My father described a toy to me that he used to play with when he was a child. It consisted of a thin piece of metal (about the diameter of a bicycle spoke) and it was capped on the ends with small wooden balls. In the middle of the spoke was a disc that you could spin and it would then travel back and forth over the length of the rod. I've tried searching for gryoscope toys from yesteryear, but have not had any luck. He (of course) cannot remember what it was called. Any ideas?
Also, the disc was tiered, with a few layers but a single hole going through it.... if that helps.
No, it's not whee-lo. It only had a single rail (and the disc in the middle was threaded through the spoke). The disc was plastic, but had tiers of varying diameters. I guess you could spin it, and then tilt the rod so that it would "wobble" down the spoke and hit the bottom, potentially traveling back up the rod, and back and forth.