Blast from the past, anyone remember these? I never saw one in stores but I remember being blown over by the commercials.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDyzsET1MX4&feature=related
Mighty Casey ride on for kids
Own your own Vic http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mighty+casey+&_cqr=true&_nkwusc=might+casey&_rdc=1
Always wanted one of those when I was a kid. Never could convince Santa
I remember wanting a thing called the Yard Bird. It was a 1.5 inch scale flat car that had a system of cranks, sprockets and bicycle chains to power it. A child or adult would sit on the flat car and crank the apparatus mounted on the middle of the car to send it along the track. No steam to raise, no small gasoline engine to start, and no electric motor to provide power to. One’s own arms were the “prime mover.”
I remember seeing an amusement ride that used them once. I think it may have been at Knobel’s Grove amusement park. Other than that, I only saw them in advertisements within magazines such as Popular Mechanics.
Yours,
David Meashey
P. S. Found a photo here:
I remember those Dave, an amusement park near where I lived as a kid had them, they had, what seemed like at the time a really long run. On weekends they has a live steamer pulling a train but through the week they the self powered ones. I was getting a little big for them the last time I remember riding them and ended up pushing three or four smaller kids ahead of me most of the way round the track.
I remember the Yard Birds, some fellow at the SWRGS had 3 of them at the ride-on display track. I rmember riding them on trips to Iowa. Have pictures of me as akid on one in an album somewhere.they are quite the collectable these days
Victor Smith said:
I remember the Yard Birds, some fellow at the SWRGS had 3 of them at the ride-on display track. I rmember riding them on trips to Iowa. Have pictures of me as akid on one in an album somewhere.they are quite the collectable these days
They had something very similar at Crystal Beach, Ontario when I was a kid. They were my favorite ride. I was devastated one year when went to the park and they were gone. This would have been late 50’s or early 60’s.
No need to remember them, I’ve got one in my garage! Got the loco and the gondola. Dad, being scale-minded even back then, painted the loco in proper Santa Fe Warbonnet colors. I had to put it up on a shelf, as my son kept running over to it and trying to ride it on the concrete. Not good for the plastic flanges…
I gotta build some track for it; ours disappeared after we tore it out of the woods in favor of the G-scale railroad. (Early re-gauging?) On the good side of things, that would have made me around 8 or so when we tore it out, which means my soon-to-be 6-year-old daughter will still have a few years worth of fun with it.
I’m open for suggestions on track. Obviously I’d like to avoid the expense of buying a bunch of ride-on-scale rails. Thanks, Vic! Nice to know what it is I actually have.
(And Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania still has the hand-crank trains. I took Suzi there last month when we were back east, and she loved 'em.)
Later,
K
Dutch Wonderland rules! I miss them days there!
Kevin Strong said:I figured someone would have one ;) We want pictures :) Ralph
No need to remember them, I've got one in my garage! Got the loco and the gondola.