Walkden Fisher was a leading light in the SMEC and one of the first rail racing tracks was constructed in his basement. He was one of the most successful early racers, winning the Southport International Grandprix with his Mercedes 300 SLR. The track had beautifully sculpted scenery as Walkden Fisher was an artist of no mean ability. He was also the assistant editor of Model Cars and many articles featured his cars and drawings.

The track was constructed out of a raised rail for guidance and power (the original racers were mostly model train enthusiasts) and a flat wire running 3/8 of an inch from the rail. The cars were usually hand carved balsa bodies with heavy brass chassis, often carved with incredible scale accuracy. Rail racing was mainly confined to Britain, although some rail racers were constructed in America.

Once slot cars were introduced the appeal of rail racing began to fade, slot cars being both easier to drive and readily available from companies such as Scalextric, without the difficult business of constructing tracks and cars. As slot racing spread all over the world rail racing waned and finally finished with the Oakland Park meeting in the spring of 1964, having lasted just under ten years.

In the spring of 2000 Jeff Davies was researching leading lights in the beginning of the rail racing/slot racing boom that took place between 1955 - 1960. One of the names that immediaiately came to prominance was Walkden Fisher's. As luck would have it Charlie Fitzpatrick had two of Walkden Fisher's original chassis, one of which was the chassis of his Mercedes 300 SLR as well as the original body. Charlie kindly donated both chassis to Jeff to enable him to carry on his research.

Fascinated by the level of engineering Jeff Davies continued his research and was supplied plans of the original track by Don Seigel. The idea then occured of building a replica of the track and restarting rail racing. Many months of hard work went into the construction of the track, which was built by Jeff Davies, Phil Barry and Richard Davies.

Charlie Fitzpatrick carved four replicas of Walkden Fisher's original Mercedes 300 SLR, which Phil Barry built into slot cars. These were used to publicise the event. One was even taken to the Antiques Roadshow and photographed by the BBC, the photograph featured in the BBC Home & Antiques magazine. Russell Sheldon restored the original Walkden Fisher chassis and added a 1955 Mercedes Streamliner Grandprix body. The car was unveiled on a live Granada programme.

It was decided that the first race race would be held at the Brooklands Museum and Racetrack. Brooklands was the world'sfirst purpose built racetrack and was built by Hugh Locke King on a 300 acre site. Using the power of steam, horses and carts 1500 labourers and craftsmen completed the work in just nine months. The course cost £150,000 in 1907, the equivilant of an astronomical amount of money today. The track was considered one of the seven wonders of the world when it was finished.

The heyday of the track was undoubtedly the 1920s and '30s when record times were being set and broken by Malcolm Campbell, John Cobb and others. The track was taken over by the Ministry of Defence during World War Two and built on to disguise it, in order to deny bombers the use of the track as a landmark to locate an important aeroplane construction factory inside the premeter of the track. It was never returned to an operational state. The event was held in the original clubhouse, which was preserved with a section of the track.

The very final few of the Brooklands Memorial Clear Diablos are now being released. These are £150 each plus postage.