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First Peddle Car - First Pedal Car

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Wendy

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John_and_Robert_in_Car_Dad_built.jpg


Here's a photo of my brothers in the peddle car my Dad built for them. The photo was taken at the back of the house in Coleraine Road Great Barr about 1948/49.
 
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What a lovely photo Moma P and what a lovely car your Dad built, don't suppose they ever got out of it and of course they wanted to take it to bed:D
 
Hi Moma p, that is a lovely photo. When my son was about 3 yrs old we bought him a Tonka (do you remember them) it was a replica Volkswagon beetle, just like his Grandads, unfortunately my son thought he should be able to get into it, it was about 6 inches long, when he found the car doors would'nt open he threw it across the room, luckily it did'nt do any damage but that night he went to bed with a smacked bottom. At 36 i still remind him about that show of temper.
 
Lovely photo Mom P, and no doubt great memories for your brothers.

We bought our son Steve a peddle car at Christmas 1962, it was a winter to remember everywhere was covered in ice for weeks, so he couldn't play outside with it. Luckily we lived in a big old flat in Fentham Road, near the then Villa training ground, so he could peddle it along the landing and into one bedroom through into another bedroom then out again to complete his circle. He did this for two months until we left the flat, the ice went and he had a garden to play in.:)
 
Hello all, I am glad the photo sparked some memories. My Dad was an engineer, he was an Aston lad I can still remember him affectionatly calling Mom our wench. Sometimes I am glad he isn't around to see what is happening to our manufacturing in Birmingham.
 
First Pedal Car

On my son's 2nd Christmas the month before he was two years old, his dad insisted Father Christmas would bring him a pedal car (he never had one when he was young). We bought it from the House that Jack Built and it cost £7.10/- almost a week's wages, it was white, with red leather upholstery, steering wheel, lights and a horn. What happened Christmas morning? he just crawled in and out of the box it came in. When he was taken outside the little girl next door but one, got in it, and he pushed her doll and pram!!! Kids.
 
I never had one of these but a friend on the Pheasy Estate did. We could sit two in it and freewheel down a hill on the road. Not many full size cars around in those days. I never could get the hang of the push peddles there must be a trick to them. If I remember rightly the pedals were connected to two rods that ran to the back axle and opperated an eccentric. Whatever, I think we had the most fun by pushing it up to the top of the hill and free wheeling down with our feet up. The war was on, the US soldiers were all around but our world was the little red car and the hill. Never did get to stear it though. What a super job, the one in your picture. Nice big wheels.
 
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:angel: My best friend Danny Jones who lived across the road from me in Dymoke St had one of those 'Army Jeeps'. The car was dark green with a white star on the front, this was a few years after the war 1952ish. We would also freewheel down Angelina St if our Mom's weren't around and get a clip around the ear if they caught us.
Sad to say poor Danny told everyone I was his girlfriend, because we went to the same school on Mosley Rd for visually impaired children and I played with him a lot in the street after school. Truth is I only played with him because he always had great expensive toys and I never had any of my own. I remember calling him names because he would cry a lot for what seemed to me no reason, Mom always said it was because he was a mommies boy and was spoiled too much. (I must have been a right little B...h back then).
 
My first pedal car was an American Wily Jeep replica. It had a jerry can on the back and was painted dark green. When I started at the village school Mom let me pedal it to the gate and leave it outside the until school end. My friend Simon was a bit posh, his Dad was the bank manager. One Christmas he got the car we all envied.

https://www.austinworks.com/pedalcar.html

Simon's car was blue and had the optional electric lights fitted. Although it looked great it was heavy and difficult to pedal but the boot opened and you could keep your jam sandwiches in it.
They were made by disabled miners in South Wales.
 
Moma P wrote:
...My Dad was an engineer, he was an Aston lad I can still remember him affectionatly calling Mom our wench...
Click to expand...
It's clear to see he was an engineer - looks like he designed a prototype of the Jeep Wrangler - great, go anywhere car! :cool:
 
Here's my peddle car on a sunny day during 2nd World War.
Me driving, my sister in the trailer.
I remember pedalling it and trailer all the way from Beeches Estate Great Barr to my Grans in Perry Common, with a bit of help up the hill of Greenholm Rd.
Wheels on it look good - tyres and spokes - and I'm wearing a uniform !
Greenholm_Hill.jpg
 
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Just look at the cluster of instruments on the dash board - bet they took some figuring out. :redface:... Great car! :)
 
This Pic is of my Cousin in his new Peddle Car being watched over by my Dad & Aunt SOME TIME IN THE 1930s
ASTON
 
What lucky kids to have such beautiful cars and some of them homemade.
They are all well...... wonderful. I'm afraid we only ran to rope guided wood frame jobs where we lived. Wheels were always at a premium. My youngest brother did much better and received one of those Austin convertible model cars in his first decade.
 
Jennyanne, sounds like my experience. A central plank and axels and wheels from some old pram. Wooden cross pieces for the axels to be fixed to, which were firmly attached at the rear and pivoting at the front. You sat on a rudimetary seat attached to the plank and steared with the ropes and your feet resting on the front axle. Ahhh... but we had a development department and someones father who was into stuff. We had a stearing column that passed through the plank and rotatable. Below on the rotatable column was a spool around which the rope was wound and then the ends attached to the outer ends of the of the front pivoting axle forming a triangle. So that when you turned the wheel, pinned to the column above, you could stear the device. Not Akkerman cocha but it worked...as long as you could find a hill or someone to push. Far better than the posh stuff. Experiences like these created learning that may have been the start of carreers in later life and you know what, making something was a lot more fun. You also learned that you don't always ride. Sometimes you get to push.
 
Rupert I remember my brothers trolly well. It could also be steered also. It was bugundy red with a large white sputnick on the front. The trolly was called Sputnick. I used to sit infront of my brother on this contraption he would steer and we would travel down our road at break neck speed! I remember they had a piece of wood that was pulled up for the brake. I think all the extras were down to our very inventive Dad.
 
Found this very old photo of my brother and dad with his first peddle car and my dad. Jean.
 
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Alf, I used to go to Wincups as a very young boy in the early fifties. I can remember staying in a caravan there. I'll try and find a photo, but in the meantime, here's a picture of my brother and me in our pedal car in about 1953.

DougDaveinpedalcar.jpg
 
No, my dad was a heavy smoker - That was enough. Anyway, the slightest whiff of tobacco smoke makes me wheeze like a battered old accordian.
 
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