31 replies to this topic

[Phil Smith]

What kind of track did this run on? I can't envision how it works.

[MSwiss]

I've never seen anything like it.

 

I bet PdL, Don Siegel, Larry Kelley, or Matt Bishop know.

 

I wonder, if by the shape of the hub caps, and how they protrude out so much, if the car ran inside 2 walls, vs. a slot.

[Rob Voska]

Looks American with the roadster body and flathead V8.

[tonyp]

My cousin had a set using these cars but I can not remember anything about it but the bodies.

[Gene/ZR1]

Gilbert

[MattD]

That's a new one to me, but it looks like some kind of rail racer set-up. The brass front extension would ride against a rail or fence and the brushes at the rear would  rub a flat conductor. Flyer and Marx both had an ugly car design like this one.   

 

I'm sure somebody else will have the correct history of this car. I have read that there were  some rail type home race sets available, but I have never seen anything except the (MRRC ?) sets that were available in England in the '50s.

[Gene/ZR1]

Go on eBay.

More than one Gilbert car like the one in question for sale.

[MattD]

Gene,

 

Did any of the eBay listings show the track they run on?

[Ramcatlarry]

No, but it is the same seller. 

 

Gilbert is one of the first 1950s sets. Never saw the whole thing together.

[don.siegel]

A.C. Gilbert, 1961 I think. It's actually a slot set, but the slot is very shallow and that's a magnet on the end of the arm, if I remember correctly.... Just some braided wires on the sides as pickups. 

 

I picked up one of these many years ago on ebay, but when I tried it, couldn't really get it to work. Those are AC motors with electromagnets too, very unusual in our hobby - but only logical considering Gilbert's train background! They quickly switched to more conventional setup on their slot sets. 

 

Just found a 4-page flyer for this set: No. 19060 American Flyer Stock Car Race. Retail, $34.98. "Realistic race track: no grooves or channels" (not quite true, since there is a shallow groove). And all illustrations in the flyer show the car without its pickup! 

 

Not a success, but there are a lot of these jalopies coming up on eBay, generally unidentifed and missing the roof! 

 

Don 

[don.siegel]

PS: Matt, only two rail sets that I know of: by MRRC with precut wooden track (only one known to exist - even Bernard doesn't have one!), and the Ideal set with two 1/24 Mercedes that ran on separate loops, not side by side. 

[Gene/ZR1]

Did any of the eBay listings show the track they run on?

No track, but I have seen these before as AC Gilbert, On line not too long ago an old hobby shop sold these and track, they also sold trains, I thought it was Polk or something like that.

[MSwiss]

Pictures of Gilbert track, I saw, yesterday, while doing a quick search, it appears to look sort of like a grey, 1/32 version of Aurora Model Motoring track.

[Gene/ZR1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

for what it's worth, maybe this will ring a bell with someone out there.

[Samiam]

In 1961 the only bell I was ringing was on my tricycle.

[MSwiss]

That's the type of track I saw.

From Don S;
"Realistic race track: no grooves or channels" (not quite true, since there is a shallow groove)

I still wonder if there is a 2nd type of set-up.

The track I saw and Gene posted, looks pretty groovy to me.

[tonyp]

I sort of remember a magnet on the pickup and frayed wire on the other side. But I could be having an LSD flashback.


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[Gene/ZR1]

 

1961 track

 

I think you need to find 1959 track

 

[don.siegel]

That's the second series of stock cars Gene, with regular slot, altho there were some unusual features (contact on the bottom of the slot if I remember correctly). 

 

The one above may well have been 1960 instead of 1961... I couldn't find any documentation immediately, and don't quite remember where I stored the set - down in our building's storage room I'm afraid! 

 

In Gene's montage of docs, it's the two-tone red flyer in the middle, "All the thrills of a real stock car race" that talks about the cars in the original post. 

 

Don 

[Lone Wolf]

All of the Hot Rods shown are missing the roof.

 

The first thing to go.

 

If you ever picked one of these up they weigh about 8 pounds each

[Gene/ZR1]

 

 

 

is this the correct set

[don.siegel]

Yep, that's it Gene.... hmm, doesn't look like much of a slot there, shallow or not. Will have to find mine and check! 

 

Don 

[Gene/ZR1]

Yep, that's it Gene.... hmm, doesn't look like much of a slot there, shallow or not. Will have to find mine and check! 

 

Don 

I like the transformer with the 2 built in car speed controllers on the sides.   

You think mid-50's for this set, you had to be the king of the block with this.  wow! the good times back then, exciting, thrills and imagination, something that is lost nowadays.   

 

as always;

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You and Your Family.

it's snowing today, 8" plus

g; 

[MattD]

Back in the good days of the 50's and 60's this is what the lucky guys had under the tree, instead of clothes or cell phones!!

[Ramcatlarry]

Note that the power supply is also the controller.  IF AC, I think it had a common center pickup and each side was used as lane control with half wave/phase pulsed power.  Kind of a fore runner to digital power systems in HO and 1/32.  Each car had either left or a right pickup only along with the center pickup.  I did have one of those track boxes 20 years ago - no cars, paper, or power supply.  I remember the 19060 item #.