O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle May 23

Richard - Great subject.  I have a lot of memories of driving one of these as a young supervisor for CBC Wonder Bread and Hostess Cake.  It was amazing how much you could carry in one and the number of things you could use it for.  I even helped move people in mine including myself.

Art

I have only three panel vans, but all three are on the layout in rather prominent places.  If I can find a Falcom as pictured above I would snap it up in a second.  

As I took photos I noticed that all three are quite well weathered . . . they've been hard at work!

 1938 Chevy at the brewery.  That's Lieutenant Columbo talking to a suspect in a theft there earlier in the morning.  

Fiat 500 was little larger than a toy - truly cramped inside - but it could carry a set of tires, etc. for mechanics at the Ferrari factory, or smuggle drugs, which is why it has attracted the attention of this squad of detectives. 

Morris Minor panel van was only a bit larger than the Fiat.  

Lee, TRAX in Australia might have the Falcon. I have a couple of their earlier year Falcons. One that's close for tht year but a pickup that Odd Job drove in a James Bond movie and does show up on ebay.

Bob  

thanks.  I'll check, but boy, last time I bought a 1:43 car from Australia, the shipping cost twice what the car did!

Richard E :  That photo of the '55 Chevy brought back some memories. I lived in a Navy Surplus '57 Chevy Apache panel truck for awhile in Oahu after my discharge from the Navy in '74. Quite roomy inside. Does anyone make one?

We need Columbo's and Fred Flintstone's cars in "O"!

Yes Aussie shipping is costly. If you want to see thwhat the Bond Falcon looks like use ebay # 141237661366. Price isn't too bad with free shipping.

Bob

There is a good variety of panel trucks and sedan deliveries on the market, and they do add a lot of period character to a layout. Here are a few from my collection:

 A '38 Chevy bakery truck and a '30 Chevy marked for Young's Coal and Ice, both by Ertl. The Coal and Ice truck is destined for the parking lot next to my coal ramp.

A '35 Dodge by Brooklin painted for "City Ice," parked next to a Lionel icing station. Behind the Dodge is a REO pickup by Matchbox.

A paddy wagon and a fire engine.

Kodak delivery truck by Solido. Actually a pickup with a cover over the bed.

The Lionel is by Ertl; identical to the Coal and Ice truck above. The Burma Shave van is the same '35 Dodge by Brooklin as the City Ice. I couldn't resist the iconic Burma Shave logo. 

A pair of beer trucks - a Lowenbrau Mercedes by Vitesse and a Steinlager truck (make and year unknown) by Matchbox.

Finally, a die-cast MTH Rail King flatcar in Milwaukee Road with a pair of railroad marked vans. These were made in many road names. The combination of roller bearing trucks and 1930's vans is anachronistic, but typical of MTH's inattention to getting the trucks right. Some day I might get around to swapping the trucks with Bettendorfs from another RK car. 

Good topic today, Richard!  Panel trucks and especially sedan deliveries are particularly rare these days among model manufacturers.  I have a few panel trucks on my layout, a '50 Chev signed for S-K Tools and a '36 Dodge for another company.  You'd think that these vehicles would be the ideal choices for die-cast manufacturers because they could sell the advertising space to various contemporary manufacturers to use as promotional items.  I don't recall any sedan deliveries among my collection but I might be wrong.  It would seem to me that these would be a natural to offer.  Couldn't the diecaster simply change the rear part of the vehicle, leaving the front of the sedan, to produce a decent model of a sedan delivery?

Always looking for new vehicles to broaden the menagerie.

Paul Fischer

(How about doing one on the post WWII independent car mfg's, like Hudson, Nash, Kaiser, Frazer, Studebaker and Packard.?  They all made some really nice cars.)

Paul, Road Champs made plenty of panel trucks with advertising like Pepsi, Hershey, Sunkist to name a few. ERTL also did Budweiser and Harley.

Brooklin did all of the independants you mentioned and can be found for less then original price. Richard E. and Lee may have posted pics of some.

Bob

I drove that '55 Chevy panel part time on weekends for a flower shop in '58. Bob's flower shop in Peapack Gladstone, NJ. I delivered to some "known" customers, including Malcolm Forbes.

Here's one more I found - a 1931 Cadillac V16 sedan delivery! It is lettered for a department store in Canada - presumably in Montreal, since it is in French. Must have been some fancy department store. 

That's one of many that Solido did.

Bob