Mail and Express Wagons

 

The Wells Fargo Express wagon at the Farmington depot. Noe that the name reads "Wells Fargo and Co's Express." The
plural of "Co." was used on WFCo signage until the company dropped the "'s" in 1898.

I had been wanting for some time to build a small express wagon, the kind with a top but just wire screened sides. I had seen several pictures of such a wagon but there was no kit of one. Jordan had produced such a body but mounted on a 1925 Model T Ford chassis, a bit too new for my needs. Having such a kit at hand gave me the idea of using just the body and making my own wagon underframe. 

     Several months ago, when Jordan ceased production, I had created 3D drawings of their wagon underframe and so I put those on the 3D printer and got  some pieces for my project. Wheels were spares I had from another kit I had assembled. The parts went together easily and so I had the wagon desired. A few decals later and the project was done. Being pleased with the outcome encouraged me to make another wagon, this one for the mail as I had also seen photos of this kind of wagon used in that service.

The U.S. Mail used a similar screened wagon but with a bit fancier lettering scheme.

     In general, I am happy with the outcome, however, the chassis parts are a bit too large having been designed for Jordan's heavier delivery wagons. I think the lighter units made for the light delivery wagon would be much better. To that end, I drew up some more 3D drawings and will have a chance to print those up in the near future.

Wagons and More Wagons

 

Two Buffalo Brewing Company wagons are loaded for delivery to the brewery in Sacramento. The lettering and buffalo logo was made from photos of  the prototype wagons. The flat car is a 30-foot scratchbuilt flat with 3D printed trucks.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to print some decals for him for a structure he was building. He wanted a sign for the building plus a sign to fit a Jordan wagon. I did it for him but it got me thinking about some wagons I wanted to build. In the down times waiting for paint to dry on the San Andreas (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2020/10/another-new-locomotive-for-s.html), I worked up the artwork for a few wagons for the Stockton area. Of the six wagons, four were lettered for the Buffalo Brewery, a Sacramento establishment popular in my era. In addition, I made up art for two Stockton-based companies.

     

The Stockton Home Bakery was a going concern at the turn of the century and will continue to be on my railroad.

All of the wagons were built from Jordan Delivery Wagons, both the Light and Standard versions. Two of the finished wagons were destined as loads from the Henderson Wagon Factory in Stockton and went on a flat. The others will occupy the streets of Stockton when I get to the point where there are streets in Stockton.

   

Another Buffalo wagon, this one delivers ice cut from the high Sierras and store in insulated warehouses for summer use. Crown flour was a common brand in the 1800s and its factory will fit into a small area in Stockton.

 Like all projects, it expanded with more paint-drying time involved in two-tone paint schemes but I like the results and that is the best measure in my mind. Jordan kits are getting scarce and prices are high but, fortunately, there are other companies picking up the slack with laser-cut or 3D printed kits. Berkshire Valley Models have several horse-drawn vehicles in both HO and O scale including drivers and horses.

    

New Motors and a New Buggy

 

One of my 2-6-0s with the new Minebea motor fitted. The shaft size was even the same as the old Sagami (lower right) so everything pretty much slipped into place. The 15mm square x 18mm long Minebea is at the center. It has a 2.0mm shaft (one-sided only).

The past couple of weeks or so have been a little frustrating for me. To start with, one of my locomotives lost most of its oomph. It could still pull cars but not at the same speed it had previously. After some thinking about the problem, I decided that the old Soundtraxx DSD 090 decoder which had been installed in 1998 had finally reached its lifespan and needed to be changed. It was duly replaced with a new Tsunami2 Steam-2 decoder which did absolutely nothing to cure the problem. More thought and some testing went on and I finally discovered that the motor was getting extraordinarily hot. I removed it and ran a test and it was drawing about .5 amps at 4 volts (normal is about .15 amps and 10 volts. Unfortunately, my stock of Sagami 16x20 motors was depleted. Fortunately, the Repower and Regear group have been talking about some Minebea motors which measured out to be about the same size with similar characteristics. Best of all, they were only about $3.50 each. I ordered a couple and installed it with great results. I haven't run it very much yet (no one to operate with) but I have high hopes.

     I no sooner had gotten that engine done when another similar engine exhibited the same symptoms. I changed both motor and decoder and now have two locos back in service and will probably order a few more of these. 

   

The new buggy sits on a road in Farmington. Both the horse and driver are figures made by Berkshire Valley. The horse seems to be carrying more heavy-duty harness than would be needed for a small buggy, though.

 Being somewhat tired of locomotive work, I noticed that Berkshire Valley Models (Berkshirevalleymodels.com) had a new kit for an HO scale buggy. Since the Jordan buggy has pretty much gone away, I thought I would check this one out. The kit is all laser cut and is easy to assemble. It took me less than two hours to get it all assembled and painted. While I was at it, I purchased one of Berkshire Valley's harnessed horses along with a driver. I was pleased with the results and recommend the kit to any who need a horse-drawn buggy.

Lightning Repair and Miscellany

The finished scale test car. These cars were used to calibrate track scales and were moved from place to place by train. They were usually placed as the last car in the train just ahead of the caboose.

Most of the damage done by the lightning strike back in June has now been repaired and it looks like the Copperopolis Road is ready for operation. Last week, though, I found out that both of my staging yards had taken damage by the lightning. One of the yards was easily repaired but the other is still awaiting some new circuit boards which should take care of the problem. If they don't, there are other ways to fix the yard. In any case, I'm having an operating session in a couple of weeks which may end up more of a shakedown.
   

