Die-Cast Vehicles

I'm way behind, probably only about 30-35 or so here. Mostly 1:43 with a bout 4 at 1:50, may have one semi truck that is 1:48.

Wow.  That is an interesting idea.  I'm going to count all mine in the morning.  Fun project.  I have no idea how many I have.  . 

I have 25 mostly Yat Ming with a few drug store ones. And 3 or 4 that are to big about 1:39 scale, I didn't count them.

Between 1:43, 1:48, 1:50, & 1:53 I have about 200 cars & trucks.

Thank you for a great thread and idea MilwRdPaul.  

This was fun.  I spent a good two hours this morning counting and cataloging all my cars.  I was actually pretty close intuitively.  I guessed "around 400" and I came up with 430 counting stock and bashed diecast or resin vehicles, those converted to 'Streets, and standard 'Streets diecast vehicles (but not four WBB 'Streets sedan I have, which are plastic-bodied).

By vehicle type                     Diecast      Converted to 'Streets   Original 'Streets

• Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .272                        35            
• Trucks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15                         18                        8
• Buses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3                          8
• Trac-trailr rigs . . . . . . . . . . 2                         13
• Travel trailers . . . . . . . . . . 6                          0
• Tractors/construction equip 18         
• Motorcycles . . . . . . . . . . . 24                          0
• Land speed record cars . . . 16                          0

Some stats:

• The oldest car is a 1916-ish Model T Ford
• The newest a 2009 Ferrari
• 152 are sports cars
• The brand of car I have the most models of is Ferrari (64).
• I have 52 Fords, 41 Chevy cars, and only 31 Chrysler products
• I have just one model only of twelve different brands (Stout Scarab, GutBrot, Lloyd, Monteverde) as well as one model of eight non-production "one off" show cars.
• I have models of only seven cars I have owned.

By decade, the 307  cars (normal and converted to 'Streets) break down as:

<1920      2

1920s       8

1930s     24     

1940s     48

1950s   140

1960s     53

1970s     12

1980s       8

1990s       8

2000 on    3

            307

I didn't look at the eras of the trucks, etc., but they are probably all from the '40s and 50s.

Under normal circumstances (today isn't, the layout is under major reconstruction) there are 138 cars and trucks, 2 travel trailers and 14 motorcycles on the layout. (The travel trailers do not count the house-trailers and mobile homes in my trailer park).

I did not count exactly, but at least 150. mostly 1/43 but a few 1/32.

I have probably 100 plus of the diecast vehicles. My favorites are the 4 RR police vehicles that the LCCA put out a few years ago.

Never counted mine but I have 3 Budweiser cases full of cars and trucks and 99% of them are wrapped in tissue paper to save space. Then there's the ones on the layout so I probably have more than the average person would ever need and I'm still on the hunt for some that I don't have.

Jerry

I have about 25 die cast cars and trucks on the layout and am finding it difficult to find  variety. The era of the layout is 1950's and its difficult top find a wide variety of brands and models of those vehicles. Most are 1/43 which is close but not true to scale and a few are 1/48 in that era. All of them are Chinese.  I usually pay $5-$10 per car but the rarer items seem to cost much more.

The only thing I can tell for sure, without digging in boxes, is that all of them

represent prototypes 1940 and prior (which constrains what I can find).  Since I am

battling a cold, nothing is getting done, and I won't attempt yet to do a count.

I have never thought of an exact count, but it is a good idea. I think vehicles add another dimension to a layout. I know that I have over 150 feet of 2-lane roadway on the layout, so there has to be a lot of vehicles.

I would guess that I must have about 50 vehicles not counting semis.

Art

I'm definitely playing T-ball compared to earlier posts.  I have 4 vehicles so far.  2 semis, a jeep, and a ford Anglia.

There might be a mini cooper in my near future as well. I plan to go for a more modern feel for layout.  I'm sure overtime I'll have many more vehicles to place. 

That was fun:

7 pickups - 4 with trailers

8 sports cars

2 SUV's

5 motorcycles

3 tractors (farming)

3 semi's with trailers

3 straight trucks

garbage truck

vac truck

bucket truck (lineman)

wrecker

3 fork trucks and 3 horses for the police.

everything ranges from 1/50 to 1/43 and few I don't know but looked ok with evrything else.

