They were all stored at MLS, as far as I can tell, so they went when MLS purged everyone’s photos and they caused a mad rush to the exits. {MLS is having a photo problem this week.]
That’s a father son team there! Dad’s stopping traffic while his baby boy drives up to an intersection and safely passes threw,through,thru
Bill I promise you that any scale in the neighborhood of 1:24 is gonna work. If someone takes a ruler out to measure it take it away from them and smack them with it. And there are tons of older kits and even newer kits available as well as guys on ebay doing custom resin castings that are intended for use with a donor kit. But as long as you can make some reasonable pieces like grills and what not the sky is pretty open.
I prefer plastic (or resin), just so much easier to work with. Especially when kit bashing. But that’s not to say a die cast metal truck wouldn’t be very suitable.
As for an airbrush. . . what Craig said. I don’t use mine near as much as I did when I painted model.cars for competition way back in the day. But having one and being proficient at using it is very handy. I G Scale I don’t really care as much for a perfect look since the models are so big and in the steam era to me just doesn’t have the need for "perfect paint jobs and so I either rattle can it or hand paint with brush and acrylics. But don’t get me wrong. . .IT IS a sub par paint job compared to good airbrushing.
Who started this dang thread. . .I really want to.built one now. I said I had a 50s Chevy COE cab I think would make a fun one.
I think this could be the beginnings of a very fun rail truck. Of some sort.
I looked online and it’s been so long ago since I bought this cab I really can’t remember what year it is. But now I’m thinking 40’s. Is there anyone who can tell me?
https://www.instagram.com/p/COE3GRRLxvg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Copyrighted so here’s the link but all I can say is “ah hell yes!!!”. That would be way fun. All I need another project but this needs to be made.
How much fun would it be to show up at a speeder club meet to explore and abandon RR line in that??
Late 1930’s into early 1940’s. Do you have the whole truck kit?
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Nope. I bought it on ebay. It’s an epoxy casting using an epoxy putty that the guy must have just pushed into a mold. The inside is somewhat rough and you can see what appears to be finger marks from him pushing it into the mold. Though this is pure speculation on my part. What I know for certain is that this guy makes all sorts of custom hot rod bodies buy taking production models and modifying them and then molding them. He has a lot of designs.
Went on Ebay and looked at my purchase history. Its a 1938 GMC. Seller is Jimmy Flinstone (Nancy’s Resin lounge).
Nope just what you see, the cab and grill
That reminds me of the rail truck #50 that belonged to the McCloud River Lumber Co/McCloud River Railroad back in the 1930-40 era in far Northern California. They used it and a homemade Crummy/caboose to transport loggers to and from the woods. Not much information available on the truck but was thought to be a 1939 GMC Coe that they converted in the company shops and lettered #50.
There are a couple of photographs of this truck out there but they are scarce.
Here is a pin and ink my wife did years ago for me from one of those photos.
The Crummy # 50A has an interesting history.
The flat car bottom is one of several thought to have been used to transport supplies up and down an incline at the sites of building power house/dams on the Pit River in far Northern California by the Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
The box was built in McCloud company shops and was used behind #50 as additional space for logging crews.
Upon retirement the caboose was put on display at one of McCloud’s company towns, Pondosa, until the town withered away and disappeared. After the timber lands changed hands several times the caboose wound up being owned by Sierra Pacific Company and was moved to their mill site in Red Bluff, CA and put on display.
Our preservation group tried for several years to acquire it for restoration but were turned down time after time. Finally after several more years we got a call to come and git “our” caboose. Upon arrival we found nothing but a collapsed pile of rotting wood and rusty metal.
After tons of research and 2 years of work we put the restored caboose on display at the logging museum display in Redding California. I did an article for the TimberTimes Magazine back in 2011 on the restoration project.
During the restoration I built a model stick by stick just exactly like the prototype that we were putting back together.
My model is still rolling around my railroad.
There, way more than you ever wanted to know 
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That Gabriel brand 1912 Model T Depot Hack is what I used as the basis for my rail truck. The depot hack is 1/20th scale, but that’s close enough for a heavily kit bashed 1/24th scale rig. I used the chassis with fenders, and the engine hood. The rest was scratchbuilt mostly from styrene. I used brass to make the pilot, roof rack, and ladder.
The rear axle with gearbox is from a Bachman rail truck. I don’t know if they still do but at the time Bachmann had those and other spare parts for sale online. The motor is a small, geared motor I bought from another online source.
It’s controlled via the electronics from a miniature R/C car that sadly is no longer made. It runs on a tiny LiPo battery mounted under the front seat. The headlights and taillights come on when the vehicle is in motion.
At the time this was a much more advanced and complex modeling project than anything I’d ever done before but it wasn’t as daunting as I’d expected.
Your wife is a darn good artist!
Rick,
I am always amazed that there is prototype for everything. That is a way cool find. Thank you. And it creates a dilemma. Do you make a way cool fictitious hot rod COE rail truck or do you make a replica of a neat one of a kind COE rail truck? Or do you make a hot rod out of an old COE rail truck that was laying around rotting next to the caboose.
Either way you solidified my need to build this.
Gotta ask a dumb question. I’m not a truck guy and COE had me puzzled. When the photos showed up I took a guess: Cab Over Engine. Is that it? Kind of a per-cursor to the Cab Forward rigs which have faded into obscurity as well.
Found this one on CGTrader.
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Not hardly lol. Way to many organic wavy curves for my talent. I wish
Jon,
You got it. COE is indeed Cab Over Engine.
Thats neat Bob. Nice find. When I first bought this cab I wanted to make it into a hot rod car hauler to take my 63 split window Vette to shows. I have the vette about half done and never finidhed per my norm. Wanted to do it as a diorama
This is all I can currently find of my different railtruck.
BTW it’s 1:32 Bill
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I’d like to know how difficult it is for @manimal Dan to get his filament models Printables so smooth with his use of bondo.
Dan, I see one of your instructions is use “PATIENCE” 