Jusst got my Model Railroad Planning 2002 issue, and I have found spomething very very interesting. See page 53 to see what I mean(study the picture, and then read the caption). Lets see how many can pick up on this! Hehe.
Well, I just picked my MRP 2002, and had not perused it. But, now that you have me curious..... Just a wild guess, but since the caption dates the photo as 1956, I'd wonder at the presence of a very obvious 1957 Chevy..... What year is the Ford parked in front of it? The photo isn't sharp enough. But it almost looks like a '57 as well. Oh well, we'll see how close I am. BoxcabE50
Most of the Big-3 autos for 57 would have been on the show room floors by September of 56, so you Could see a 57 in a photo taken after the first of September of 56, see?
That's a 57 Ford in front of the 57 Chevy near the shed. There's also a 57 Ford two-door hard top and a 57 Merc wagon down on the right side. I agree that in the 50's and 60's, the new model year cars were on the showroom floors by mid-September. So you could easily see a 57 during the last 3 months of 56.
Took me just a little while for that to dawn on me...But I knew those cars were definately 57s. The Wagon got me a little, wasn't sure on it. The fairlanes stuck out, as well as all of te models that have the flatter hood that is prevelent in later production Fords. So the picture is definately at earliest late 1956. Makes sense now that I think about it...just thought that the number of these new cars to be a little high for a railyard..(I counted about 2 Fairlanes, one is a maybe; parked in front of the Bel Air),...must be a supervisor's lot .
I did know about the fall sales season for new models. I remember very well October of 1956. My grandfather came home with his new '57 Chevy Del Ray 210 2dr. I still have three of the dealer promo buttons. These the salesmen wore on their lapels. My favorite says " Cool Cat! '57 Chevy!" My focus was trying to figure out what Benny was seeing in the photo. Bernie K is a fantastic modeler, and quite thorough. So I'd not doubt that he researched and double checked before the article was submitted. BoxcabE50