Dan

Paul, my layout is probably auto-populated at about the same quantity as yours, and all are 1/48 or 1/43 except for one 18-wheeler.  The most cars and pickups are Chevies and Fords, at 17 apiece, more than any other make, but the variety is wide:

There are 5 GMC trucks, 4 VWs, next is a 5-way tie at 3 apiece for Studebaker, Chrysler, Fiat, Cadillac and Buick, then a 3-way tie at 2 apiece for Jaguar, BMW and Dodge, and 1 each for Austin Healy, Ferrari, Renault, Mack, Hudson, Packard, MG, Citroen, Checker, Skoda, Plymouth, Willys, Zis, Nash Metropolitan, Oldsmobile, Morris Minor, Mini Cooper, Karmann Ghia, and Rambler.  Also there are plastic toy cars at approximately 1/43 or 1/48, of indeterminate make by such manufacturers as Thomas, Dimestore Dreams, Plasticville, etc. that number about 12. 

I have more straight razors than die cast vehicles !! Around 35...lol

O-scale vehicles look too small in my view, so I replaced all of the die cast on my layout with 1/32 size vehicles. My layout depicts 1930 through 1950, so the earliest vehicle is one Model T Ford, and the newest vehicles are of 1950 vintage. As for quantity, I guess there are in the neighborhood of 30 vehicles on the layout now, but this will increase as my layout matures.

I haven't taken a count, but I'd guess I have a total between 100 and 200, counting cars, trucks, buses, and a motorcycle or two. Almost everything is steam/transition era, heavily weighted toward the 1930's. The only newer vehicles are a few representing cars I've owned and a small number of 60's Ferraris and such that I like and happened to find cheap. The newest vehicle in my collection is a 1991 Opel Calibra like the one I drove when I lived in Finland. The cars are mostly inexpensive or mid-priced models (Ertl, Eligor, Yat Ming, etc.) but I've managed to snag a few Brooklin and other higher-end models at semi-reasonable prices. There are also quite a few Corgi trucks and buses. I have a dozen or so European models from the 1930's, including some everyday sedans, so that I can change the layout to match my ETS and MTH Euro-prototype trains. 

I have a few 1/32 cars and trucks, and one Indian motorcycle, to decorate the Standard Gauge area surrounding my mainly 0 gauge layout.

A question for Lee, Dan, and anyone else who has 1/43 or 1/48 motorcycles: What kind of bikes do you have, and where did you find them? Anything from the 1930's through 1960's? I've seen very few motorcycles, mainly the MTH Harleys which are all too new for my layout. The only bikes I have right now are a 1/32 Indian Chief and a 1/43 Zundapp with a sidecar. I'd like to have a few more, especially some 30's through 60's Harleys, Triumphs, and BSA's but I haven't found anything. 

lost count!!! I did buy an entire box of 1/43 vehicles one year from a local drug store.

They had just put their Christmas stuff out in the toy isle and had 1/43 scale cars for $2.00 ea. Bought em all!!!

I have the MTH Harleys, 12 of them (three sets).  I have bashed several into various models not in the two sets MTH offers, particularly a three-wheeler.  I have picked up a wonderful diecast BMW R60 police bike and an Indian (two cylinder, wish it was the four) somewhere: I check out diecast direct frequently and Amazon for bikes about once a month and jump on whenever I find one, which is rare.  Also, the bikes included with the Woodland Scenics bike shop, while not diecast, are not bad - one has a sidecar which is nice to have.  I also have a set of four lighter bikes, I think Bachmann includes one with rider in its City People figure set: they are plastic and look to be about 150 - 250 cc , and four motor scooters - also from some figure set, that are more Lambreta shaped than Vespa, unfortunately.

New Ray sells a ford pickup towing a trailer with a Yamaha YZF R6 or a Suzuki on it, all for $12, which looks nice, but its way too new for my layout.  I also know Tamiya or Master Box I think sells a 1:48 scale plastic motorcycle WWII kit, BMW 75 with sidecar,  I think.   

Wow! I surprised myself.

417 cars of which:

112 are hand made 1:43

110 not :43 scale (1:18, 1:24, 1:32 and 50 are 1:64)

Plus 30 "O"men figures -  mainly racing figures like Tazio Nuvolari, Fangio, Neubauer, Enzo F., Moss, etc.

