O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle July 24

Always look forward to post, but can't open photos today on any of my Apple products. Anyone else have a problem?

Yes, I cannot see them either. I am using Google Chrome.

Azgary

I cannot open photos, either.  Just wanting to mention that I had read that the early

post WWII Chrysler products had their tall boxey styling because the upper management, old school, dictated that gentlemen should be able to wear Homberg

hats in their cars.  This was when the trend for wearing hats, even those working man

caps you see in the 1930's breadline photos, were out of style. 

It look like OGR is having a problem with displaying pictures. Besides my desktop I have a laptop with Windows 8 and I can't open them their either. The other OGR forums are having the same problem.

Richard E,

I enjoy these posts but, I have a couple of questions.  Do you do these "chronicles" on your own accord, or is someone else picking the topics and content?  Can we suggest topics?  Do you welcome additions/corrections to your chronicles?  Are these meant to be all encompassing articles?

Just curious

-rog

Roger,

I think this is a labor of love for Richard, and I am very glad he continues to make the effort. I'm sure he would welcome any suggestions/comments you might have. As always, with any corrections of another person's content, the manner in which you offer the correction is a big part of how it is received...

Jeff C

Jeff Thanks for the reply.  Without a doubt Richards articles are informative and much enjoyed...just curious as a wealth of knowledge is being presented by him.

I am an antique car hobbyist and try to pick subject  interesting  to O gaugers. I found most train guys are auto buffs and sometimes the post is purely automotive and has nothing to do with trains. The posts are designed to start conversations not to be all encompassing. Ant yes I am defiantly welcome suggestions and corrections.

Thanks Richard...keep those chronicles coming.  For a "newbie" like myself they are awesome.    Bravo

Photo situation is fixed and Richard's very interesting photos are now visible. 

This topic is timely for me because I just won an auction for a resin Chrysler business coupe body that goes on a Solido sedan chassis. You just take all the chrome, etc. off the Solido body and put it on the kit body. I'm sure I have an extra Solido Chrysler or DeSoto around somewhere that I can cannibalize. I'll post pictures later.

Now I can see photos...interesting that there were that many DeSoto models made....

but none back into the 1930's.  I used to see early 1930's DeSotos in antique car shows.  If you want your windows rattled, check out the prices on the Route66

model car website, if you are not familiar with it.  They have in stock several Brooklin

models I keep hoping will come up used on eBay.

I also found a website for 1/43rd model car meets, but most of them seem to be in

Canada.  Is there another list of them, for regular ones down here?  I just blundered

on one in Chicago, one time.

Love that '52 Imperial!!

Jeff C

"I found most train guys are auto buffs and sometimes the post is purely automotive and has nothing to do with trains. The posts are designed to start conversations not to be all encompassing. Ant yes I am defiantly welcome suggestions and corrections."

Richard, our layouts would not be complete with out the automobiles. So I find your weekly thread to be both interesting and very relative.

In keeping with Chryslers, here's a nice Brooklin.

The hot rod crowd ignored these cars so I don't see them at car shows. I hope some of them were saved.

Hardly seems necessary to state that we need motor vehicles on our model roads (unless modeling railroading earlier than 1900), just as we need model people on our sidewalks.  Some of the cars above were saved, as you will see them in vintage car shows.  I remember the two little old ladies who tooled around my home town in a DeSoto coupe similar to that above.  My uncle was a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer in a

mountain town in eastern Kentucky, and he drove a dark blue Chrysler similar to the 1946 displayed above.  He did not like it and said the straight eight was a gas hog.

Chrysler replaced it with the Hemi, so many think they redeemed themselves.  I visited

a doctor, it might have been in Santa Rosa, in northern California, who was restoring

a 1932 DeSoto roadster that he showed me.  Those cars had a distinctive styling.

I would say that the "most advanced" looking model after the war was based on the '42 Buick. On sale only 3 months before the war shutdown, this basic '42 design lasted for Buick until 1953.The Cadillac's new look in '48 also lasted until '53. Chrysler Corp. cars held onto the "old" look until 1955, due, in part to the conservative Chairman who insisted on "functional" design and enough headroom clearance for a tall man wearing a hat.

due, in part to the conservative Chairman who insisted on "functional" design and enough headroom clearance for a tall man wearing a hat.

Hats were still common in the early 50's, but definitely on their way out. My father was an engineer at Chrysler 1948-1953, and I don't recall seeing him wearing a hat! The coup de grace for men's hats was delivered by President Kennedy, who disliked wearing a hat. He and Jackie were, of course, famous for setting fashion trends.

