Something of a 'bumper' edition this month with several updates, discoveries, a revealing document and a visit to a 'long lost track'. Thank you to everyone who has sent us material to contribute to this and future editions.

We are going a bit 'left field' this month as we are having a one-off look at rail track racing. This may not seem immediately relevant to tethered car racing but, contrary to statements in the Laidlaw Dickson book, rail racing actually preceded tethered cars in the UK by nearly twenty years. It was also largely responsible for the rapid demise of tethered car clubs and tracks when many enthusiasts took issue with what correspondents called 'the pursuit of speed'. The net result was that, apart from Mote Park, tethered car racing in the UK was moribund by the end of the 1950s yet rail track racing continued for many years after, before in turn being sidelined by slot and RC cars.

It is ironic in a way that the first rail tracks here in the 1920s were electrically powered, multi lane and intended for public entertainment in the amusement arcades and exhibitions of the day. The late thirties saw the growth of model car racing with elastic and clockwork powered cars run off against each other on a straight track. The arrival of tethered cars in the UK was a direct result of the ban on model aircraft and organised hydroplane racing in WW2 as recounted in past articles. By the end of the 1940s the tide was changing as many of the pioneers were embracing railtrack racing with clubs springing up all round the country, just as fast as the tether car clubs and tracks were closing.

The first to change tack were members of the Pioneer Club who had led the way with tethered cars becoming the 'Raildromers' with Jack Gascoigne and Jack Morgan as prime movers, followed by the North London Clubs 'Nordromo' in June 1950 led by Arthur Weaver, the Meteor Club with Gerry Buck largely responsible for the construction and Figure Of Eight in North London with their portable track. Each of these clubs had tracks by the end of 1950 followed by many others through the 50s and well in to the 60s with Portsmouth having a huge outdoor track on the seafront. OTW well remembers the tracks at the ME exhibition with multiple diesel cars running indoors when you could hardly see across the room for smoke, and as for the fumes, no 'elf and safety' in those days?

Inevitably, numerous commercial companies such as Walshaw, Henri Baigent and Albon Adams with MRRC started supplying smaller cars and components for this new activity with dozens of published designs including examples by Gerry Buck and engines from Weaver/Ransom. Initially cars had one set of fixed guides under the front of the car but soon these became pivoted controlling front wheel steering, later, a second set added at the rear allowed a level of drifting followed by clutches in each drive wheel and even rudimentary braking. It was the design of these guides and the rail configuration that led to the long and bitter legal dispute that we outlined in May/June2025, eventually resolved and with the system remaining in use to the present day.

Most railtrack activity finished in the late 1960s although a small group of enthusiasts continued running at shows and exhibitions until just recently. Those who visited Old Warden will remember the portable track being used by Bill Langley and the Gandolfi family.

The popularity of rail cars over the twenty year period means that they often appear for sale, early commercial home built ones and the more modern models. Interestingly, tethered cars started off with scale looking cars before moving to out and out racers, but the rail cars adopted and maintained a more scale approach to the end. Rail racing in the UK was a very different beast to that in the USA, here 1-1.5cc diesels, there, full on 10cc Nitro cars with two sets of fixed guides on the side of the car running side by side on heavily banked board tracks.

The Pitbox then is a rail car, but more than that, a very recent discovery, not seen for more than seventy years and a model of a well known full sized car, the perfect Pitbox in all respects.

The Photo is one of Arthur Weaver's superbly engineered and near scale rail cars with an engine of his own design and build.

A new Album as a result of a unique opportunity to photograph a number of very rare Oliver tethered cars and engines, plus a few accumulated along the way to illustrate the huge impact that the Oliver's had on tethered car racing.

A whole raft of new material and updates over the next few months, starting with a trip that members of the Swiss Model Car Club made to the site of the original Landikon track. Amazingly, the track is still there, buried under top soil and the layout clearly visible. The site is privately owned and fenced off, but the current owner allowed access and photographs to be taken, which the SMCC have kindly shared with us. In addition there are images from when the track was in use, taken by a competitor at the time.

