Apparatus for starting and terminating a toy vehicle race

Claim 1

A mechanism for starting and terminating a race between toy vehicles adapted to race along a toy track formed with a racing course shaped to guide the vehicles from a starting position to a terminating position; said mechanism comprising: a track section provided with vehicle retaining stalls with guideway courses shaped for transfer of vehicles from said stalls to said racing course, each of said vehicle stalls being provided with releasable vehicle retaining means, means for controlling the vehicle retaining stalls for simultaneous release of a plurality of vehicles upon start of a race, means for diverting racing vehicles from the racing course to the vehicle stalls, a stall selector located between the vehicle stalls and the diverting means responsive to an earlier arriving vehicle to direct a later arriving vehicle away from an occupied stall to an empty vehicle stall whereby to arrange the racing vehicles in the order of their arrival, said stall selector being pivotally mounted to the track section, one end of said stall selector protruding into a first vehicle guideway leading to a first vehicle stall for pivotal actuation by a vehicle entering said first stall, and the other end of the stall selector extending to the entrance to a second vehicle stall, said other stall selector end having the shape of a switch block with a first vehicle guide surface shaped to close entry of the second vehicle stall and a second vehicle guide surface shaped to divert vehicles to the second vehicle stall upon pivotal actuation of said stall selector whereby arriving vehicles are directed into vehicle stalls in the order of their arrival, said means for controlling the vehicle stalls including a start slide movably mounted to the track section and operatively coupled with each of the vehicle stalls to effect vehicle release and vehicle retention by the stalls upon movement of the start slide, said start slide being provided with reset means operatively engaging the stall selector for reset thereof upon start slide movement.

Claim 3

An apparatus for starting and finishing a toy vehicle race over track sections having a vehicle racing course; comprising: a start-finish track section of generally flat structure formed with an upper plate provided with an interconnected vehicle racing course and vehicle guideways, vehicle retaining stalls operatively associated with said vehicle guideways to receive vehicles traveling therealong, vehicle actuated stall selectors operatively located between the vehicle retaining staLls and the racing course, said stall selectors being arranged to divert arriving vehicles to the stalls in the order of their arrival, means for operating said vehicle retaining stalls in unison to launch a plurality of vehicles simultaneously into the racing course, means for switching the vehicles from the racing course into the vehicle guideways towards the vehicle retaining stalls, said vehicle retaining means being formed of a plurality of vehicle brake arms each disposed alongside a vehicle guideway for movement relative thereto and a start slide supported beneath the upper plate and operatively coupled to each of the vehicle brake arms whereby operative movement of said braking arms occurs in response to movement of the start slide, and means for coupling the start slide to the brake arms, said coupling means including cam slots and cam slot follower pins, said cam slots being provided with respective idle segments substantially parallel to the direction of movement of the start slide and respective active segments oriented to cause movement of the brake arms, at leas one of said cam slots having its active segment in leading relationship, and at least one other of said cam slots having its active segment in trailing relationship, with their respective idle segments, whereby a given direction of start slide movement provides sequential operation of the brake arms with said leading segment and trailing segment cam slots.

Claim 4

An apparatus for starting and finishing a toy vehicle race over track sections having a vehicle racing course; comprising: a start-finish track section of generally flat structure formed with an upper plate provided with an interconnected vehicle racing course and vehicle guideways, vehicle retaining stalls operatively associated with said vehicle guideways to receive vehicles traveling therealong, vehicle actuated stall selectors operatively located between the vehicle retaining staLls and the racing course, said stall selectors being arranged to divert arriving vehicles to the stalls in the order of their arrival, means for operating said vehicle retaining stalls in unison to launch a plurality of vehicles simultaneously into the racing course, means for switching the vehicles from the racing course into the vehicle guideways towards the vehicle retaining stalls, said vehicle retaining means being formed of a plurality of vehicle brake arms each disposed alongside a vehicle guideway for movement relative thereto and a start slide supported beneath the upper plate and operatively coupled to each of the vehicle brake arms whereby operative movement of said braking arms occurs in response to movement of the start slide, and means for coupling the start slide to the brake arms, said coupling means including cam slots and cam slot follower pins, said cam slots being provided with respective idle segments substantially parallel to the direction of movement of the start slide and respective active segments oriented to cause movement of the brake arms, at leas one of said cam slots having its active segment in leading relationship, and at least one other of said cam slots having its active segment in trailing relationship, with their respective idle segments, whereby a given direction of start slide movement provides sequential operation of the brake arms with said leading segment and trailing segment cam slots.