(Topic ID: 328124)

1951 Genco Hits and Runs

By KevinRobin56

1 year ago



Topic Stats

  • 8 posts
  • 4 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 1 year ago by Pinfidel
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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#1 1 year ago

Picked up this 1951 Genco Hits and runs Woodrail to restore. It’s definitely pretty rough but I feel like with some time it would be a cool game to have.
From what I can tell it’s been messed around with by someone in the past , couple holes in the playfield from added posts , and a 3rd pop bumper that’s been added (disappointing that someone desecrated the playfield like that)
Stepper motors/scoring wheels all need to be gone through as they’re seized. The back glass is rough but I haven’t decided what to do with it if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them !
Game already has had a modern rectifier put in so that’s nice.
Wood rails will all be refinished, and I’m torn about the cabinet it’s rough but I kinda like the patina
And the rest will just been cleaning, new rubbers, light bulbs, etc.

It’s rough but for how cheap it was I couldn’t pass it up and I’ve always wanted to mess around with a old woodrail pinball!

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#2 1 year ago

Love those old Gencos. There was a thread here years ago on this game which someone had restored. Try doing a search.

#4 1 year ago

jrpinball thanks for the link, will definitely be giving it a read! And same can't wait to get it going, always wanted a woodrail

#5 1 year ago
Quoted from KevinRobin56:

always wanted a woodrail

And a Genco too. My first woodrail was a Gottlieb "Wagon Train". Only had one Genco ever, and I sold it. Kinda regret it now, but it's in a good home.
BTW, there's a woodrail pinball thread here in the EM subforum.
You can post photos and progress on your game there as well. Nice find!

1 week later
#6 1 year ago

Enclosing some pix and a video of my restoration:

I’m partial to the ‘50s woodrails and particularly fond of the Genco, Gottlieb and Williams games. I know one is taking their chances when trying to restore these old woodies as replacement parts are very hard to find. However, this was a title I had been quietly searching for and it appeared from the seller’s pictures that this machine was in nice original condition. The seller did say he had it in storage and it hadn’t been played in years. As such, I took a chance that the game would be restorable with some effort.

Not surprisingly, there was the expected amount of work to free frozen steppers, reflow some solder joints, replace bulbs and tidy up. The game did have enough good bones that the playfield cleaned up nicely and all the wood was lightly sanded and polished. The previous owner(s) had worked on the game over its past…someone knew to put in a solid state bridge to bypass the old selenium rectifier. Clearly makes a difference with the power to the flippers and pop bumpers. They also added an on/off switch to the power cord…not how I would do it, but it works fine and doesn’t beg to be replaced. Apparently, the ball lift assembly had been missing and was cleverly replaced with a modified bolt which works perfectly.

As common with some of the older games, there is an “egg timer” assembly that will start ticking each time the game is started and after a few minutes, if no additional play is initiated, the timer will shut off the electric to the playfield. Was pleased to see this timer actually working, since it is a common feature that breaks down over time.

The backbox, by design, had three incandescent bulbs to light up the backglass It was evident that the heat of the bulbs had started to crack the paint of the glass as there is some flecking close to the old bulbs. I promptly replaced then with no heat LED bulbs. The game has two large bells in the cabinet that sound when different activity takes place, ie, hits and runs, and both bell assemblies, fortunately came back to life with some cleaning.

A cute feature of the game are the two ball player figurines at the top of the playfield that oscillate when the score motor moves. The game did not come with the original figurines, but a suitable replacement was used.

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1 week later
#7 1 year ago

@oldcarz
What a beautiful game you have! Great to see there's still some of these out there. I torn into mine this week, rebuilt the stepper units as they were all frozen solid. Cleaned what's left of the playfield and order some new rings and lights for it(still waiting for them to arrive) all the rollovers and buttons and point switches are gonna need an adjustment. My game was also someone's project as it's had a bridge rectifier upgrade, and an added 3rd pop bumper (which is a shame cause it was a hacked install), needs a couple grounds fixed and some contacts cleaned.

My game still has the great “egg timer” that these old games had and seems to be working and doing its job still so I’m definitely keeping that. The cabinet was missing its power cord so replaced it with a good quality cord with a ground (not sure if the came grounded from the manufacturer back in the day)
My game is also missing the little figures the spin so been hunting for something scale I can replace them with but no luck yet!

Your back glass looks beautiful compared to mine, I’m not sure if I wanna even try to touch it but it’s pretty cracked up and flaking, maybe I’ll send it out for repair not sure yet.
The wood on my game needs to be refinished along with I might build some new legs for it and 3 of mine are split

I’ve definitely got a long ways to go yet but I’m having lots of fun and I think it’s important to keep these old games around and running !

Thanks for the photos and information!

#8 1 year ago

I remember that thread. I checked in now and again. Really cool. I just can't believe that was 8 years ago. My goodness does time fly.

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