gull wing. The main problem with Lionel cars was that the tires that were skinnier than even the Thunderjets and couldn’t transmit the power to the track. They were also heavy and handled poorly. But even Lionel controllers were better than the Aurora thumb units in ease of use and comfort.

Lionel, to their credit did have some interesting ideas in track design after stealing it from Atlas. Tyco had small jump sections and Aurora had their daredevil set but Lionel introduced a tip track that would take the car from one level and drop it down to a lower track. It wasn’t the most practical track piece but was something different. In similar fashion the Le Mans track started the cars at an angle offset to the track and at the start of the race the cars would “pull out” onto the raceway. The best piece was the Mystery Route Selector. It joined 6 lanes of track into 2 and back to 6 with random lane changing occurring. Later Lionel sets came up with the flag tag relay system, another interesting idea, but not much of a real racing item. Lionel pushed the can motor design in their later years and the Lionel “big block” motor would make for a car faster than a Thunderjet but again the cars handled poorly. Lionel offered new landscaping ideas in their Pikes Peak and Matterhorn sets using cardboard cutouts as both scenery and track supports.

Although Atlas, Lionel and Marx offered some interesting innovations they couldn’t compete with Aurora’s mass marketing appeal and well-sculpted cars and by 1970 all had dropped their slot car lines. Marx dropped out of the mix after never really getting established. Lionel disappeared in 1967 followed by Atlas in 1970. Interestingly enough, just as the slot car fad was dying off, another train company jumped in – Bachmann.