"Will you throw down the box, please?"

Black Bart has the stagecoach cornered and is about to relieve the driver of his heavy Wells Fargo load.

"Thrown down the box" was the cry of the 19th century robber. Even though it's 1895, travel by stage is still dangerous. Road agents are still at large as seen by this photo captured by a hidden cameraman. It looks like Black Bart is back on the road or is that just someone copying his technique? In any case, no one was hurt and the stage reached its destination only minus the Wells Fargo box.
     Black Bart was a real person in California history who managed to pull off 28 stage holdups over a ten year period. When he was finally captured, it was discovered that he was a respected person in San Francisco society and his shotgun was never loaded. He never harmed a passenger either and did include the "please" after demanding the treasure box. After serving six years in San Quentin prison, Bart moved on and was not heard of again.
     The coach was assembled from the kits mentioned in my last post (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2019/06/mud-wagons-and-lightning.html). Since I could not find any robbery victims, I had to modify a couple of figures so they could "reach for the sky."
 

The track gang busily at work just outside of Milton. Let's hope they get finished and get the handcars off the track before the next train comes along

On a more positive note, the Chinese track gang is busily at work replacing ties on the Milton branch. I don't recall who made the figures but the handcars were built up from Tichy kits.
     While waiting for parts to rebuild the electronics destroyed by the lightning strike mentioned in the last post, I am doing some light modeling. Maybe I will catch up to some projects I have been putting off.

Mud Wagons and Lightning

Based on drawings of a Henderson mud wagon, Hakan Nilsson's kits are very faithful to the prototype. Mine were lettered for the Ione, Jackson and Sutter Creek run based on a Henderson photo. I still have to harness the horses.

Hakan Nilsson (eightwheelermodels.com) is located in Sweden and models California in the 1800s. As a result of his modeling, he has produced several items of that era which should be of interest in anyone modeling the nineteenth century. Besides his website, he has additional items in his Shapeways store (Eight-Wheeler Models).
     A few months ago, he and I exchanged a couple of emails regarding mud wagons. These were the cheaper, yet sturdier, coaches used to transport people all over the country until the advent of the automobile and good roads. While we are all know the familiar Concord coach from countless western movies and TV shows, the mud wagons accounted for about 2/3 of the coaches in use, especially on the rugged roads of the western United States. Hakan then set about producing a laser-cut kit of two styles of these coaches. Last week, I started putting two of them together and, I must say, they were very enjoyable to assemble.The parts fit and the final appearance was excellent. A few years ago, I had made a few mud wagons by kitbashing the Jordan stagecoach. These kits could have saved me a bit of trouble.
   

This coach was kitbashed from the Jordan kit for the Concord coach also based on a Henderson prototype.

Right in the middle of this project, we had a bit of nasty weather here including a lightning strike which was very close to us. It was close enough to knock out several of our appliances including the dishwasher, telephone/internet modem, clothes dryer, television and so on. It even took out all four of the Digitrax command stations and boosters on the railroad including the fast clock controller. The Digitrax stuff has all been sent off to the company in Florida but they are taking at least two months to repair damage these days. The Stockton and Copperopolis will be out of commission for a while. At least, working on the mud wagons helped to calm me somewhat while waiting for adjusters and repairmen.
     Take a look at Hakan's Railroad Line Forum thread 9http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35088&whichpage=1). I think you will find it interesting.

More Wagons and Stagecoaches, Too!

This Matteson & Company stage was built straight from a Jordan kit. The decals were from Art Griffin (www.greatdecals.com/griffin.htm). 

Lately, the different types of wagons and carriages has been interesting me as much as billboard freight cars. There is a lot of variety in both areas and they are both fun. Jordan Products, and others,  make a number of very nice wagons and carriages and those alone will furnish a nineteenth century railroad but there are a number of common horse-drawn vehicles that aren't represented. The last couple of weeks have been spent trying to reproduce some of these.
 

While the passengers dither, the driver is obviously eager to start his trip. The horses seem to be indifferent.

One of the biggest needs on the S&C is for stages. Stagecoaches met the trains at Milton, Burnett's, Peters, Oakdale and Farmington. Passengers changed from the steamcars to the stage to get to the mining communities of Sonora, Jamestown, Angel's Camp, Murphy's and the rest. While Jordan makes a beautfiul Abbot & Downing Concord coach, most of the California stages were what was lovingly called "mud wagons." This name came from two of its characteristics. The mud wagon were more heavily built than the Abbot & Downing coaches and, thus, better suited to the rougher California mountain roads. They were also cheaper by about half but were also more open affording little protection for the passengers from the mud and dust thrown up by the wheels. They could stand up to muddy roads but at the expense of a good part of the road landing on the passengers.
 

Wagon makes had builder's photos taken just as car and locomotive
manufacturers did.

 My version of a mud wagon was based on an M.P. Henderson design. Henderson was located in Stockton and made wagons used throughout the West. I used a Jordan stage as a base and adapted the running gear to suit the sturdier coach. The body was scratchbuilt from styrene. Some of the Jordan parts were used such as the luggage rack on the rear and the railings around the top. The lettering was based on a photo of an actual Guerin & Nevils stage. That company served both Milton and Oakdale during my period and was a good choice for me.
   Harnessing of the coaches was done as described in my post of January 23 (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2014/01/wagons-galore-with-harnesses-too.html). Harnessing one horse is not too bad, two is a little harder but six is a bit much. I'm sure they were hard to drive as well.
 

A surrey is a great carriage to go for a Sunday picnic. This couple is on their wagon complete with a picnic basket and what looks like a bottle of some adult beverage.

The two-seater buggy was probably the most common carriage in the 1890s, at least according to the photos I have seen. The second most common seems to be a four-seater surrey. Jordan makes a great buggy kit but no surrey. I spliced two buggies together to get the body and made a top complete with fringe out of styrene.
 

A housewife negotiates for a bottle of liniment from the Watkins salesman. J. R. Watkins had many different kinds of wagons and are still in business today making such things as vanilla extract. None of it is now delivered in wagons, however.

 The last wagon I attempted this time around was a commercial sales wagon, sometimes known as a milk wagon. It was designed for in-town service where the driver would be alighting several times during the day, hence the drop floor. It certainly would not do on a rough road but would work fine on a graded city street. The body of this wagon was scratchbuilt with underbody parts from a Jordan Light Delivery wagon. The decals are from my artwork.
    Next up on the wagon front will be a dray. This was a low-slung cargo-carrying wagon used to move heavy equipment around. I photographed one at Old Sacramento several years ago and will try to reproduce it.