Backyard handcar riding toy

[bigironbrian]

Hello, they call me Big Iron, Anyway back in the sixties when I was a young boy. There was a family in the town, near where I grew up of, Winnebago, Illinois. Your school met in these peoples yard, to meet some politician who arrived on some whistle stop campaign. Well enough about that. Anyway, these people in the yard we met in had a small oval shaped approx. 30' in length, with about a 7 1/2" gauge track which, upon these tracks sat a 3' long and about a foot wide handcranked handcar. Need less to say I was quite interested in small gauge backyard railroading from then on. I just this year had seen one of these on ebay, And tried to purchase just the handcar, but never having bid on ebay lost out on this item. My question is has anybody out have information on these little handcars, the seller on ebay thought they were originally manufactured in Waterloo, Iowa back in the sixties. Waiting to here back. Sincerly "Big Iron" Brian Leake

[Dr. John]

Hi Big Iron and welcome to the forum!

The handcar sounds fascinating - I'm sure it would be a lot of fun.

You might post this question on the Garden Railways forum also. Since those guys deal with outdoor trains someone might have more knowledge about the handcar you are seeking.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums! Thanks for sharing this interesting story with us! I, too, have seen these on ebay a few times before. I can't really tell you much about them, but I think that they were made by a company called Dayton and sold under the Yardbird brand name. There is also an electric powered (I think) ride-on diesel engine and cars that I'm pretty sure was made by the same company.

[csxt30]

Hi Big Iron &[#welcome] to the forum! I have seen those before, but at amusement parks. I think they still have a bunch of them running at a little park near me, at Geneva On The Lake, Ohio. When they open up soon I can get you some pictures. Also, there may be some running at the little steam live eng. clubs. These are outdoor RR clubs that have trains running on about that size track you mentioned, & larger. Hope this helps, thanks, John

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum. It's always good to bookmark anything you see on eBay. That way you can go back and look it up. eBay only keeps a 60 day history of what sold, so even better is to copy the description and copy the photos.

Check out this link. It's not exactly what you are looking but it's pretty interesting:
www.oneinchrr.com/

BillFromWayne
www.modeltrainjournal.com

[wrmcclellan]

The Strassburg Railroad in PA has one of these sets that they let kids ride.

http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/activities.aspx

Contact them and they can probably tell you at lot about the history.

Regards,
Roy

[ben10ben]

My favorite antique/train shop here in town had one about a year ago that looked exactly like what you describe. I never really paid a whole lot of attention to it, and I don't think that it's there anymore. I could look the next time I'm in there, and get any details off of it that I can.

[Anonymous]

I sounds alot like a amusement park ride. There are couple of guys who follow the GATS circuit who run a couple of them at the shows around Ohio for the kids. One is a pull type of lever the other is a chain drive to a tower and hand crank. Maybe GATS could help you contact these fellas.

[Anonymous]

I believe you are talking about the Yardbird by the Chas.WM. Doepke Manufacturing Co. Rossmoyne, Ohio, circa 1957. When I was a kid I saw it advertised in a Popular Mechanics magazine. Had to have it but it never happened. I could take a couple pics of the info I have on these and send it to you. Let me know. [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Click to enlarge

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Doepke! That was the name I was thinking of! Thanks for clearing this up once and for all. Here is a link about the history of the company.

http://www.cincypost.com/living/1998/wecker102998.html

[bigironbrian]

Hey Thanks to all of you who had replied, I will continue to search for another one of these Doepke toys, or make my own. Thanks again! Big Iron Brian Leake, former C&NW and UP employee

[Anonymous]

Hmmm.... now that's the ultimate toy train!

[Anonymous]

Is this what you are asking about?