# Question, Arnold track?



## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

The track is made in West Germany.
The track is green and gray. Looks like it is for battery powered cars or even wind up cars. The track has no electric connections at all.
The track is about 1/43 sized...
Any info?
Thanks,
scott


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Have any pictures? rr


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

> _Scott sez:_ The track is made in West Germany.
> The track is green and gray. Looks like it is for battery powered cars or even wind up cars. The track has no electric connections at all.
> The track is about 1/43 sized...
> Any info?


*Arnold Minimobil*

Arnold of Germany, one of the oldest toymaking firms in the world, invented it (I think) and marketed it in Europe in the '60s as the *Minimobil* system. Matchbox licensed the system from Arnold and marketed it in the UK and US as the *Matchbox Motorway*. Under the slot of each lane was a loooooooong coil spring that ran the length of the whole track and attached to its own tail, like the wyrm Ouroboros. 

A motor in a building next to the track rotates a gear which keeps the spring constantly moving along the slot. You take your Matchbox car (_any_ Matchbox car or any other small model vehicle) and stick a self-adhesive guide pin on the bottom. Then the moving spring carries the car down the track.

The main attraction, I'd guess, was that you could put a bunch of cars in each lane, and they'd never catch up to each other, so you could model a highway with traffic constantly passing by, as part of your model railroad or scenic layout. You could animate your fave Matchbox vehicles of any sort. Nifty system. Great for selling die-casts, too, and vice versa.

Voltage to the track motor can be varied, changing the speed of the spring and any and all cars attached to it. So you can race cars in different lanes, but the car itself probably doesn't affect the speed much - if you get one lane with a slow motor and one with a fast motor, you're kind of stuck in an uneven race, whatever cars you put on it.

If you have matched lane speeds, you can race Matchbox's pencil-dink '60s F-1 cars that are close to scale proportions, since the car bodies don't have to be bloated up to contain the motor. I don't know if the springs could move fast enough to make the cars deslot on curves, but if not, I'm sure you could substitute a higher-voltage transformer and really set them flying, if the springs and track could handle the extra speed.

I have wanted a set for years and years. I was watching them come up on e-Bay for a while, and nearly bid a few times, but those always seemed to be the times when somebody reeeeely wanted the example in the auction and the prices got too high. Most of the sets that come up are Matchbox, but an Arnold set would be even nicer, since I also collect (well, 'accumulate' would be a better word) Arnold trains. Haven't checked for a some time, maybe I'll give it another try.

Do you have a set you want to part with, Scott?

-- D


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

*Pictures*

*Pics of the Arnold Minimobil/Matchbox Motorway.*

A Dutch ad for the Minimobil system as marketed in Europe by Arnold:










The Matchbox Motorway version marketed in the UK and US. Note the layout is an overpass offset figure-8:










Contents of Matchbox Motorway set:










The powerhouse track section. The yellow building containing the motor and gearing, powers the track-spring from this section:


















Racing-style thumb-plunger controllers. I'll bet the original version had "set 'em and leave 'em" dial controllers for simulating highway traffic.










I put up these and a few more images of the set on my Photobucket Forum Pix Album.

Can't help it. I just have a weakness for orphan systems and alternative approaches.  

-- D


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Did they make snowmobiles?


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

NTxSlotCars said:


> Did they make snowmobiles?


Chuckle.  No, but if you take the gear-plate off your Aurora snomo, and put the pin in the slot, I'll bet it'd move right down the track.

Rats. Now I have to buy two sets - one to paint the track white on.:freak:

-- D


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

*Dslot...*

No, it is not a set.
All I have is the track. And it is a bit dirty.
Would you want it?

Scott


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

noddaz said:


> No, it is not a set.
> All I have is the track. And it is a bit dirty.
> Would you want it?


I sent you a PM, Scott. Thanks.


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