Early Piggyback project (1940-1957) late steam early diesel & some of the very first 85-89' cars in 1957-1959!

Photo copyrights apply all used for reference

Custom decal work

There is almost a complete absence of western private carriers in decal form. I do a great deal of custom artwork for Key and DVP; its a natural to grab some reference and produce some western private carriers for the train.

Rio Grande Motorway Inc.
Ringsby Truck Lines of Denver
DC Denver Chicago Express

I use CS from Adobe all vector art and print on an ALPS or Kinkos where I don't need white or opacity.

Photo copyrights apply all used for reference

Nice Erik!  Whose the Mfg. on the undecorated trailers. They don't look like plastic.

 

Butch

       
       


Thanks butch!

Some of the vans are ancient 1/48 Revell Bekins kits from 1955. These are beautiful vans. Fruehauf stainless steel that were common from 1952-through the 1960's.  The others I had custom built from a pro builder on the east coast. Both are resin and plastic and if painted correctly do NOT look like plastic.  I can't stress enough medium has very little to do with a models quality. Brass, resin, ABS, plastic, in so many ways plastics are far better at recreating detail. Brass has limits. To date nobody has produced a brass model of a early 1940's or 1950's tractor trailer in any of the sort of O scales 1/43-1/50. These Revell vans are in my opinion the best and built with modern methods and improvements are second to none.

Erik i know you can do much better than this. box them up and i'll send you a ups pickup order so that you can try again and i'm sure the second time around "you'll be up for the task". seriously this will make a great train i'm jealous. 

Lloks like you are having a blast with these. They look great!

       
       


Oh yeah! They are really interesting to me. And very rarely do you see them done right in O scale. When you see piggyback it's almost always 1960's and later with those horrendous 89' flat cars. Not my interest at all.

       
       


Send me your address boss!


No- I am flattered thanks =)

Big Grande Baldwin Challenger moving north on the Joint Line out of Pueblo with a cut of TOFC for Denver from KC!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL Erik.  Just beautiful. 

 

Every once in a while I jump on Hankstruckpictures.com and reminisce.  

 

Another worthwhile resource is Mike Terebecki's The (Vanishing) Trucking Pioneers series of books.   I own and love them all...

Fantastic !

Thanks man!


       

Mr. Lindgren,

I've yet to see anyone who could do work on the level as you. Your attention to detail is almost unbelievable. I noticed a Santa Fe TOFC. Are there any plans to do a, Southern Pacific "Golden Pig" TOFC? If so, I can hardly wait!

 

Keep up the great work. You've been blessed with a rare talent.

WOW thanks so much. I really appreciate the kind support! Goodness knows I need it. ;-)




       

That is a great computer program for making fonts and decals.

 

 

The G in the Rio Grande artwork stops too soon, is has to arc over the rest of the way, like in the photos.

 

Andrew

Rio Grande Motorway Inc. a must for a late steam era Rio Grande fan.

In an effort trying to locate reference material I have had some luck. Photo copyrights apply used for reference.

In this photo taken by Jackson Thode published in Trains magazine December 1941 we can see the use of Fruehauf vans. Note the van on the left- a roof carrier on the top.  Interesting. Obviously this pre-dates the super strict ICC trucking regulation.
This photo was taken what appears to be Highway 6 just outside Golden. Neat Mack B-73 and a steel 34' van tandam axel.


I've found several different styles RGM used. Back in this era all lettering was hand painted from a drawing. Most of these master sign painters used some creative license. Most of these graphics exhibit subtle changes from one to another despite being the "same" the nature of hand lettering. In this case the Shadow lettering with the "speed font" is seen. I patterned my decals after this with a slight adjustment from the reference I found on Hanks Truck Pictures. In the later years a boxed design with white letters was used. My era 1949-1955 it would more likely to see the long stretched out "speed style font" lettering and red stripe seen in this photo.
Beginning with the computer I superimpoze the photo under my vector art. I beginning by tracing the best as possible. It is after all a miniature and some errors can be snuck by the viewer when applied to the model.
Hanks Truck site has this neat set created by a collector I can't recall his name and or find them again. The trouble with Google. Ugh. It shows the slight differences in the "speed letter G". I added this with some creative license.
The victims awaiting removal of the REA diamonds shall be ideal subjects for the ultimate Rio Grande Motorway van load! These Lionel 1/48 scale vans are just fabulous; simply marvelous. A fine scale model by any measure.

Ready for the printer
In these photos courtesy of the Denver Public Library (c)Otto Perry the first generation logo can be seen. It's tempting to use these and still it is difficult to locate exactly when these designs evolved. I assume this was the earliest logo for RGM. It is similar to the "toilet seat" DRGW logo.
Ancient - interesting for sure

TimDude is wondering-- "why would anyone want to spend that much money on a model that doesn't smoke?!" ;-)

Coming up next open top trailers and tarps. This will be interesting. It's too cool to pass up.

my dad worked for Eastern Express in Metuchen, NJ as a dispatcher

Erik, the canvas tops could be modeled right over the hard roof. who's to know except you.

