O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle Oct. 30

Pickups are as much a workhorse on train layouts as in real life. I drive a pickup ('03 Dakota 4wd with V-8 and manual transmission), and I have a bunch of them on the layout. Here are a few from my collection. I got three really nice new ones at York; will photograph and post later.

 Motor Max Plymouth, Matchbox Reo, Ford from a series of John Deere models (I forget who made it)

Three Fords: Kodak by Solido, Printemps (a French department store) by Solido, and a Model B by Eligor

Specialty models decorated for the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and Mobil

Assorted pickups decorated with logos of the Milwaukee Road and the Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club.

Good topic, Richard.  I don't understand it, personally, but it's apparent that pick-up trucks are a permanent part of the motoring world.  I see many drivers who never would, or maybe even could, use the P-U as a truck.  It's simply a passenger car, to them, with a funny looking box on the back.  The last P-U that I owned was a '74 Dodge 1/2 ton, extended cab with a short box.  But I bought it at the time because we were planning on building a house.  Similarly, my Dad once owned a '41 Studebaker 1/2 ton because we were building a stone wall alongside our house.

 I have a sample of each of the pre-1950 trucks illustrated, and would also add more.  That '41 Plymouth truck reminds me of one my Dad's cousin was using on his farm in Upper Michigan.  Pretty rare, item.

Question:  Why is it that we have adapted the standard of 1/43 for our cars and small trucks, (too large for "0" gauge) and 1/50 for our larger trucks and construction equipment (too small for "0" gauge)?  I guess you get used to it because, at this time, I don't notice a difference between vehicles on my layout.

Richard, it was great meeting you at York!  Thanx for coming by.

Paul Fischer

"We" have little to do with the real world of collecting model cars, trucks, military, boats, planes, etc. In this world, "O" train folks represent a very small % of the total.

I have the far left on the top photo and far right on the bottom one, on my layout. When weathered and dulled down with a little bit of paint work for details and some license plates, they make darned good looking scale models...

In my opinion, this shows that you don't have to buy the $150 Brooklyn diecasts to have decent-looking vehicles on your layout. Neither of these trucks cost me more than $10 each, if memory serves...

I seek out pickup models, in nominal O gauge, 1/43rd, built prior to 1941.  As noted before, that Plymouth model was first offered in that style in 1939.  One of my "finds"

at York was a Hallmark 1936 GMC pickup.  I was pleased, as I had just recently discovered Hallmark's 1937 Ford, a different year Ford than commonly modeled, and am hoping Hallmark pursues that theme, as, I guess, the Matchbox series with the Reo

and others is gone.  However, that plastic used is a pain to repaint.  After several

rattle can brands, that said they "worked with plastics"!, and I got "wrinkles" requiring removals, it looks like Testor's will work.  These appear common on the net for less than $15.00. (I had not thought to search "Hallmark")  The GMC is painted an unusual two-tone, but, as I stated on another thread, I found a picture of a restored prototype in those colors.  I am looking for an  original color brochure to pop up on the net so I can repaint this a more common color than I believe that to be.

Here are photos of the three Matchbox pickups I got at York. They came from a dealer in the Orange Hall who mostly did toy cars for kids, but these were the last three pickups from a collection they were liquidating. (They still had a few Corgi fire trucks, etc.) 

The Matchbox pickups are outstanding. Some of their other 1/43 stuff has been pretty lame, but they've done a great job on vintage pickup trucks. The pickups often sell for $30 or more on eBay, so I thought these were a super deal at $15 apiece. I'm going to keep my eyes out for their Studebaker and any other steam-era ones I don't have.

 A pair of 1940 Fords. I like the lumber load in the purple one. 

1941 Chevy decorated for a dairy. Perfect to park next to a Lionel milk platform.

Hallmark has a 1940 Ford, too.  I have two or three different brands of 1940 Ford pickups, but not the Hallmark...I wonder how many different brands of 1940 Ford pickups there are in 1/43rd?  Not sure if Brooklin made one....Somebody probably has a collection of them. Such common models is the reason I was pleased with the Hallmark 1937 one, as different. While Ford models seem most common, and there is that 1937 pickup,I have seen no models of 1937-1938 Ford cars...which were common when I was a kid..my neighbor drove one.  I think they are the ugliest Fords, BUT, they were on

Footnote:  I just pulled up "hallmark pickups" on the Bay, and got four pages including

a lot of Ford and Chevrolet pickups from the '40's and '50's, that I can't use, but will

fit in a lot of people's periods and are priced in the $10-$15 range!  You will have to get rid of the ornament hook and, maybe, repaint, but cheaper than Brooklins.