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?

Re: Home made carts!
 

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.

Re: Home made carts!
 

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

Re: Home made carts!
 

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

Re: Home made carts!
 

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

Re: Home made carts!
 

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!!

Re: Home made carts!
 

Nicked them from Fred Millers

Re: Home made carts!
 

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!

Re: Home made carts!
 

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

Re: Home made carts!
 

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.

Re: Home made carts!
 

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 !!!!

Re: Home made carts!
 

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

Re: Home made carts!
 

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...