 

Bob, where did you live when your father worked at Eastern? I've lived in Metuchen my entire life.

       
       


I am planning on doing styrene humps on a piece of styrene that exactly matches the size of the roof footprint. Airplane silk or silk will do nicely saturated with Matte Medium. And after it dries trim the shape and install the tack strip and ropes.

I am checking out MTH's pup trailers. They also are near Lionel quality. I ordered one and I am eagerly awaiting the model for inspection. The flat car looks terrible however.

;-)

They look beautiful and add that variety we need so desperately in early era piggyback. I think these are Trailmobil vans roughly late 40's vintage.

 

Speaking of early piggyback "variety" the models in the photos I attached could be some further options for consideration. Dinky produced this Mclean very common van and the Corgi 1/50 Mack combo is really the nicest early tractor trailer set produced in 1/50.

I refuse to bring those over-sized for 1/43 New Ray tractor trailers into this discussion. I got into it with a "trad-3 railer" over in the O-27 forum about these. He stated they look great on a 42' flat car. A 34' van hanging over the edges on a 42' flat. Never mind the 5' tall tires. I love these beautiful models however like the beautiful stuff in 1/64 they are unusable a no issue. Sadly

Excellent thread.  Great modeling and I love the vintage truck pics. (What can I say? I like old trucks!)

 

My next layout (HO) is going to be set in the early 60s, so much of this information is relevant.

 

Oh... and here's a pic of an '83 Freightshaker I owned for a spell a few years ago.  In this pic its earning a living helping a friend haul his track hoe to a job site. (I told 'ya I like old trucks!)

 

 

Excellent area of interest.  Nice train!

 

One of the nicest piggyback paint schemes that I have yet to see done, was the Missouri Pacific Eagle trailer scheme.  This picture does not do it justice.  I haven't been able to find a color picture yet.  The blue was NOT as dark as the B&W photo would infer.  Colors were Blue, White, Yellow stripes, red emblem, and that top area in the front of the trailer was silver.  Colorful, just like Colorado!

 

 

@ Erik;

Where do you get the train display cases? I am looking for such cases for O scale. Thx!

I took your suggestion Andrew- what do you think now? I took Fred Gruin's decals out of the equation and went direct from the photo. I believe either way would work. But most of the Grande I see the G is brought clear around.

Beautiful B Model.  Out here in the east it wouldn't have aluminum Budds but manure spreader wheels.

 

I'm just a hop skip and a jump from the Plant #4 where most of those were made.

 

IIRC I overheard you in (Chicago??) a few years ago standing just inside the entrance and  talking about your antique car interest and saying "I love fussy old junk"? 

 

Me too. That's why I love old B models.  Nothing like the bark of a Mack 673 Thermodyne... and real trucks have two sticks.

 

THIS is the place to see old bulldogs:

 

http://www.antiquetruckclubofa...macungie_photos.html

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157624165648533/

 

BTW the actual show has probably 75-100 B models in attendance... along with everything from Chain Drive AC's to Walter Snow Fighters that you'd see in the Rockies.

The later Ringsby design is also on the list.

Looking at the Fred Gruin reference I find more overlooked issues. The use of the font set from the earlier non-rocket design is erroneous. I adjusted this to the photos of the "Rocket" design.

I still believe once the model is decorated nobody will ever be the wiser that it may not be absolutely perfect. Also looking at the other reference photos you can see slight variation from one design to the next. A typical issue with custom hand lettered paneling used in the good ole' days! No vinyl cutters and plotters back then. Also note these are separately applied panels on a trailer with fluting or ribbing. Neat effect worth doing as Trinkle Trains told me this afternoon.

This a great replica for sure. Custom built of resin by a master truck builder from New England he made all of his own molds. The Mack's both these and the 1940's era are a must for over the road trucks on the layout. I'm begging him to build me a Kenworth of Peterbuilt 1950's bullnose. ;-)


       
       

Bullnose KWs or Petes would be nice... but nothing says Rockies like a Ringsby or PIE rig with a drom box!

Further work on Ringsby "Rocket"

The tail fire is great! I am sure there was more refinement being likely hand painted and working from black and white it is difficult to tell just how far the detail went on this graphic.

Great looking trailers, Eric but what about the multiple tracks. It looks as though you cound run another gauge on some of the tracks.

 

Thanks

 

Dick

Photo Courtesy: Robert Meyer

Robert sent me photos of his really cool US Hobbies Max Gray PRR F series purpose built flat. These are late 50's but really really awesome. I used to have several and sold them bummer. For my train they are a little too modern.

A great transition piece between the 52' era to the 89' TTX!

Thanks for sharing Robert!!

Jeff MacDonald reminded me and I am not sure why I overlooked the Berkshire Valley resin trailer kits. I've built many for clients over the years. Most of them are same prototype as the Lionel trailers however in longer versions. Worth a look