Garage Sale Find (free)

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Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby jmsh54 » Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:38 am

A friend came upon this a number of summers ago in a free pile of items at a garage sale. Sent it my way. I have set it up a number of times and it still runs well.

Image

Seems to have all of it's parts.

Image

Here are the cars that were in the box. Not sure which came with the set. But they all work.

Image

Regards, John
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby hoganracing » Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:57 am

Congratulations! That's quite the find. The stuff HO collectors dream of finding.

Thanks for the pictures. Looks like the original owner really took care of it.

Patrick
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby Fast Co. » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:46 am

Wow, everything looks to be in excellent condition. Nice find!
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby olskoolslotz » Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:16 pm

...
Last edited by olskoolslotz on Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby waaytoomuchintothis » Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:22 pm

That is a dream for TJet guys. There weren't very many versions of the 4 lane sets.
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby ourwayband » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:24 pm

Great find!!!
The ol' t-jets are hard to beat in fun value..
Rusty
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby dge467 » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:43 pm

Very nice score! What a great friend!
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby LAMing » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:17 pm

You lucky dog, you!!!

Congrats!

Andre
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby dreinecke » Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:41 pm

Beautiful set and cars! Great find!
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby jmsh54 » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:10 pm

Greetings, thank you for the views and comments. I think this set was from the mid to late 60's. Pretty sure that the cars that are in the box are not original to the set. From what I have been able to find out when the set was first out it had steering wheel controlers. They had a plastic tray to hold all the parts, the later set like mine had the white foam tray. Maybe a HO guy will know more or the correct information, as my information came from the little I could find on the internet.

I have set it up a number of times and enjoyed running the cars. My family was pretty sure the first time I set it up that I would burn the house down, but it worked fine. All I have ever done is clean the carpet dust out of the cars and clean the rails up some. It is kind of cool to get four cars zipping around the track at the same time. Regards, John
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby racer6583 » Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:23 pm

That is a very rare find your friend gave you to be in that good of condition, I don't remember how many where made but I do know that they are hard to find today.
Just amazing that everything works and the cars are in mint from what I see,
Thanks for sharing such a treasure with us.

Rex
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby acmost » Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:30 pm

Killer! Takes me back.
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby bkrownd » Sat Nov 03, 2012 11:39 am

Beautiful set! :D
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby kcl » Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:12 am

The Corvette and the Riveria are original with the set. The Cobra GT, Lola And the Alfa Romero
are not. Set should have come with a T-bird and a Jag as the other two cars. Thumb killer
controllers started around 65 I think. Be careful with the tan plastic cars as the tend to get
brittle over time and can shatter very easy. Something about the structure of the plastic.
Those controllers also have carbon disks in them that also can crack and stop working
over time, but you can find them on ebay if you should need to.
Very nice set and in very good condition.

Kevin
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Re: Garage Sale Find (free)

Postby BIG E » Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:48 pm

Kevin's previous reply is pretty much on the mark. It wasn't the rule, but many times you'd find the cover art cars in the box. Many collectors arrange their sets this way as a result. Plus, it just plain looks cool!
The Cobra GT and definitely the Alfa Romeo are too new for the set. The Lola GT (one of my favorite T-Jet racers) was an early model but most likely would not have come in that set. It would usually be all street cars or all race cars, not combinations of the two. Remember, there were many, many of these sets manufactured, so anything is possible.
If your thumbs get sore you can use some vintage Atlas or Tyco plunger type controllers. They can easily be wired into your layout because it came with two real terminal tracks and a power supply that had actual screw terminals. If they have a brake wire, just leave it out of the circuit and connect as per the set up manual. Be sure to put a piece of tape over the end of the brake wire to protect against any electrical shorts.
When we were kids, we would turn the Aurora controllers upside down in our hands and press the button down onto the tabletop as hard as we could. Maximum speed, but not very much control! We discovered the Atlas plunger controllers and they became our controller of choice.
Ditto to Kevin's take on the tan cars. Something in the pigment turned that color ABS plastic brittle after many years. I've had some of my old runners unfortunately fall to that fate. But, you never can tell!
As for the fact that everything still works, well hey... it was made by AURORA !!

That's a great piece, I hope you enjoy having many hours of fun with it.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS... Ernie

PS... I just looked at the pics again, and I believe the 9" double wiggle track on the left is too new for that particular set. It was probably purchased later on, as it was a popular track section when Aurora released it. Just more stuff for you to enjoy!
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