PINGEEK'S PINS: Zephyr (2), Bally, 1938

ZEPHYR, Bally, 1938

I actually owned two of these rare pins, based on the Pioneer Zephyr from 1934, a train that averaged speeds as fast as 77 mph, according to The Internet Pinball Database. They were side by side at The York Show so I bought the pair back in October, 2000, and sold them near the end of 2001, due to lack of space.

Both have different bumper layouts. This one has two groups of numbered bumpers, which is the one shown in the promotional ad for this pin. The other one I owned had only one set of numbered bumpers, and was therefore less common.

There is no on/off switch. That wouldn't exist until around 1964 I think. You cut the game on by placing a penny in the coin mech, and pushing the lever. After you have finished the game or left it idle, a timer under the playfield shuts the game down automatically after about 2 minutes. Tilt, lose the game, and you're out a whole penny.

Be sure to check out Zephyr at The Internet Pinball Database. Notice the playfield on one particular Zephyr has lights and art, as opposed to a plain metal playfield with no lamps. So, there were apparently three versions of this pins produced, not counting the listing of Zephyr Junior at The Internet Pinball Database, produced a few months after Zephyr, and to date, I have never seen a photo of this game, unfortunately. I also have no idea who did the artwork for any of the Zephyr pins, but if you know, EMAIL ME. Thanks.

The late Russ Jensen, pinball historian, told me shortly after I bought these two pins, that there were actually a few others produced with an all metal playfield. The ones he mentioned were Bally's Mercury, and Exhibit's Track Meet , both from July, 1937.

I took these pics using my now obsolete Sony FD7 Mavicam, which uses 3.5 inch discs. I retired in this camera in 2005, and have since switched to a Vivitar Vivicam 3750 digital camera.

CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Unfortunately, this cabinet has been repainted. Looks somebody was feeling a bit patriotic.

This is a pic of the other Zephyr pin I owned, with the original paint intact.

Well, at least the sides matched.

A shot of the front. Amazingly enough, the coin door was still present.

Here's a shot of the playfield, showing two sets of numbered bumpers.

The thin tray which holds the instruction cards and covers up where the balls drain was missing from this game.

The original Bally factory sticker though, was still mostly intact.

Here's a closer look.

This sticker was on the left at the top of the playfield, still somewhat intact. What the sticker says is "10% Federal Excise Tax Paid On This Machine." Excise tax started in the 30's with liquor and beer, then later was added to amusement machines.

Here's the upper part of the playfield, showing the first set of numbered bumpers.

Here's the bottom half of the playfield, showing the second set of numbered bumpers. My other Zephyr had a cluster of small bumpers not numbered on this part of the playfield and the tops were all green.

No reset button here! Put penny in, push lever, and your game has begun.

This coin mech was a bit rough and kinda stuck at times.

The good news is that the missing coin door here is really just cosmetic. Sometimes these older pins had the coin mech on the door, so if you were missing the door, the coin mech was missing in action too.

If this ball shooter/ball lift combo is missing, you're really out of luck. Believe it or not though, at The York Show 2007, there was one of these assemblies sitting in a box of parts in the flea market area.

Here's a repro instruction card, which came with this pin. Here's the original as shown on my other Zephyr.

A front view of the game.

No score reels here.

Not much in the cabinet.

Not much under the playfield either.

The backglass was no gem. Notice the stain and what appeared to be a crack but was actually a nasty scratch.

The reds have faded to pink.

Look at the detail of the art in the backglass. By the way, if you collect Lionel trains, expect to pay mucho dinero for ones that look like this. They are hard to find and quite collectible.

Here's a closer look at the bottom half of the backglass. You can score in the hundreds and thousands.

The original backdoor was missing in action, so somebody got creative with a sheet of I guess pressboard. Across from this pin is the Zaxxon vid I used to own.

This is where all the guts are.

This is a copy of the original ad which the late Russ Jensen emailed to me shortly after I got these games in 2000. I think it was originally published in Billboard Magazine. Click on the image and you will see a mention of the new "wandering thousand" score system and also that this game is adjustable to 4 or 5 ball settings, as opposed to 3 or 5 ball settings used in later pins.

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