Home made carts!
 

Anyone remember making carts back in the 70's - though perhaps older folk did it in the 60's. Some used cheap pram wheels and axis and others went to this place in Oswaldtwistle where there were loads of wheels from disabled wheel chairs - I think it was, and nick them and then make these carts out of them - using wood for the structure - then race down Avenue Parade on them. Ring any bells?

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Surprisingly we had wheels in the 40's and 50's- yes, they'd been invented by then.
Making carts from old pram wheels was very popular although rolling down a cobbled street was a bit of a rough ride- tested you and the cart to destruction!

Not many disabled could afford wheelchairs then so we didn't have as good a choice as you did.

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We had them in the Scouts in the 50's and raced them in a "Soap Box Derby"

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We all used to make Trolleys in the 50s as we called em, Louis Hamilton had sod all on the Dowry St Racers.:D

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Yes we had them too.....ours was a long wheel base model :D
Have a read of this.
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/b...re-riches.html

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I bet you knicked them from next door to the Vine Mill up Ossie. My dear dad used to work their and they dealt with equipment for the disabled!!

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Nicked them from Fred Millers

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Those were the days, my dad would use a hot poker to make a hole in the centre, and a few inches from the back end, of a trolley's platform and we lads would bolt in a second trolley (minus the second trolley's front wheels bogie assembly, of course) so we'd have a double length trolley. We used to race our single trolleys down the concrete path which led from Moorhouse Avenue (I think) to Fife Street. It wasn't a long course but started off quite steeply and had three bends which didn't do large pram wheels much good!

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I had the LX luxury model...nailed an offcut piece of carpet on mine....string washing line as steering as opposed to the crappy plastic stuff my mates had and it was coloured red and white due to the wood being nicked from a disused signal box near Highams playing fields. Memory sucks now but think I got the wheels trading for some beauty marbles and a gun that fired pigeon peas (secagun??)

Remember my dad dragging me up in the middle of the night (6am), so that he could put his toolbox on it for me to drag to the bus stop when he started his new job

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Trolley in Summer and sled in winter down the back street of Oswald/Bold St - straight across Washington St - no brakes of course so a few near misses. Happy days.

Home made carts!
 

You aint really trollied till you been down warwick street, many a worn out pair of shoes trying to stop before Buckingham Grove.

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I reckon NASA used the EVAC techniques used by us guys on out of control trolleys for moon landings and for designing the mars rover :D

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I remember going down Peel Park Ave across Burnley Rd with a lookout and down Carlisle Ave !!!!

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But what about the cardboard and styrofoam? :confused:;)

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Yeh probably I don't recall the exact name of the place - I just remember it was quite a climb to get in and out, over some fences. They were off old wheel chairs and had been taken off and I think even had breaks with a lever and also metal frame/axil (some even had suspension springs but they were hard to come by) - the pram wheels didn't last as long as these - they were much stronger. I think we only did if for a year or 2 at most - bit of a fad...

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That would defo be Fred Millers Kes. can remember it clearly, as was next door virtually to Sterling Dog Foods, a place we had a fad fer snaffling Dog Biscuits fer a year or 2.:D

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The chassis of the fred Miller invalid cars made great go carts. A relative of mine worked at Fred Millers as a mechanic and when the motability scheme came in the old invalid cars were phased out. He had the job of braking them.

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what about Rose Street for trolley riders then?
Another thing we used to do was get proven sacks from Farmer Nelson and these were just great for sliding down Riley's Hill on the grass.......we used to have races......the going down the hill was great....but the run back to the top was a bit of a pain.

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Yeh I remember using a hot poker to make holes in the wood but don't know why we didn't use a drill!?

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I don't know if Black & Decker-type electric drills were around (or if they were, if they were affordable) in the early 1950s, whereas most people had coal fires so a hot poker was available and didn't need a long electric cable. Plus a poker would burn a decent sized hole quite quickly in one go to fit a half inch or similar size bolt. Incidentally we tried linking together more than two trolleys, but issues such as snaking led to instability problems and low speeds, perhaps because the front trolley wasn't actually pulling the trailing ones and for some of the time it was being pushed.

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Memories of hurtling down the freshly laid tarmac on Laburnum Drive in Ossy spring to mind and not giving a monkey's chuff if there was a car coming. Had some near do's there but nothing too serious. Worst one was avoiding a van and ending up bending a garage door but of course, that never happened - honest!

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But hand drills were cheap and in use - so we could have used them? I think we used the hot poker for the holes that the rope was thread through.

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I don't remember sacks - but I recall using good sheets of cardboard for sliding down the slopes of the coppice, which was good - I once bust a lads arm (gary davies) by accident. Also the stryofoam was used for swimming in the quarry.

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This thread has brought back so many memories (but not of Accrington – as I lived elsewhere).

There was a time when I thought I had invented the idea of the cart, I hadn't of course, I must have seen one somewhere. The idea to build one was born out of desperation. Whilst visiting relatives in the Manchester area I had seen what I now know was an extremely privileged child who's Christmas present was a factory built 'pedal car' WITH LIGHTS. I had to have one but of course it was way beyond my parents means to buy such a toy (and they would not have even if they could afford it). This was the trigger that made me 'invent' the idea. The box was no problem, cadged from the fruit and veg man who came round twice a week. I cannot remember where the plank came from, but the wheels were a BIG BIG problem. For ages the cart sat in the back yard with no wheels, but it did have lights! The lights came from my parents bicycles and the brackets to attach them from flattened baked bean tins.

