Just A Christmas Card

[Jim Courtney]

Pitkin, winter of 1903. Photo by H. L. Curtiss.



Here's hoping everyone has safely "tied-up" by Christmas Eve,
          and that all have a Happy Christmas with their family and friends.

[Lee Gustafson]

Jim,

Thank you for the card and your contributions thru out the year. Also best wishes to all and thanks for the collective contributions and participation. Best wishes.

Lee Gustafson

[Jeff Young]

Lee Gustafson wrote

Jim,

Thank you for the card and your contributions thru out the year. Also best wishes to all and thanks for the collective contributions and participation. Best wishes.

Hear, hear!

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Paul R.]

I will add my wishes to all on this group, keep warm and cozy. Here in Ballarat AU we are going to have a hot one, about33c .Paul R.

[John Greenly]

Jim,  and everyone,

thank you all so much for all your help and patience as I've started to learn about the C&S and build some models this year after 40 years off in the "real" world.  I've come to depend upon visiting this place for a much-needed dose of fascination, wonderful expertise and general good-naturedness.  

Jim, thanks for this fine Christmas card image!  Can't possibly try to match that, but here's a scene I came upon just today.  The boss had just arrived in his elegant center-door sedan to take a look at the new arrival to the yard.  After they figure out how to get it off the flatcar it's headed to the paint shops for the much-needed coat of any-color-as-long-as-it-is black:








A very merry Christmas to all!

John


John Greenly
Lansing, NY

[South Park]

  John,

  Your new arrival, is that supposed to be a Ford ?  If so, it is interesting to see
that the builder put a C-cab oval rear window in a box cab, which got a rectangular
rear window.  I have been tempted to put one in my own truck, but have been unable
to bring myself to do it.

[John Greenly]

SP,

it's a Jordan Highway Miniatures HO kit, they say it's a 1925 TT.  I was wondering about the rear window, because I saw that yours is rectangular, and indeed I couldn't find any pictures of box cabs with an oval window.  I've been thinking of changing it- the cab isn't attached yet and I could do it.  I built the kit as supplied except I didn't use the bed, which was a lot wider and also taller, with three boards instead of two.  I hope you noticed a resemblance of the bed to your truck, I made it from scratch to try to match yours as best I could from the photos you have posted.

John

[Jim Courtney]

Is that a 3-board St Charles coal car that I spy, hiding behind the D&RG stock car, in the second photo?

[Jeff Young]

I’ve got one of those Jordan kits to build too — what a great idea to kit-bash it into SP’s truck!

Cheers,
Jeff.

[John Greenly]

Jim, you always have the eye out for coal cars!  Yes, that one is a 3-board car, a Victor G. M. car that I made from an old Labelle kit ages ago, and I put the corner irons in the wrong place- centered on the boards instead of offset between them.  I need to fix that and finish up and upgrade details that I never got around to way back then, like grabirons- I have a tendency to procrastinate on those, but this many decades might be some kind of record!

I've been working slowly on my first attempt at a C&S coal car, which is the one behind the flat with SP's truck on it.    Maybe I'll get up my courage and put up a picture of it on the 1902 coal car thread when I get it more nearly finished.  

John

[Keith Hayes]

Happy Holidays from Leadville!

Thanks to everyone for participating!

[John Schapekahm]

CONTENTS DELETED

The author has deleted this message.

[Jim Courtney]

Keith,

Looks like you may have to borrow the rotary from Mike soon!

Merry Christmas to the inhabitants of Leadville, whatever their scale.

Jim

[South Park]

  John,

  I am flattered that you would model after my old beast.  
While it is a very stock truck, I have gone to some length
to make it's appearance look as if it is a well maintained
truck of about 5 years old.  Many TT owners either have
real "ratbag" trucks, or stupidly over-polished weights for
holding down the garage floor.  I want mine to look as if
one fell through a time warp when the see it going down
the road.