32 trucks - 1:43 and 1:50

And 121 Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox of various ages. Mostly from the 50s and 60s

They were all on display in my former house, now most of them are packed away except for some 40 hand built sports cars. Some will see the light when I build my new layout.

This is easy to quantify and qualify since back when I cobbled together an O-gauge roster data base using Excel to created flat file data bases.  In addition to the train roster there is ones for structures, figures, train magazines and of course O-Scale motor vehicles.

The total is 445  vintages from 1920 to 2005, most 1:43 but some 50 and 48.

253- pleasure

124- commercial

 31- Hot rods

 30- Fire/Polc/Mil/Gov

Why so many?  I will pound the rational out late today/ tonight when I have the time.

Ron

Guy's,

I'm beginning a new layout and have no cars at all.  Where do you recommend one look for some 50's thru 70's cars/trucks for a new layout ?  What manufacturers and who sells them ?  From what I'm reading, 1/43 is most popular and abundant scale. Not looking to break the bank on these cars.  Appreciate your thoughts. 

Mike    

I model the WW2 area, so civilian cars were few and far between. All the civilian vehicles would be used in conjunction with the business on the line. They all have correct license plates, even with the correct county codes for where the layout takes place. A count for me is easy:

• 2 pickup trucks (model A and a 1941 Plymoth)
• 1 panel van (1938)
• 1 1-ton delivery truck (early 30s)
• 1 coupe (1932)

Now, as for military vehicles, I have a few but they won't all be on the layout at once, they'll sort of represent the 1943 Army maneuvers in Tennessee, the same year and state my layout takes place in:

• 4 Willys/Ford Jeeps (one of which will be repainted to match the real Willys MB sitting in my garage right now)
• 3 early closed-cab Two-and-a-half-ton GCCW GMC trucks, all with bumper markings for the fictional RR operating unit I envisioned inan early concept for my layout
• M-20 armored car (not really sure what I'll be doing with this)

Mike I just listed some Matchbox trucks on the forums Buy/Sell.

Bob

That's a good question Mike and I look forward to hearing responses from other forumites. It's easy to order and buy online direct from retailers, or from LHS's. I also scan garage sales and any shops when I happen to be out shopping (which isn't often), including Goodwill. But I bought a lot from online auction sites by using their search tool to find 43 scale or 50 scale vehicles. 

I have about 200, the vast majority on display or on a layout. They range from a $7. Yat Ming to a $325. Motor City '56 Dodge. 28 are models of imports from the '50s. My cut-off date is 1959. I buy very few any more. Personally, these cars are special to me since I "grew up" with them. I was a 10 year old "car nut" in 1952. To my dismay, my father was not "into" cars, so he bought used Fords. Our first new car was a white '59 Ford Galaxy 500 with the T-Bird squared-off top, I washed it twice a week. My own car was a used '53 Mercury HT with a 8 and dual glass-packs.

I'm probably with the majority here. I am not going to count them though. I'm sure I have 2 to 3 times as many as will fit on my layout. First I bought cheap, what I liked then later found better ones. Some I'll give to my grandson, some I'll turn into junk for a scrap yard I have yet to build. I tend to get carried away, eyes bigger than stomach....................Lol....................

I look at diecastdirect, Mint models, 300 Toys and Amazon's toys and games section.  

I want to thank all of you for answering this post. It looks like at 121 vehicles I'm at about the middle of the road (no pun intended) for the amount of vehicles compared to others. A lot of mine are 40's and 50's with some favorites being '56 Lincoln Mark II, '53 Packard Caribbean Convt., '32 Chrysler LeBaron, '37 Cord, '56 De Soto and '57 Plymouth Fury. I enjoy the Chrysler products the most for American products.

1:43 is definitely the most available size that is near our O size. 1:50 maybe next, but not as common. 1:48 are harder to find and from my experience usually more expensive. 1:50 seems to be the size for a lot of construction equipment.

In addition to Diecast Direct, 3000 Toys, Manny's and more mentioned by others, some have reported CVS, Dollar Stores, Tractor Supply and Menards as sources of vehicles. Some have reported (and I have also seen) 1:32 vehicles in CVS, Tractor Supply and Dollar Stores, select carefully from places like this. Your LHS (if you have one) would be a good place to look. If you don't have a LHS, I think Diecast Direct would be a good place to start, large selection and reasonable prices. Some of the OGR forum sponsors should also have vehicles and would be good places to shop.