The next update took a bit of head scratching as all the files sent were in HEIC format, which nothing we have can deal with. Eventually we managed to convert an amazing collection of images that we can now publish. The background to the late Alberto Dall'Oglio's foray into tethered car racing has already been published but Gianmauro Castagnetti has obtained the entire Dall'Oglio AD09 project, cars, engines, tooling, dies etc., which he has shared with us, thank you Gianmauro.

Final update for this month is to the history of the Rowell company as a result of material sent to us by Philip Johnson, whose father was a speed flyer and tethered car enthusiast up in the North West. Firstly a Rowell 60 bought by his father, still in its box, with the most complete set of paperwork we have ever seen, but with an extra printed page that resolves a seventy plus year old conundrum as to why a Rowell Sabre car has never turned up in all that time, the simple answer, because it never existed as such. The update reveals this fascinating and up to now, unknown information.

A new and occasional series begins having persuaded the inhabitant of the Garret Workshop to continue his tales. Not so much 'how to do it' articles, but more his musings, trials and tribulations along the way and the odd titbits of information.

Market Place returns after a quiet couple of months with two eminently desirable 'Wilma' 3b cars. One almost totally original, with history and ready to run and the second, mostly original but a project. Ideal for Buckminster as they still have the original MAC motors so not too 'peaky'.

The dates for the World tethered hydro championships have been confirmed to be held at Pazardzhik Bulgaria from 18th-23rd August. This has been added to all the other dates on our Calendar page

We often comment on the amazing prices realised at auctions for modern collectables, but an item at Vectis just beggared belief. An ordinary Matchbox toy car that reached a hammer price of, wait for it, £20,050. Add on another £6,000 plus in commission and VAT and that is one very expensive toy?

Peter Hill has announced the date for the Retro Racing Club revival meeting at Gt Carlton. Sunday 19th April. Plenty of parking and space for motor homes, toilets, free tea and coffee and free to run on the track. In addition, Peter is having a massive clearout of car related items (and cars) for a one off, king sized table top sale. Visitors are invited to add anything they want to sell to the mix as well.  

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The New Year already, where did 2025 go, unfortunately a very difficult year with the sad loss of far too many competitors, engineers, builders, enthusiasts and suppliers? Consequently, with a new season to look forward to,  we wish all our readers good health and success for the coming year.

Because of the nature of the website, a considerable portion of our time is spent dealing with items, both old and new, trying to identifying them if the origins are unknown and piecing together what other information and history that we can glean. Some may well ask why this is important, but as someone far more profound than us once said, 'an item without a history is just that, give it a history and it comes alive'. Having waded through fifty cars and several hundred engines recently as mentioned in last month's pylon, this has taken on a new reality for us. In the real world, most items have a certain value, attach a maker, artist or builder and it goes up, the extent depending on the fame and desirability of that name, but can amount to a huge rise in value. Add a provenance and the rise can be phenomenal and there-in lies the difficulty. Firstly, can any of it be established, and secondly, is what has been associated with the item actually true? Consider that the most expensive tethered car sold made in excess of $20,000 not because of what it was, but who had 'supposedly' owned it?

With cars and engines, it is primarily establishing whether they are reproductions as opposed to originals, but then comes the thorny bit, the true provenance, because, as we know from the fine art, antique and car markets, claiming something is not what it really is can be seriously profitable. Consequently offering a seemingly rock solid provenance, can prove immensely so. Fakers and forgers though are just as good at faking that as they are the item, not so much a problem for us as it usually word of mouth and urban myth that can muddy the waters. Sadly, traders, owners and vendors do not always tell the truth either?