  These trucks were all over the area where I grew up,
rusting hulks left in the woods or along fence lines on
many of the farms around our place.  One really sticks
in my mind and was my inspiration to finally shift my
car interest from 1950's finned cars to 20's stuff.  It was
a truck nearly identical to the one I have now, but an original
never-restored farm truck that sat in the implement shed
over the hill on Mrs. Miller's farm.  It looked like it was
parked in there in 1950 and was just waiting for the next
harvest and someone to come crank it up.

  I own a C-cab with the oval back window and love its
look.  I do not believe the box cabs were ever built with
the oval.  The entire C-cab truck cab could be built from
reproduction sheetmetal today, and the thought has crossed
my mind to swap in that panel with the window, but I think
I should just hold out and restore my C-cab if I want one
so bad.  My next project will be either a 1925 roadster
pickup or a speedster, with a body modeled after a Mercer
with high flying fenders and enormous bucket style headlights
off a 1912-14 White like this:

[John Greenly]

SP,
that's exactly what I like about your truck, it looks like it has just been transported from the time when it was working for a living and being properly kept-up.  And I like the proportions of the bed, it just looks useful and right to me.  So my little model scene was an attempt to transport it back again to its own time.  I thought it deserved a ride on a flatcar, and what a great Christmas present it would have been!

I think I will change the rear window to the rectangular one to be correct.  I just have to do a careful job of removing the raised outer oval in the panel around the window on the model.  Jordan also made a model of the C cab, and I bet they used the rear panel from that on this model to save time/money.

I look forward to your next one.  The roadster pickup is a favorite of mine, there is a Jordan kit for that too and I have a thought of making a narrow-gauge railcar out of it.  Of course, the trouble with my model T's is that in HO scale they are not much over an inch long,  can't exactly take one out for a drive….  

That speedster would be spectacular too. the Mercer was a mean looking machine.

John

[South Park]

  As mentioned above, I have done finned 50's cars since high
school in the 70's.  Always thought they were fun, but a culture
has grown up around them and the muscle cars that is nauseating,
taking a lot of the fun out of them.  After AFG, I decided to get
a TT and been doing that now since 2013.  The fun of owning
and driving a 20hp truck like this makes the go-fast and glam of
newer old cars seem dull and tedious.

  They are cheap to buy, no huge demand, as current market buyers
want the go-fast kind of cars, and they are cheap to own.  With the
Model T, parts are as easy as a phone call and a credit card, and by
comparison to my other cars, dirt cheap.  It is a great way to get into
the old car hobby, if a person wants to do so.

  I am currently building the original engine for power, and will
double it's original hp or better.  Combined with high speed "delivery"
gears and an overdrive, I will easily make 50mph, as opposed to the
current top speed of 20.



  I hope to have the engine/trans done in the next few weeks and be
working on the already alomost done rear end, and then marrying in
the OD before the nice weather comes.  I want to drive the wheels off
it !!!  Got a heavy dump of snow today and it is still coming down.
Good time to be holed up in the shop working on my full scale "modeling" !  

[South Park]

  I have always loved Pitkin.  It is just the quintessential pioneering
RR/mining/mountain town.  What a wonderful place it would have
been to visit and see all that activity !  Love that long tangent through
town, with the ample sidings, depot, coaling station, etc.  Such a shame
it was so dependent on the viability of the tunnel for survival.

  How many rail miles was it from Quartz ?  Woodstock loop ?  The
tunnel itself ?

[ComoDepot]

The barriers are down on US285, Colorado cut off from Como.

The breeze has blown the snow away.

[Robert McFarland]

Quartz is roughly 3 miles from Pitkin.Figuring its 10 miles from Quartz to the Tunnel,and its roughly 3 miles from the Tunnel to Woodstock Loop,that would make Pitkin to Woodstock 10 miles and Pitkin to Tunnel 13 miles.

[Robert McFarland]

USAF must like Como because I've seen C-130s make flyovers of the town.So if you get snowed in they can give you an air drop.