It was frustrating - no wheels! My friend saw what I had built, he built one, he had wheels (from his sister's pram), my blood boiled. Eventually I found an old pram in a local stream, and I got into big trouble, I and my clothes got very muddy recovering the pram. In fact I got into trouble twice, once for getting my clothes dirty and secondly for having gone into the stream to get the pram out (dangerous). So I was grounded, had wheels, not allowed out to fit and try them!!!!

It wasn't until about 50 years later that I saw another pedal car like the one I saw in Manchester and that one was in a Museum of Childhood, they may have been available but they were only for the privileged few.

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The sacks worked in the same way, but they seemed more durable......and were easier to carry back up the hill.
I don't remember styrofoam being freely available back in my day......I am talking mid to late 50's.

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We used a brace and bit to drill the holes. Handraulically powered.
The nuts, bolts and washers pinched from Lupton's yard.

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But Dave, you were pretty rich compered to the rest of us, besided having a brace and bit in the late fifties, you had a movie camera in the very early sixties. I got all the stuff for my cart from Jim Bullcocks scrap yard at the bottom of Crown street. Didnt last long though we didnt have any tarmac roads in our area.

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Ha ha Mog...the brace and bit was courtesy of the Rawnsley lads offa' Wilfred Street think it was their uncles who lived across the back on Augusta Street. :D

Another note: You never see proper pram wheels these days.

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We used to go in Cubitts (building site) for our DIY needs, after dark of course.:rolleyes:

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OK well there is 15 years difference - so maybe it wasn't available then - we used to get big blocks of styrofoam from some factory, - made a hell of a mess though when people broke them into bits.

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Today I had a big surprise. I was expecting a delivery and therefore keeping an eye on the road outside when to my surprise I observed three children were playing in the road. This is not something I normally see, it's so rare I was momentarily tempted to check that the phone (internet) and television were working. However what really caught my attention was the fact that they were playing with what could be loosely described as a 'home made cart'.

Ok it wasn't quite what we used to make in the 50's and 60's with a box, a long plank for the chassis and a short plank for the front axle. It was more like a big home made sit on skate board, small wire spoked pram wheels (with suspension springs) and a long broad plank to sit on. Steering was not done with the feet but by leaning, there appeared to be some sort of rubber straps connecting the front and rear axles. Clearly this steering system needed more development as the results appeared to be subject to random chance as much as intention.

The most surprising thing was that this was home-made, I genuinely cannot remember the last time I saw a child playing with anything home-made.

(OFF TOPIC) does anyone know why delivery men insist on knocking on double glazed doors (which cannot be heard) instead or ringing bells (which can be heard)?

Re: Home made carts!
 

steal one bin hole cover from the Well's (neighbours)
steal wood planks from Riley's (Dale st) along with a few snooker balls
find "abandoned" pram, remove wheel by bashing the hell out of it
find rusty bent nails on the back staighten em with brick
bash nails into bin cover and plank with half brick
burn hole in planks with poker attach small plank
fix wheels on rear and small plank by bending nails over wheel axle
fix string to front wheels
ride halfway down cobbled Porter st /Leyland St/Percival st or similar
pick up pieces and reasemble with more rusty nails

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We called them bogeys in Gt. Harwood. I know because in 1957 my older cousin was carrying 3 year old me on his back for a 'horsey ride'. He tripped over his bogey and landed right on top of my ankle! An ambulance came to take me to hospital (still remember the scratchy red blankets) for an X-ray. It was a small fracture, so no cast but my Grandma wrapped my ankle up with 'Knit bone' leaves (comfrey). Thanks for the memories, and I enjoyed reading your blog from 2008 Margaret :)

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We called them trolleys and there was always some kid in the area with one. Many happy memories flying down the street on one, pram wheels for a base, wooden slats for a seat and a rope to steer it! ��

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I lived on Within Grove in Huncoat from 1958 until I married in 1976. I was born in 1952 so in the early sixties I too got into building home made 'Trolleys'. I remember when they widened the bottom of Bolton Avenue into an access road for the Industrial Estate down there. My friends and I used to call it 'The New Road' and as no industry arrived for a few years it provided us with a super downhill track for racing our 'Trolleys'.
In the long summer holidays we used to have daily 'Grand Prix' events with quite strict rules about starting etc...chalk lines marked across the road for a 'pushing off' area....finishing line marked between two grates at the bottom and points awarded for finishing positions in every race and points totted up for overall winners! I suppose we were using 'Spread Sheets' of our own making long before they got that name!
There was one big problem however, which was that about four yards beyond the finish line we were required to undertake a right angle turn either to the left or right onto Whinney Hill Road and it was 50 / 50 if you got round the corner ....
a) without rolling over and skinning your hips and elbows or...
b) without buckling a couple of wheels!
We spent endless hours down there and I can remember ruining many pairs of "Tuff Shoes for Boys" as the toes were used for braking in order to get round the corners! A pair would usually last me about a fortnight!
The fastest trolley that I ever made was built up around the top of an old 'Ironing Board' and had sturdy pram wheels about 6 inches in diameter. I used to roll over sideways regularly but never buckled the wheels.
Long, sunny, happy days!:biggrin8: