I received a package in the mail that contains a couple more manuals, on loan from Arlow in British Columbia. He provided some information that I already had, but 2 manuals that are slightly different than any of the other manuals.
For whatever reason, it seems like Aktiv made very slight changes to their manuals even if the actual parts did not change too much from year to year. I could not figure out a date for Arlow's manual, but I would guess them to be roughly 1970. One of them refers to "Track Master" and that name was changed in 1973 to "Snow Master". So we know the manuals are before 1973. The "Track Master" name was first used in 1966. So the manuals must from 1966 through 1972. I have a 1972 manual, and Arlow's is not identical to mine, so that further narrows the date to pre-1972.
What I don't know is when they changed from 6 lower bogey wheels to 4 lower bogey wheels with one large front wheel. I think, but am not sure, that they changed in the late 1960's. These manuals show drawings with one large front wheel & 4 lower bogey wheels.
What I found interesting is that there were 4 different exhaust pipe configurations in Arlow's manual.
The exhaust configurations included serial numbers, so with a bit of digging, I should be able to better date the manual.
Of course it is also possible that his manual, which is not an original, is a composite manual that contains parts of several manuals! In any event, I will be making digital copies of these manuals over the next day or two. The copies will be added to the CD-Roms that I make up and will be available to any ForumsForums member who requests them.
For whatever reason, it seems like Aktiv made very slight changes to their manuals even if the actual parts did not change too much from year to year. I could not figure out a date for Arlow's manual, but I would guess them to be roughly 1970. One of them refers to "Track Master" and that name was changed in 1973 to "Snow Master". So we know the manuals are before 1973. The "Track Master" name was first used in 1966. So the manuals must from 1966 through 1972. I have a 1972 manual, and Arlow's is not identical to mine, so that further narrows the date to pre-1972.
What I don't know is when they changed from 6 lower bogey wheels to 4 lower bogey wheels with one large front wheel. I think, but am not sure, that they changed in the late 1960's. These manuals show drawings with one large front wheel & 4 lower bogey wheels.
What I found interesting is that there were 4 different exhaust pipe configurations in Arlow's manual.
The exhaust configurations included serial numbers, so with a bit of digging, I should be able to better date the manual.Of course it is also possible that his manual, which is not an original, is a composite manual that contains parts of several manuals! In any event, I will be making digital copies of these manuals over the next day or two. The copies will be added to the CD-Roms that I make up and will be available to any ForumsForums member who requests them.
