1930/40s commercial vehicles etc.

[Dorsetmike]

How many of us actually model the grouping period, 1923-47?  How many would like to see more items aimed at this period.

There seems to be a dearth of commercial vehicles for the 30/40s period, you have larger older types but not so much in the way of medium or lighter vehicles. I'm thinking Fordson, Bedford, Dennis and Morris, from 10cwt up to 3 tons; most of what I've found is Scammell 3 wheelers, big Scammells & Thornycrofts and 1920s Fords.

Smaller iconic ones like Austin 7 based vans and Model T Fords  can be found but not much of the everyday stuff, Bedford or Ford coal merchants or builders lorry, even buses skip the period at least until post WW2.

I would like to see for example a Fordson E88W 25 or 35cwt, need only be a cab and chassis (I could probably make the bed and sides or a van body) same for the Bedford or other makes, maybe bodies could be made to fit the various chassis, so you could mix and match, Ford cab and chassis with a generic open lorry or box van body, same bodies could also fit the Bedford chassis; further variations could be long or shor wheel bases and bodies to match

Housing kits are mainly either victorian/edwardian terraces or post WW2 detached, semis and flats, not a decent 1930s 2 or 3 bedroomed bungalow to be found (and they didn't change much into the 50s)

[Michael Shillabeer]

Hello Mike

Hornby made a 1930s bungalow

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornby-N8752-N-Gauge-Bungalow-Lyddle/dp/B00260GIGC

Is the Bilt Eezi bungalow 1930s? http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=2649.0

Could do with some 70s and 80s houses too! I see in Scalescene's forthcoming products a 70s semi is listed I wonder if it will be like the one I was brought up in?

Best regards
Michael

[NeMo]

How many of us actually model the grouping period, 1923-47?  How many would like to see more items aimed at this period.

A fair question; my recollection is that when I was a kid, in the 70s/80s, the "Big Four" period was very popular, if the number of layouts in 'Railway Modeller' was anything to go by. One issue for N-scale modellers is surely that the ready-to-run diesels and electrics are so much more reliable (and, arguably, better detailed) than the steam engines. Valve gear and leading pony trucks are two obvious sources of trouble in N-scale that are much less problematic in 00/H0.

Housing kits are mainly either victorian/edwardian terraces or post WW2 detached, semis and flats, not a decent 1930s 2 or 3 bedroomed bungalow to be found (and they didn't change much into the 50s)

The Kestrel kits include a lot of interwar buildings, including the pretty good semi-detached house. Is it 'Frankland' that uses these to such great "Metroland" effect? The stationmaster's house is another model that looks more 20s/30s than anything else, to my eye at least. It surely goes without saying that a layout set in the 1930s could have as many Victorian houses as you wanted. Indeed, I'm writing this email sitting inside a Victorian terrace house!

Cheers, NeMo

[javlinfaw7]

Look at N'tastic Shops R Parker range  they have Ford 7v, Bedford WLG ,Morris 2 ton and three of four Austin and Morris light vans
They are well finished and go together well ,the V7 Lorry comes as a cab , chassis ,flatbed and glazing so could be easily adapted it is also avaiable as a fire tender, the Bedford has a range of types dropside,pickup, recovery and refuse , the Morris is a box van .
I have a number of the 50's to 60's cars and vans and they really look the part.

[Dorsetmike]

Thanks for that Javlin; however permit me a Grrrrrrrrr, I just spent the afternoon hacking two Oxford 3wheeler dust carts ito a 4 wheel freelance, then I see the Parker Bedford one!

I feel an ordercoming on!

[Cutter]

Remember. That in the 20s and 30s there were far fewer vehicles about than today and that many of them were old. Expect lots of bicycles and horse drawn vehicles too.

[javlinfaw7]

I lived next to a haulage contractor who still used flat beds and tippers pulled by Clydesdale heavy horses up to the mid sixties , this was in Govan, a industrial area in Glasgow , not a rural area.

[Cutter]

I grew up near London and in the early 60s we had a 1936 Austin and then a 1949 Triumph Renown. Rag and bone men called regularly with their horse drawn wagon. Most army transport in WWII was horse drawn. The Royal Household only abandoned its horse drawn Forgons during the war.  Vehicles were expensive and were expected to last. Like today, most of the motor vehicles on the road in the 20s and 30s were old, not brand new.

My planned layout is a modest country station set 1925-35, and will have only a couple of cars, a steam lorry, and a Morris van--all Parker models. One of the cars is a 1913 Morris. There will also be a few horse dawn vehicles and some black bikes.

[BernardTPM]

I grew up near London and in the early 60s we had a 1936 Austin and then a 1949 Triumph Renown.

Taking 1963 as early 1960s (later than that would be mid -60s surely?), the Triumph would be only 14 years old - that's like 2000 is now, say a Mk.1 Ford Focus; admittedly the 1936 Austin in 1962 would be 26 years old, like 1988 now, same sort of age as a facelifted Ford Sierra.

Even the newest cars of 1925 look very old fashioned to us. Affordable cars were still relatively new in the early 1920s; by the late 1930s the first generation of them were available secondhand - had it not been for a rude interruption which effectively meant not new cars built for a decade (early postwar cars went for export) then the 'Beeching' cuts of the '60s might have happened a decade earlier.

[javlinfaw7]

Another form of transport that was popular in my area was ex works light vans such as Jowett Bradfords ,Morris Z and Ford equivalents with window cut, sometimes poorly done,in the cargo space

[Dorsetmike]

Another form of transport that was popular in my area was ex works light vans such as Jowett Bradfords ,Morris Z and Ford equivalents with window cut, sometimes poorly done,in the cargo space

Indeed, my first vehicle in 1960 was a 1951 Ford 8HP van with windows cut in and an old bus seat for a back set, cost me £70 and was a death trap, - until my first visit home with it, when father, who worked at the local Ford main dealership, took it into the works where it got a good set of part worn tyres, had a half turn play in the steering wheel sorted, found only one of the 4 wheels brakes worked reasonably - sorted and a few other odd bits, to keep the cost down the work was done by apprentices at a reduced hourly rate - still cost me £40.

[joe cassidy]

Don't forget the Dornaplas Thorneycroft truck, which is a plastic kit available in a variety of body styles.

It's easy to build and looks good.

There is also a Trojan van white metal kit in the Scale Link range, which is as good as the R. Parker kits, but doesn't come with glazing.

Best regards,


Joe

[Dorsetmike]

Got the Thorneycroft, I'm after smaller lorries and vans, I've just received 9 of the Parker ones from N'Tastic, that should give me summat to do tomorrow, prime, paint and assemble.