Let's see the automobiles of your layout.

Being a hockey fan (Go Sharks!), I know who Don Cherry is...but the joke escapes me. (and, no Sharks jokes! lol)

Some very cool vehicles posted here. That's something I'll need to do once my layout gets under way. As a car guy, I bet I'll have as many vehicles as I do freight cars!

 

This is a great thread! Here's my contribution.

A Porsche 356 - it's metal, I bought it years ago when I was travelling in Italy, not sure of the brand


Cars waiting on short work train at the Caliente Bodfish Rd grade crossing. The VW convertible is also a metal model that I bought in Italy


Ranch vehicles


And some downtown Modesto 9th St action - this scene is forever a work in progress...

 

Here's a few that I'm working on now for a future addition to the 9th Street business district...Mahoney Motors, a VW repair shop. These are Wiking models, the primer gray bus and red bug started out as vehicles from the Police Car set - I nixed the rooftop gumballs and blue windows and am 'civilianizing' them.

 

Dave, I see ya got the Old Mill Cafe up.. I didn't see the finished pics of that.. Did I miss them? Looks awesome from what I see it this picture..

 

One of my favorite vehicles is my Lineside stock trailer. It is a stock kit, but very nice model.


Is it okay to post trucks? Or only cars?

 

Just in case you've forgotten where we have collectively come from - here's the only "semi truck" available in '72 which was lurking in the bottom of my parts box, and a current GHQ freightliner. Didn't everybody have one of these once? Didn't everybody else throw them out?



Unlike the Scenicruiser, there's no saving that! Weathing, exhaust, and trim is truly lipstick on a pig...auuugh. The funny part is that the OTHER trucks in that set weren't that bad and with a little work could be useful. I made the wrecker into a hirail, and those IH trucks are still on the layout somewhere with bodies and new wheels.

 

Is this one? I have to admit that I got it from a friend. I sure like the looks, though. I guess it need mirrors and details.


Looks like it may still be available. Check here for GHQ web page.

 

Almost - It's just sitting on the layout right now, awaiting some custom decals before I attach the windmill.

Flash, yep, we've come along way, that's for sure!

 

So this thread and Flash's picture of the old truck got me thinking about the old Bachmann vehicles that were available in the late 60's early 70's. When I had my train set up, I had some vehicles from that old Bachmann set that as a kid I liked better than others because they just looked right. And some of the others in the set were losers, even my 8 year old eyes could tell that!

I dragged them out, and even did a little bit of work to one of them. Here's the Chevy station wagon (Nova I think?). When I was a kid I thought it was the best looking one in the set - and I still do...I popped the ugly cloudy windows out of one, filled in the big dimple in the middle of the roof (I think they all had that ) and shot it with primer. Not bad IMHO - I'll probably finish it up (or leave it in primer - there are lots of motorheads in Modesto that drive primered cars!) and put crystal clear windows in it. It's got good detail and proportions though I think:


The old VW bus also has potential I think - I like the fact that it's an early 60's model w/ the big canvas sunroof - it'll probably get the same treatment as the Nova and will be good filler for my VW repair shop project. It looks ok next to the Wiking '68 model.


The other one that I thought was ok as a kid was the Cougar - again, ditch the windows and the too-shiny and sloppy paint and it may look ok also...

 

It starts to go downhill from there though. The next 2 (I think they're a Cadillac Eldorado on the right and maybe a Chrysler on the left?) were never favorites as a kid. Looking at them now, the Eldo may have some potential, but the Chrysler...I don't know if there's much hope for it. Did Bachmann hire blind gorillas to paint these things?


And does anyone think there is any hope at all for these? It sure would be cool to have some old Corvettes on the layout, but man these guys almost look like cartoon caricatures of the real thing! I may try to turn one into a convertible to see if that helps any. Has anyone ever performed any surgery on these?


What options are available for replacing the wheels on these old Bachmann vehicles? I think they are the worst feature of all on them, even worse than the blind monkey paint jobs....

 

Any chance of a re-run of this article, I have a bus which could do with some updating?

Regards, Roger.

 

Don’t forget the White 7400 TDB semi-tractors and trailers that were imported by Boyd in the early 1970s. They were released in the summer of 1970, approximately six months before the Bachmann moving van. This particular example is hitched to a Con-Cor trailer that was identical to the Boyd trailer, except for the pad printed graphics.



Also, the IH CO Loadstar trucks imported by Boyd and released in 1969, a full year before the White 7400 TDB semi-tractors, were easily converted to semi-tractors and could be used with the trailers from the Atlas and Aurora piggyback flatcars. This example of the IH CO Loadstar is hitched to a pup trailer made from an Aurora (Minitrix) trailer.



Unfortunately, modelers seemed to prefer the lower price of the Bachmann truck sets, and Boyd models faded from the scene before the end of the 1970s.

We really have come a long ways!

Carter

 

Dave,

Here are examples of the automobiles from Bachmann Auto Set No. 1 with new chassis and wheels.

The Chevy II station wagons are on Wiking chassis.



The Mercury Cougars are also on Wiking chassis.



The Cadillac Eldorados are on chassis from Tomix Toyotas.



And, the Corvettes are on chassis from Tomix Nissan Skylines.



I will try to get some more photos with other chassis and wheel options posted tomorrow night. I am on a sloooow dialup connection, and loading the photos takes forever.

Carter

 

All great vehicles !

Sadly we are lacking 'NEWER' vehicles. My era is somewhere in the 1990's and 2000's. I did buy a small box of Kato cars that are newer. I am needing more semi trucks, cars, pickups etc. I keep telling myself that the hunt for these vehicles is half the fun...right?

.

 

Brian

 

Very cool pix of N-scale vehicles everyone! And I do agree that we need more modern vehicles! I once worked at a CSX Transflo terminal and a truck trailer we loaded daily was the bulk trailer---I would LOVE to see one offered in N-scale! Or any scale, for that matter. There are a wide variety of covered hoppers offered in N-scale, but curiously no bulk trailers of any kind. I'm currently working on a small switching layout based on a Transflo terminal and am trying to get a fleet of trucks needed for the terminal...dumps, tankers and hopefully someday---bulk trailers. BTW, I recently purchased the ATLAS Ford F-150 pickups decorated for CSX---pretty darn cool!!!:thumbs_up:

 

Those are really nice updates to the old Bachmann junk.. I have been considering doing some frankenstien projects like that myself. I have been wanting to take some of the old Micro Machines, and slitting them down the middle (lenthwise) and narrowing them to make them more scale, as well as some wheels work so they aren't so over exagerrated. Might be WAY too much work than it's worth, but just wanted to try it to see how it turns out... As soon as I find a few MMs that I would want to do, I might just go ahead with it now..

 

I wanted to update, too, but I didn't know what to do. Replacing the frame is a good idea if I just have the frames. I think I am going to have excess vehicles, so I need to select the best and discard the rest.

 

I think you should be able to make a chassis real easy for those things to be honest.. Instead of having to buy another set of more expesive cars just for the chassis. If you arent concerned with rolling wheels, it would be easier yet. You can buy a butt load of cast resin wheels and tires for pennies. I bought a BUNCH of them on Ebay awhile back for next to nothing. Paint them, afix them to a make shift chassis then put the old bachmann body over it. Should be easy and cheap to do to make those old Bachmann useable. I don't concern myself with rolling wheels specifially, because the cars on the layout are basically static anyway..