Vintage moving truck model

This truck was built using a truck kit that came with an old Master Creations kit as I recall.  I built it a year ago.  It was a fun project despite the somewhat difficult basic kit - difficult because the kit had a lot of little parts and the instructions were somewhat sketchy.  I decided to turn this into something similar to the vehicles often seen during the great depression.  It is loaded with household effects.

I used mostly commercial detail parts to load the truck including typical home furniture.  This truck model provides some interest to my streets - different from the standard truck vehicles.

Small Zinc Mine about 1900

Below is a 1900 photo of a small zinc mine in the Joplin Missouri area.  There were lots of these small mines in that timeframe.

Modelers frequently model Western gold mines and Eastern coal mines, but there were (and are) many different types of mines in many areas of the country.

Zinc was in great demand in that time period for such uses as electrical components, building components such as roofs and cornices, galvanizing processes, tin and brass manufacturing and many other purposes.  Zinc miners referred to the various types of zinc deposits as "Jack".  There were many types of Jack including steel jack, ruby jack, resin jack, salmon jack, pebble jack, and others - named for the color and appearance of the zinc deposit.

In examining the photo, it appears the zinc product from this mine was shipped barrels, and I assume the pile of rubble at the left was the refuse separated from the zinc ore.  Perhaps the barrels were transported by the horses and wagon in the photo.

Firehouse Project

As for my modeling, I am currently building a new firehouse to replace the crappy cheap plastic kit I put in my city when I was working to get the city in place quickly.  The new firehouse is being built mostly from styrene and is going somewhat slowly.  I am using a photo I found on the Internet for inspiration.

Railroad tool shed model

I have a 3 inch strip of layout between my lower yard and the edge of the layout that, while it has scenery, is essentially boring. So I decided to build a small shed for servicing rail cars for repair.

This structure was made using scraps of scribed siding and strip wood.  The door is made from strips of wood.  The shelf on the dock is made from cardstock and filled with scraps and a few freight car parts.  The roofing is strips of paper painted black which I streaked with gray chalk after installation.

I added a few signs to provide visual interest.  One says no trespassing and the other is a PowerLube sign.

The above photo shows the shed installed on the layout.  I added a bunch of junk detail around it and placed an old pickup truck in the driveway (the road leads off of the layout).  On the left side of the shed in the photo is a coal storage pile.  I added footers to the building pilings during installation since the ground slopes away from the tracks.  

This was a very simple structure to build and provides some interest to what was otherwise a boring strip of scenery at the edge of the layout.  

Small iron-steel hot metal cars

This photo from an old (perhaps early 1900s) catalog advertising the double truck locomotive crane also shows some interesting small hot metal cars.  The fact that workers are shown posing on the cars indicates there is no hot metal in the cars.  These cranes were self powered and often used for moving short strings of cars in industrial areas.  The lettering on the crane is hard to read but seems to including the word Cleveland.

These small cars were most likely used in a large foundry rather than a steel mill due to the limited capacity.  As was typical of hot metal cars the numbers on the cars appear to be hand painted.  Those white "bottles" on the crane deck could be oil for the machinery.

Luke's old shack

I keep building old shacks because it's fun.  I need to move on to other things before my layout starts looking like a slum.  This shack is a little bigger than the last two.

Since I modeled this shack with the door open, I put a little bit of interior detail inside but as usual it is difficult to impossible to see.  I put a lot of detail on the front porch, including a chair, a box made into a chair, a case of beer, a pitchfork, an old refrigerator, a dog, and a barrel.  Luke is leaning against the porch post.  The metal roof is in bad condition and leaks a little.

I made the old refrigerator from pieces of wood, card stock and plastic.

The windows and door were made from strip wood.  I used my usual ink & alcohol mixture to weather the building which is made from strip wood and bits of scribed siding.

Bethlehem Steel Company Yard Truck 1920

This is a photo of an electric storage battery truck used for yard work at Bethlehem Steel Company about 1920.  It is hauling what appears to be a relatively heavy mill cylinder casting.

That is a really big battery compartment under the truck body.  The truck was a product of General Vehicle Company.  The GVC was originally established by the Pope Manufacturing Company, but was purchased in 1905 by General electric and reorganized as the General Vehicle Company.  Their main product was electric powered trucks.  In that time frame there was some experimentation with electric powered vehicles, but gasoline power proved superior.  Ironically today companies are still promoting electric powered vehicles with minimal success and heavy taxpayer subsidies.

This type of truck would be very easy to model as it is essentially a wagon with a battery compartment.