As can be deduced from the website, we have a particular interest in the work of Fred Carter. Numerous examples of engines attributed to him have turned up, but how many have been through his hands or could be associated with a particular flyer, record or achievement? In fact, for only very few can there be any certainty, apart from those with unbroken trails such as the Gibbs or Hall Doolings, the Davenport Nordec, one McCoy and possibly some we have yet to discover. Of the ones of which we are aware that claim to be, one might be as it looks right, two where there is no proof, although again, they could be and one that has actually gained a dubious attribution only in the last two years. Another 'Carter' turned out not to be, but might be something equally interesting and possibly a unique discovery. The last was the bog standard Dooling 29, sold at a premium because of its claimed Carter origins. When it came to the Dooling Yellow Jackets we had to deal with, it was confusion all round. One was confirmed as an Underwood original as there was a paper trail, one confirmed as built by Don Sohn, three were Ukrainian repros, a Q model that according to Underwood's list never existed and the others that looked OK outside, but were a different story entirely when the internals were considered.

Imagine the excitement when three TWAs emerged in the collection, except there never were TWA 29s and 61s, or were there? Extensive research and a bit of luck revealed that TWAs in all those sizes, plus 15s were being manufactured and sold by Performance Model Parts inc long after the T&W association had ceased to exist, so another motor that was not quite what it appeared and another piece of information to add to the archive. What would the 15 have been worth if it was real?

The Pitbox this month illustrates all of the above as it is an exceedingly well known and uniquely identifiable motor. Its provenance was unbroken until 2025 when it was separated from its hull of seventy plus years and passed on. Hopefully it will be continued to be recognised for what it is?

The discovery of a second 10cc car owned by G.E. Jackson of the Derby Club has prompted another of the occasional Pitbox Specials, this time investigating the origins of these two cars and Jackson's involvement with tethered car racing.

Pylon was originally started as a sort of odds and ends column in the manner of Dope and Castor so we are always grateful for bits of information that turn up, not requiring much else other than a mention, unless further material comes to light. Last month we were sent photos of an M&E Special, nothing unusual in that, except the chassis number was 1002. Bearing in mind that numbering started at 1000 this was either the second or third car completed when M&E launched the model in 1947. The second was information of a 'whereabouts'. The original Ken Robinson RTD 'Flying pencil' was sold at the Miquel de Rancougne auction in 2004 and effectively vanished, but now it has been brought back to the UK, and like most other items in the auction bought for a lot less than it cost someone in 2004.

December has been a remarkable month as, thanks to our readers and contributors, we have received a bumper crop of images, items, updates and other material that we will sharing with you over the next few months. This includes a visit to a tethered car track that closed over fifty years ago, a whole host of images of the cars and engines from the late Alberto Dall'Oglio,  and a unique selection of Rowell material that reveals the Rowell car 'that never was'. An Electra Buck 2A and confirmation that Colonel Bowden expanded his aeroplane, and hydro interest to cars as well, and more, still to be assimilated. We have also persuaded on of our regular contributors to commit to a series of 'chatty articles' that puts on paper the topics covered in numerous phone calls and 'mardling' sessions at Buckminster over the years.

Extra events announced last month are another two BMFA engine auctions on the 15th and 27th January at 6.00pm, no catalogues, online only.  Details of these unusual auctions and the items to be included on the BMFA Buckminster site, registration and perusal of items from around the 5th/6th Jan. Don't forget the third International engine swapmeet and collectors gathering at Lampertheim-Huttenfield Germany on 28th Feb. Visitors last year from across Europe with a whole raft of models and engines for sale as well as displays of rare motors, racing motorcycles and more. For further details, to book tables or accommodation contact Amadeus Kurz or Peter Rathke email modelengineswap@gmail.com

Yet another cautionary tale involving a LiPo that goes rogue. Last time it was the loss of an entire workshop and lifetime's collection, but this time serious personal injury ensued. Charging advice is there for a reason so ignore it at your peril! More snippets and the report on the CL nationals with just 3 entries in F2A, a Champion, an up and coming flyer and someone remustering. Is there a future for it or is it yet another modelling discipline that is under threat? Is it just now too technical and too fast for ordinary mortals? Still marvel at the sanguinity of the combat exponents who accept the total loss of models and expensive engines on a regular basis? Makes a bit of a scratch on a tethered car body pale into insignificance by comparison? 

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