Vintage toy car

Author
Discussion

Rees2000

Original Poster:

14 posts

5 months

Wednesday 7th August
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Since this forum has been so helpful, I thought I'd really test the experts with this pedal car.



Again c. 1912-1914 as my grandad looks about 7-9. Llanelli, South Wales

Writhing

517 posts

116 months

Wednesday 7th August
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I have no idea what it is but it looks absolutely brilliant, if a bit harsh on the backside.

Turbobanana

6,740 posts

208 months

Wednesday 7th August
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Over sized wheels, low profile tyres, rock hard ride. Nothing's new, eh?

moffspeed

2,901 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th August
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The Lines Brothers > Triang were beginning to make this sort of stuff from Merton in south London about that time but their efforts were cruder and less elegant :



Looking at that (superb) photo I suspect that this effort is a one-off and has been put together by a very gifted engineer, is that a Coat of Arms on the side of the seat ?

Rees, all of those posh horseless carriages, grand houses and access to high-end photography - I'm guessing your ancestors were doing pretty well out of South Walian life in the early noughties. Shipping ? Mining ?

Mr Tidy

24,332 posts

134 months

Wednesday 7th August
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That's a fantastic period photo. thumbup

They look like pram wheels, or maybe the rear and chain drive came off a tricycle. He was a very lucky boy to have a toy like that back then!

Escort3500

12,326 posts

152 months

Thursday 8th August
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Turbobanana said:
Over sized wheels, low profile tyres, rock hard ride. Nothing's new, eh?
laugh

The quality of the picture, for the era, is superb.

Simon_GH

405 posts

87 months

Thursday 8th August
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Turbobanana said:
Over sized wheels, low profile tyres, rock hard ride. Nothing's new, eh?
It’s the price you pay for the R Design version.

Great toy though!

Rees2000

Original Poster:

14 posts

5 months

Thursday 8th August
quotequote all
moffspeed said:
The Lines Brothers > Triang were beginning to make this sort of stuff from Merton in south London about that time but their efforts were cruder and less elegant :



Looking at that (superb) photo I suspect that this effort is a one-off and has been put together by a very gifted engineer, is that a Coat of Arms on the side of the seat ?

Rees, all of those posh horseless carriages, grand houses and access to high-end photography - I'm guessing your ancestors were doing pretty well out of South Walian life in the early noughties. Shipping ? Mining ?
Well I reckon you were pretty spot on there! William Rees was an engineer. Cork leg from a farming accident when he was under 10. Will have to see if he could have made it himself. Farming and Tin plate works I think were the sources of income.

9xxNick

1,013 posts

221 months

Friday 9th August
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What a fantastic photograph. I particularly like the look on the apparently long-suffering ride-along "mechanic's" face.

Best of luck with your research.

moffspeed

2,901 posts

214 months

Saturday 10th August
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Apologies for straying OT but I was in Caerphilly yesterday and was reminded of another one-legged Welsh engineer.

Artie Moore was a Caerphilly boy who during the 1890’s lost a leg in a farming accident. Undaunted he designed an artificial leg so that he could get back on a bike.

He won a school prize designing a horizontal steam engine and was awarded a book on electronics/wireless. The new fangled wireless technology fascinated him and soon he had designed his own receiver with copper aerial wires running up the valley above his home.

In 1912 he was the first in the U.K. to receive the distant SOS signal from SS Titanic. Artie furiously cycled to Caerphilly police station during the night to report the news of the unfolding disaster. The police sensed he’d had a few too many in the local pub and advised him to go home and sleep it off…

Edited by moffspeed on Saturday 10th August 09:21

hidetheelephants

27,825 posts

200 months

Saturday 10th August
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Rees2000 said:
Well I reckon you were pretty spot on there! William Rees was an engineer. Cork leg from a farming accident when he was under 10. Will have to see if he could have made it himself. Farming and Tin plate works I think were the sources of income.
Access to a sheet metal works would make creating such a car relatively straightforward, the rest either salvaged from a pram or from bicycle parts. Still a pretty amazing thing to have as a child in that era.

Dapster

7,453 posts

187 months

Saturday 10th August
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The picture quality is incredible!

As for the car - yes, hard ride, looks like you'll be getting some understeer in the low speed stuff and the brakes? I'm assuming Fred Flinstone feet on floor or perhaps a handle to jam a block of wood against the tyre on the left hand side?

9xxNick

1,013 posts

221 months

Sunday 11th August
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The hub may not have been the freewheel type, so could have been braked by resisting the rotation of the pedals. Alternatively some bikes had a back-pedal brake, where pushing the pedals backwards operated a drum brake inside the hub. I don't suppose speeds would have been that high so braking may not have been that much of a priority.

Bobupndown

2,147 posts

50 months

Sunday 25th August
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That's quite a pair of boots he's wearing.

akirk

5,618 posts

121 months

Sunday 25th August
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picture quality is not unusual - would have been glass plate photography and the detail it could record was fantastic… I used to own a glass plate photo collection (c. 100,000 plates) and I was continually amazed by the detail you could get out from a scan - largest plates I had were c. 12” x 16” - so if you think of that as a negative / sensor size the detail makes sense - in many ways we have lost quality for convenience in the move to film, as we then did in the move from film to digital…

great photo and memory to have…