I am channeling Lee Willis here. Like a lot of us on this forum, I am also a car nut. In particular I am fond of the Prototype/Sports cars of the late fifties/early sixties. So I decided the city on my layout, named New Lyon (after Sir William Lyons, who founded Jaguar) should have its own Grand Prix. Since my layout is set in 1956, I have now generated a plausible excuse to collect and display models of all those cars I lusted after when I was a kid.
I don't have enough room for the race or pits, but I do have room for an area in which the cars are unloaded. This is where they are touched up by the mechanics before they are taken to the paddock for a full race preparation.
The welcome sign is a variation on the one the Pennsy displayed where they stopped the GG1-powered Army Navy Football Day Specials at the Greenwich Yards:
The sign is made on my computer using Microsoft Power Point. The race cars were brought in a Sunset "Vanderbilt Stable" Horse Car. I trust the car was cleaned up before loading. Here a 1956 Ferrari 625 is being carefully brought down the ramp by a team of Ferrari Mechanics:
The ramp is made from Gatorboard covered with Lightweight Spackling compound. Another Ferrari, this one a 1959 Testa Rossa, is being prepared for unloading:
That's a race official checking the car. He started off as a 1/43 scale pit crew member, who would have been 7 1/2 feet tall in O Scale. So I cut a section out of his shins. He has not complained yet. The Horse car comes with closed doors. So I had to cut out a door and fabricate a new one in the open position. The stand is made from strip wood, bits from a Tichy Fire Escape, and some Phosphor Bronze wire.
In the next photo, some more members of the Ferrari crew look over a 1957 Testa Rossa (with the famous "Pontoon Fenders") to make sure it weathered the trip well:
It came out fine, but this Porsche 904 was not so lucky. A rag tag team of mechanics is frantically trying to figure out how the right rear wishbone came undone during the ride. While the mechanics are mired in their state of panic and perplexity, Race Car Babe sits on a tire doing what she does best:
Yes I know the 904 is a bit of an anachronism, but its one of my favorite cars, and it's my layout.
At any rate, the 904 mechanics suspect the culprit in "The Case of The Wandering Wishbone" is that gentlemen casually relaxing in his 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR:
From the Argentinian Flag, could that be J. M. Fangio himself? Actually it’s a severely dismembered Artista figure.
The Brits are out in force as well, including the Aston Martin DBR1-300 that won LeMans in 1959:
I hope to find an Artista figure in bib overalls at York, so I can have a stand-in for Carroll Shelby
Here is the Jaguar D Type that won LeMans in 1957, and the Jaguar C Type that won in 1953. The mechanics are decked out in their period-correct light tan colored jump suits (actually Aged Concrete-colored jump suits). They are debating whether to replace the right rear tyre now, or limp the car to the paddock. At least at the paddock they won't have to worry about trucks screaming down the hill right behind them:
The standing mechanic also got height reduction surgery.
One of my favorite all time race cars is the 1957 Reventlow Scarab. They only made three of them (one was made for the street). They were extremely successful, and generally won every US event they were in from 1957 to 1959. The body was designed by a 19 year old art student, and most of the principal mechanical designers and builders went on to make the Shelby Cobra:
Here is an overall view of the unloading area.
In addition to a new side door on the Horse Car, I also had to modify the rear doors so they would open completely. By the way, I lowered that car and added beams under the trucks to eliminate all semblance of a gap between car body and trucks. It's much more realistic, but I think the minimum curve on this car is now about 750 inches, or O-1500.
And here is the view from another angle:
Cheers!
I hope you never hear a complaint from the race official with the chopped shins!