There was a manufacturer called Yat Ming that had a lot of nice vehicles at reasonable prices, but my LHS recently told me they folded or were bought out or something. I have quite a few of those. I think they also made vehicles for MTH.

Mike Miller,   You may want to try forum advertiser www.westerndepot.com and do a search under "vehicles" where you will find an assortment of 1/43 , 1/50 and 1/53 cars, trucks and buses. They have the K-Line old time delivery trucks for $3.95, and the panel box trucks for $13.00. They have the MTH buses and the 1/50 Athearn cars and trucks too. There are also !/53 tractor trailers. Lionel tractor trailer trucks are more S scale but can be had for around $20 on many dealer sights.

The E-bay has a lot too. If you find someting you like there you can check the seller's store to see if you can find multiple items so the shipping is more reasonable.

Paul Goodness

Most older vehicles of the '20's and '30's only had one red tail, combination running, STOP and tail registration plate, light.

Ralph

Yup; about what I figured.  Counting all vehicles, I have right at 200 on the layout.  The cars are all 1/43 except for  two 1/48, which sneaked in there somehow and I place them farther away from the viewer.  The trucks, except pick-me-up trucks, are all 1/50 scale along with about 10 construction vehicles. 

The oldest car is a 1920's model T, along with some "Bulldog Mack" trucks from the 1920's.  Most cars are from the 1930's and 1940's.  The date setting for my layout is 1950, and a couple of 1951 cars have shown up as brand new models.

The bulk of my cars are cheap diecast from Ertl, Road Champs, K-Line and other quantity importers.  But there are a few Solido, a Franklin and about 10 Brooklin cars.  I find that dropping a couple of these higher priced cars in the setting, tends to make the parking lots and roads look more convincing, showing a bit more variety as you would expect from a real life setting in 1950.

As complex as my layout has developed into, it sometimes is difficult to remember to look in all the nooks and crannies for all the vehicles in place.  Plus, there's usually one or two of my cars on my workbench, being weathered or customized for the layout.

Paul Fischer

Cannot believe it took me three-days to get back to this thread!

Why so many O-gauge motor vehicles?    First many to most of the inventory find many of same or similar car (Chevy, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge) same vintage year but different colors.  This makes it so very easy to slightly change a scene.  Change out a yellow 49 Ford for a red 49 Ford.  Change out a ford for a Chevy.  Change out a 55 Bellaire for a 55 Nomad, or a 57 Fairlane for a 57 Ranchero, etc.   You change a dozen or two of this type; you have a different look but in same era.

My guess is most of us try to replicate smaller town and/or rural America of some era.  The reality is that many real buildings built today (2014) would look very much like a building built back in the 1920s of like materials.  The primary exception to this would be gas-stations and the advent of fast-food places with proprietary looking building designs (McDonalds, Arbys, etc)  In fact my hometown had a hotdog shop that was built to look like a large doghouse (sure wish I had some pictures to try and replicate from).  Point is you can change era easily.   As examples if I run my consist of 36’ wood Billboard Refrigerator cars and wanted to be faithful to era, I would not have ANYTHING more modern than 1938.  That is engine and/or O-gauge motor vehicles.  The ICC banded these cars from the rail as of January 1937, which ended up pushed one year to 1938.  Can run my N&W and Southern steam excursion faithful to the 80s  by running with a Southern GP-45 and vehicles from 70s and 80s.  Same for my 765 and 1225 or 844 and 4449 but auto from the 2000s.

So you can’t have too many!

Ron

Yes - having a lot allows you to change scenes and atmosphere.  I have three sets of enough cars - about 60 or so, from three times periods - 1930 - 1941 (pre-War), 1942 - 1955 (post war) and 1956-1965.  Each set will completely fill the parking spaces, etc. in my downtown streets, etc.  I can change out the look of the era in about an hour.  That is fun from time to time.

Plus, you just seem to accumulate them.  1:43 cars and 1:50 trucks just become something on their own you like to collect.  

You know us retirees have too much time on our hands when were able to count the cars on our layout. (LOL)

This is not my line, but it fits me perfectly since I retired. I believe it was posted by someone here on the OGR forum, but I can't remember who it was to give proper credit, my apologies to the original poster, sorry.

I get up in the morning with nothing to do and when I go to bed at night I'm only half done.

And the longer I'm retired, the more it fits!