Jackie used to wear hats....as does the current British princess (sorry not a celebrity fan, so name escapes me) with two small children, who wears what look like the pillbox hats my mother wore way back when..1940's?....never have figured that out. (I will withhold my comments about where I see baseball caps worn these days)

Glad you reminded me of these Chrysler products.  I do have at least two '46-'48 Chrysler sedans, on the layout, plus a 1950 Chrysler Town and Country hardtop and a '48 Chrys T & C Convert.  But no deSotos.  Gonna have to look for one of those.

Incidentally, post war deSotos were used in many cities as taxicabs to a great extent.  Seems to me that I recall seeing them in New York and maybe Chicago.  Be nice to gather up a bunch of those to place around the Union Station.

As I recall, Chrysler made a different in-line, flat-head six for each of their brands.  Plymouth, of course, had the smallest version and no semi-automatic transmission.  Dodge had the next largest and was available with "Fluid Drive".  Then deSoto and finally Chrysler had the largest along with a flat-head, straight eight.  I always thought that all of the Chrysler products had marginal performance potential, at best; Far behind the GM and Ford competition and way below names like Packard, Nash, Hudson, etc.  These were great days for a kid who was "car nuts", like me!

Paul Fischer

I, too, remember seeing photos of DeSotos as cabs on the streets of New York, which

is why I was so interested in and have ordered a model of one of the Checkers for

'39-41.  I had not seen photos of those or other Checkers, but of DeSotos, but I think

that was after WWII.  Wonder if DeSoto got a foothold in this market because the

last pre-war Checker was, uh, unusual?  Or were they active in the large urban taxi markets before WWII, and I just haven't seen photos?  I would think DeSotos would be

more likely to be found as small town cabs than Checkers.

Taxi companies bought fleets for the lowest price.

Bob 

Paul Fischer check out this DeSoto taxi I have listed on the buy/sell forum.

Bob

I'm new to the forum and wanted to thank you for posting this and linking to your prior chronicles.  I especially like your post about the late 30's and early 40's era.  I've helped on many 38-41 Fords and Mercurys.  I currently enjoy driving a 40 Mercury 2 door sedan that is still original.  Loved to include some from that era in my planned layout.  Your links to different manufacturers and on-line retailers are giving me a good place to start.

The postwar DeSoto Skyview Cab was popular in New York City. It was a purposely built as a taxi on a long wheelbase sedan with a sun roof over the rear seat. New York City versions also lacked a front Passenger seat as New York City laws prevented passengers in a taxi's front seat.

Dose anyone know the reason for the lights over the rear door?

After WWII both DeSoto and Packard along with Checker aggressively marketed taxi models.

Interesting.  I model pre-WWII, and wonder if DeSoto, like Checker, was in that market?  Rextoy made a 1940 Packard cab, and I had thought it a fantasy model, as perhaps too expensive a chassis for a taxi...maybe not.

Richard, I'd guess the light over the rear door would be another way to signal if the cab was available or not.

I grew up in/around NYC in the 1940s-50s, and it seemed like most of the cabs were the long DeSotos. Checker cabs came later.

I do not know if Packard marketed taxi models before WWII.It is likley Packard sold some 6 cylinder 110s to taxi operators. Packards were known for their quality and reliability. I almost purchased a '47 Packard taxi. I wish I had. It never saw taxi service but was used on a large estate. It has a 6 cylinder engine and a spartan interior with plain leather seats, rubber floor mats and what looked like Formica door panels. The rear window could be opened for ventilation by a vacuum motor controlled from the instrument panel.

Here are a few die-cast cars fitting this week's theme - all Chryslers. 

Taxi by Solido, black sedan by Vitesse, custom convertible. This has a Solido chassis and other parts with a resin body. Built by the guy who sold it to me.

Two Town and Country convertibles. Top down by Sun Star, top up by Franklin Mint.

This looks familiar.

When I was a kid I had this rubber mold plaster of Paris set that made models of

cars.  (you set the steel axels in notches on the edge of the molds and could then

add wheels...since plaster of Paris is wet, axels always rusted!)  However, I attended

this NMRA convention where guys from Canada had this fantastic array of HO prewar

vehicles that I drooled all over, and that are not available in O scale.  I wonder if there

is some pracical way to make your own....resin casting, or something?  (I think the HO

ones are in resin).  Anybody tried this....3 D printing, maybe?

Here's one of a 1953 Chevy garbage truck that I weathered yesterday.  Pictured is the crew just 5 minutes after parking the truck and calling it a day.  

This Franklin Mint model has sold for as little as $7. on eBay (average price about $15.).