I saw this at the flea market the other day and I can't remember if this was the set that Zen was talking about or not.

I did not. It looked to be in great shape. I thought it was the one that he described as having the spring in the grove and the little pins that let you slot car any hot wheels car you had. I may be mixing some stories up, but I thought this was the one.

Speaking of a Matchbox Motorway #12 . . . I got one!  I gave up on getting a complete, mint-in-the-box set for under $25 so I started bidding on bits and pieces.  A couple of weeks ago I got one with a rip in the box and missing a few important pieces (like the transformer that powers it all and the springs), but it was cheap . . . before shipping anyway.  I'm about 25 deep in it.  Today I won an auction for a transformer . . . looks a little rough, but it was tested with a meter and guaranteed to work.  It was 99 cents . . . plus 6 bucks shipping.  Now I'm about $32 deep in it.  Now all I need is a pair of springs, some of the pins that stick on the bottom of the cars and some vintage Matchbox cars.  Actually, I've got the cars, but it would be easier to buy some more than find the half million of them I already own.   

I ran across a box of parts for one of these that had a set of springs in it and it was cheap . . . so I bought it.  Turns out, about the only thing missing was the box, the instruction book and some cars!  So now, I have two complete tracks (minus one set of springs).  Every now and then I see a box with no track on eBay . . .