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the first paytrack cars in the world

1635 Views 13 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  TSRF
6
hi,here we have 1 of several kennedy bugattis i own.the first cars were made in 1930 & raced in mr kennedys home on a 6 lane rail track.around 1932 he modified the cars added a wall,& a paybox.he then moved his track to the leicester square amusement park & created the very first commercial electric race car track.the people put their money in the paybox & then operated their push button controllers as they raced each other.it was used for several years.the guides had little clips sodered to them so they could drift in the corners but not come off the rails.the cars are around 1/32 scale.the bodies were handmade metal.i have 1 1930 buggati which is a little different from the commercial ones.the one here is the 1932 commercial car used on the pay track.you can see the rest of the cars & the magazine articles,& some patent information on my website, thanks.(bernardsslotcarmuseum)]
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I still can't get over the fact that you actually found these cars Bernard! Just amazing little items. This is also the system that "Bentley Boys' driver Sir Henry Birkin invested in, thinking he would get rich. "Plus ça change..." eh?

Don

Here's the photo from one of the original The Autocar articles, which has been reprinted several times since...

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Philippe,

That's an old rumor from the Louis Hertz book - have you actually found something to back it up? I still think slow sales were a lot more likely reason for discontinuing the Lionel set... Cowen may have been a bit puritanical like some Americans, but he was above all a businessman!

Bernard, any chance of showing one of these next to the original 1930 model to show the difference?

Don
This is great stuff - thank you John and Bernard. Interesting to see the slight differences in the first series cars and I love that light-bulb driver! Actually, that might have been a good idea for the commercial track, with six different color lights, but guess he didn't do that...

Don
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