@gjslsffan Does "Vicki Parking Only" mean that the three parking places are for customers of Vicki's, or that they are for Vicki?
Ho they are all for Vicki, she likes her cars . Oh man does she like her cars. Of course the goat eating the flowers was her idea and all the cats and dogs everywhere too. Oh yea, the street was named for her too.
Montanan, Thanks for the memory with the ice dock scene. Very realistic and detailed. Back in the early 1960's I worked summer jobs on the PFE docks in El Paso. Only difference was we iced a lot of 100 car trains in the SP yards. Many trainloads of California cantaloupes that were Eastbound and down. Those 300 pound blocks are real man builders. Oh to be young again. Carl
Great story Carl, always like to hear stories like that. Here in GJ they used to ice many cars of peaches LOL. How many 300 lb blocks would fit in a typical 40" reefer? The roof had to be pretty strong to stand up to that.
One of my first figures sporting a top hat made from a brass eyelet stands next to the buckboard wagon that I finished building this morning. I still need to add some reins, but I'm pretty happy with how this all turned out.
Tom Holley, thanks for the comment. As far as how many blocks a typical 40 footer would hold depended on how much was still in the bunkers when car was ready for servicing. I do not know how familiar you are with an old ice bunker car but you need to understand that each end of the car had a bunker. I will say the closest I can think of was like a chain link fence. The bunker was from the floor to the roof and was probably about 6-8 feet in width from the cars end. I am trying to remember 55 year old facts here so I am not most likely accurate on the width. The 300lb block came down a chain in the center of the dock and we pulled them off of the chain, across a wooden ramp onto the top of the bunker area and then broke them into 4-5 pieces with large picks. How much we put into each end depended upon how much remained from last service and how far to the next service. We would add a 50lb bag of salt to each bunker. Many if not all cars had an axle driven fan to help circulate cool air across the cargo. Sometimes we had fruit or veggies that we blew snow onto the top of the cargo. We would open the side doors, run the ice through a large shaving machine that would blow the snow in. That was the easy gravy work. This was excellent job for college jock and great summertime pay at, as I recall, around $7.00 per hour. This was 1960 - 1963. At the end of each season I at 6'-2" weighed in at 190 lbs. I met my wife during the fall of 1962 while still pumped and married her on 2/15/63. As I said earlier, oh to be young again. Carl
Great Pictures so far! If allowed I would like to share some Pictures taken on my small Switching Layout. Gary Christensen Engine and Mike Morrison Car: Rod Walker Engine, Gary Christensen Car:
That is just some stunning modeling and photography. Say, I have a few hundred cars you and your friends could work over What kind of camera did you use??
