Help - what is this?

It's a General Models Handcar.

Thanks so much!  

Its a great little car.  Only goes one way, not reversible I guess, but it flies around pretty fast and it makes a lot of sparks for some reason which is fun.  Interestingly the lightbulb works great.

Really appreciate it!

Technically, the description on the box is wrong. In the real train world, that is known as a "speeder". Never seen one of those before, or maybe I just wasn't looking that hard. It's kind of like a no frills version of Lionel's #50 gang.

Sparks? Try cleaning the wheels and center pickup and your track. Sparking can wear out the pickups.

  Yes, it only goes one direction. There is one warning in the instructions for the speeder - you are cautioned not to run it for extended periods of time - unfortunately, they don't get any more specific than that.

Great find....love it....I want one...

It will overheat quickly. You must give it a push to start, it will not stat on it's own. If you are lucky it will go around the layout once before stopping. Sparking is normal with this. If you look closely at the wheels, you can see the make and break contacts.

Great stuff! Get some Evapo-Rust for the track. Soak it in a plastic tub. Rinse it, dry it and buff the rails with a scotch bite pad. Use sand paper on the pins and spin some inside the ends of the hollow rails. You can get that track to work!

George

Thanks all!  Yes, I noticed the “push” start, thought it was just because it was old!  Will work on the track, though O see Menards has new track pretty reasonably priced.  I have some 042 manual switches - will get it all going!  And the thing is fast it really whips around

That’s the way it was designed was to push start.

They made a scale down sized trolley also if not mentioned.

Great find- thanks for sharing.

Welcome to the Forum. Keep us posted on your progress.

Bob

The company also made a trolley similar to the Lionel version.