Skip to main content

PRRronbh posted:
wbg pete posted:

Made in the USSR.  Found this at a yard sale in Northern VA years ago.

IMG_2511

Definitely is different!  Is there any indication of the USSR car model it is suppose to be ?

Ron

Such detail and I love that it has so many opening doors/hoods.  It's not a perfect match, but the model seems to resemble this GAZ-14 Chaika found on Wikipedia (see attachment).  What's the scale like?

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Attachments

Images (1)
  • image

Guys:  What you are looking at is a "ZIL".  The company was founded in the Soviet Union in1916 but only managed to produce vehicles in 1924 due to all the unrest etc in Russia post WW 1. It was the luxury car used to transport Soviet leaders and (so it was often feared) leaders of the KGB.  There were even special lanes on Soviet highways called "Zil lanes" that were restricted to Soviet leadership, almost always riding in a Zil limo.  The last car assembled by the original company was in 2012.  Under different management, a new company did try to reestablish the firm in the auto business and exhibited a limo at the 2016 Moscow auto show.  There is quite an extensive coverage including "U-tube" video's on Zil on the internet. 

Your model is quite accurate, they were always 4 door limo's and almost always (perhaps always) black.  They were V-8 powered and rumored to be quite luxurious.  I visited the Soviet Union (Moscow and Leningrad) in 1983 and saw them in front of state buildings but never rode in one.  Such cars under the Soviet system were NOT available to the general public for sale, unless you were one of the power elite (like the "oil oligarch's").

Don

Guys: You are correct it does sort of resemble a 60's Lincoln but I can recall that in talking casually about the cars with our Soviet hosts in the early 80's they would have been insulted had I said that, they were very proud of this car and its luxury.  Compared to other Soviet era autos they would have been correct, most of the other makes were junk. 

As a humorous story, one of the members of our official group was a highly placed engineer with GM's Pontiac Motor Division and he came back to the group one afternoon after a walk stating that he had just found the residence of what must be the "world's greatest auto mechanic"!  Why...because parked on the street (remember this was 1983) an absolutely perfect 1965 Chevelle and he knew that GM did not export parts for that car in 1983!. 

Since this is mostly a train site, I can report that I rode to Leningrad ( formerly St. Petersburg, then Stalingrad and now St. Petersburg again) from Finland and then subsequenyly to Moscow on Soviet Rail.  Train was Diesel powered by a box cab like engine and the cars while divided into compartments for about 6 people each had wooden varnished seats (not really very comfortable).  It was very clean and in excellent condition obviously well maintained.  It was also wide gauge and the cars had to be transferred to wide gauge trucks at the Soviet / Finnish  border.  We had been told to order Tea when it was offered because it was quite good and came with snacks...which I did and confirmed that it was very good.  Then I walked out into the hallway and at the end of the coach there was the coach attendant making the tea on a open fire charcoal grill that was sitting on the floor of the coach!  I often wondered what the FRA safety folks would have thought of that!!  In addition as we traveled through some rural areas as we approached a road there would be a gate operator in their little hut by the road (usually an old woman) who would come out of the hut and manually lower the road gate.   I have no pictures as the railroad was officially considered a "defense system" and you were not allowed to take pictures.  There were armed police on the platforms to enforce that rule.

Best Regards, Don

Not pictures of what l have, but a thought about what l want and think l've seen.  I would like to find some 1/43 Auburns, prototypes last built in 1937, but l favor the l931-33 models.  I think l saw some very expensive 1/43  models for sale years ago, where else?, in the Auburn museum in Auburn, Indiana.  Have not seen any on the net or elsewhere since.

Corgi hovers around 1:48 - 1:50. Since a lot of the U.S stuff is out of production it’s beginning to get scarce. Corgi was producing some nice vintage ones the road trucks and fire apparatus. Once Hornby acquired Corgi all that production abruptly stopped. They released some Pirsch fire truck models that were in the pipeline at the time of the acquisition but that was it. Now all the do is airplanes and some UK vehicles - nothing for the US market. 

1949 Ford F1 pick-up truck! Walmart! $1! How could I say "No"?

The "F" series was Ford's first line of pick-up trucks that did not use a car chassis. Although the F1 was the lightest of the series, it was still a successful vehicle, and many of them have been preserved. And it was somewhat of a "hot rod," often purchased new with pinstripes.

I snatched the first photo off the web.

 

%2749_Ford_F1SUNP0001SUNP0004SUNP0005

Attachments

Images (4)
  • %2749_Ford_F1
  • SUNP0001
  • SUNP0004
  • SUNP0005

I forget where I purchased this car, but it's a 1/43 scale BMW 323i from Gama. A pretty basic model, although the doors do open. The interesting part is the plastic base, which features "Made in Western Germany" pretty prominently. Obviously this die cast car was manufactured long after Reunification so either they just kept using the molds or this could be one of the models produced by the MIR toy factory in Bulgaria.

IMG_0296IMG_0299IMG_0301 

Attachments

Images (3)
  • IMG_0296
  • IMG_0299
  • IMG_0301

Don. Thanks for posting that’s a neat looking car it’s always nice to have a wife who thinks of you mines the same way 

Patrick. As always thanks for posting very nice pics 

Ray. Thanks for stopping by and and posting I was hoping we would see some of your vehicles on here. Please take more and post them and your wife has a nice Volvo lol

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×