Racing Timing Systems with Neon

[J Forbes]

Tell me about this...maybe you'll have to do some reverse engineering to do so...

[Nicholas Stock]

Dekatron stopwatch?

On Mon, Nov 9, 2026 at 7:27 AM J Forbes <jfor...@gmail.com> wrote:

Tell me about this...maybe you'll have to do some reverse engineering to do so...

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[Dekatron42]

Love it!

Big boys kitchen timer?

I spoke to a Swedish gentleman many years ago who told me he was part of a team building a totalisator for horse racing in Gothenburg where Ericsson were using both their largest GR10G Nixies as well as early Dekatrons and a lot of vacuum tubes to run the system, sadly he couldn't find any old photos or any other information when we were in contact. I tried to locate some but never found any. Maybe this is it?

/Martin

[David]

This looks like a very early Dekatron two-lane drag race timer. Probably 1950s build date, judging from the postwar box. 

It’s interesting that the builder couldn’t be bothered to put any labels on the box. So we can guess.

The left three digits of each row could be n.nn seconds with a 10 second neon to the left. 

The three tight digits of each row could be 0.nnn seconds through the traps for MPH lookup in the huge paper chart being held below the instrument, with the right neon lamp indicating the winner (first person to reach the finish line). 

Later mass-produced drag race timers used Nixie tubes but were otherwise very similar.

David Forbes, Tucson AZ

On Nov 9, 2026, at 8:27 AM, J Forbes <jfor...@gmail.com> wrote:



Tell me about this...maybe you'll have to do some reverse engineering to do so...

<timing01.jpg>

<timing02.jpg>

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<timing01.jpg>

<timing02.jpg>