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Need a secondhand car, or four?
McCOOK, Nebraska -- It was ultimately the thought of having to mow around 220 feet of track that made Greg Trosper decide what to do with his 1950's-era carnival ride.
Greg, of McCook, Nebraska, bought the four cars -- and their 220 feet of track -- after discovering them on a farm near Orleans. As he waited for fuel for the dozer he was operating, Greg and the farmer negotiated a deal. The farmer said that Orleans had had its own rides, but had gone in with Furnas County's home-owned carnival on a Ferris wheel and parked the little cars.
Greg bought the carnival ride thinking he would put the track up at his sister's and mom's acreage north of McCook, and his grandsons would have fun riding in the cars.
"But Sharla told me I'd be mowing around all 220 feet of track," Greg laughed, so he's decided to sell the ride.
It's not that Sharla doesn't like the ride -- she even contemplated running the train through holes cut in the sides of her garden shed. "You know, a tunnel?" she laughed. Sharla thought the cars might really be cute as landscaping ... maybe in a rock garden ... hmmm ...
"Paint one hot pink? You know, a pink Cadillac?" Sharla laughed.
But the thought of all that mowing around the track ...
The little cars used to run around the track powered by electricity, but at some point the ride was converted to a five-horse motor in the orange, lead car. "The cars are Fiberglas, but they're heavy," Greg said.
Greg said he might end up selling just the cars, maybe one here, one there, if that's where the interest is. There's lots of iron in the track, but still, he said, he'd really hate to scrap it. He's hoping someone will buy it lock-stock-and-barrel, and have fun restoring it or using it as it is.
"I'm used to buying old cars," Greg said, grinning. "But these are my first carnival ride cars."
Contact Greg at (308)340-2879.