the first paytrack cars in the world

1644 Views 13 Replies 6 Participants Last post by TSRF, Oct 30, 2011

SAMPSON

Discussion Starter · Oct 29, 2011

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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couserslot

· #7 · Oct 29, 2011

Hi Don
here are some pictures of what we belive to be the earliest of the 7 Kennedy cars ( the one I kept ) the body has little difference except the Radiator is a mesh grill, there are quite a few differences on the chassis. To start with all four wheels are plastic not turned aluminium, the motor is mounted through the side plates of the chassis and not the base, the front itself is not stepped up like the later cars and the pickups rely on the springiness of the pickup material rather than a seperate coil spring. with a bit more forethought I should have made a list of the differences when I had 5 of the cars together.

I hope that is some help
john

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couserslot

· #12 · Oct 30, 2011

Hi Tony
I brought 5 cars in their box off of ebay about 2 years ago now, I had previously seen the 2 cars Bernard ended up with and Bernard had told me of his research into them so when they appeared on ebay being sold by a West Country toy dealer I bid on and was lucky enough to win them and passed 4 of them and the box on to Bernard. My feeling is that even is there was only one track there was probably 18 or so cars 6 for the original home set use and 6 for the pay track plus running spares for the pay track which if it was me I would have 1 of each colour spare to save time when swapping cars over. I hope that makes the waters a little less cloudy

john

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