Scale car parts awaiting assembly. Two tungsten weights were installed in the
car to keep it on the track.

While I've been waiting on components and so on, I've managed to do a couple of little projects. My first one was a scale test car. Several weeks ago, I asked the folks on the Early Rail IO Group if anyone had plans and/or photos of nineteenth century scale test cars. One person did and, before I could start a model, my friend, Craig Bisgeier, 3D printed a car from the drawings. Craig was nice enough to furnish me with his parts so I could build my own car. Now I have to build a scale track, scale or scale house and maybe get one of those nifty Boulder Creek Engineering scales.
   

The Case thresher just waits in the field for the harvester to mow down some wheat to thresh. It will eventually be part of a larger threshing scene.

I find that I have a lot of time waiting for glue or paint to dry and building the scale car was no exception. I started on a threshing machine which was a kit on Shapeways. It had a lot of parts but it was a fun project to assemble. I decide that it would be a J.I. Case thresher and lettered it accordingly. It will eventually be part of a threshing scene in one of my wheat fields.
     One other thing which just occurred this weekend was a surprise gift from Tom Teeple. You might remember his Liberty Street module which was featured in the 2012 issue of Great Model Railroads. Tom has moved but he had several wagons which he had assembled over the years which he thought might have a good home on the S&C. Tom is an excellent modeler and these wagons are exquisite. Even a horse-powered thresher was included. Thanks, Tom. They certainly will be used and appreciated.

Most of these wagons started out as a Jordan kit of some sort and were modified into the kind of vehicle Tom wanted.
The odd item at the upper left is the treadmill upon which the horse walks to power the thresher at its right.

Wagons and Cuspidors

Both wagons are built from the same Glencoe Models  kit.

After working several weeks on the engine terminal project, I felt that I needed a break but still wanted to do some modeling. Going through a box of wagon kits, I found a few inexpensive wagons which I had acquired along the way. They were not in the same class as the Jordan wagons and my first impulse was to throw them out. I reconsidered just to find out what they might look like with a little work. Background models are needed as well as foreground ones and, with Jordan kits pretty scarce, I thought that I should not pass up any substitutes.
   The models are made by Glencoe Models and a box gives you a stagecoach and a covered wagon. I removed the top cover from two of the covered wagons which gave me a couple of freight wagons and then assembled two more wagons with the covers. The stagecoaches I assembled per the instructions minus the horses (they looked more the size of ponies). After painting, I applied some old Art Griffin stagecoach decals and they turned out fairly respectable. They will still be background models, though.

Glencoe Models stagecoach with Art Griffin decals. 

A slightly tipsy gent with his cuspidor. The 

spittoon will ultimately be painted to resemble

brass.

   Another project I have been accumulating parts for is a saloon with a detailed interior. I was able to find a nice bar, back bar, tables and chairs, an upright piano, bottles and even beer mugs. The one vital piece of any bar, though, I could not find, a spittoon (or cuspidor if you are more genteel). SS Ltd. had one but it was not what I had in mind. I wanted a more typical style like the one I have in my crew lounge. The only alternative was to 3D print some. I had doubts that such a small object could be reproduced but gave it a try and ended up with a lifetime supply of spittoons! I still have to figure out how to get the "misses" around the spittoon modeled.
   Now to get back to more serious model railroad stuff.

Spotted While Traveling

The wagon of the well-known balloonist and alleged charlatan, Professor Marvel, was noted on the road adjacent to the S&C tracks. The professor appears to be waiting for his horse to return.

While roaming around the tracks of the Stockton & Copperopolis the other day, the wagon of Professor Marvel was sighted. A well-known charlatan and balloonist, the last known location of the professor was reportedly somewhere in Kansas.
   

A frame from the movie, Wizard of Oz showing the good professor's wagon.

    For those of you into old movies, you might recognize the wagon from the Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. Recently, our daughter's high school put on the play with her daughter appearing as one of the flying monkeys. I was inspired to dig out this picture along with some original MGM Studio plans of the prop wagon and build up the model.
   

MGM Studios plans for the prop department.

The model was built from styrene with Jordan wheels. It looks a bit out of proportion but it follows the dimensions given on the studio drawings. I imagine that MGM just put together whatever they wanted to meet the story's requirements without regard for functionality. It was a nice diversion from working on the structures for Milton.

Last of the Wagons . . . For Now

Building four drays is not much more difficult that building one so I now have a supply for Stockton when that city needs them.

One of the more interesting or, perhaps, unfortunate tendencies I have is to get sidetracked by arcane technology. If you have been reading this blog, you can see that wagons have been the latest of those detours. It has been fun but the railroad needs more cars, locomotives and everything that goes into a layout, so this will be the last of the wagons for at least a while.
 

Taken at Old Sacramento, this example of a prototype dray
was used as the basis for my models.

These peculiar-looking vehicles are called drays and were designed to haul heavier cargoes, hence their low-slung design. Because of this design, they were mostly used in cities where the streets were smoother than the roads encountered away from town. Old photos of Sacramento, San Francisco and Stockton show many of these vehicles so I decided to build some. The inspiration comes from photos I took several years ago at Old Sacramento. They weren't quite enough to build a good model so I contacted my friend, Kyle Wyatt of the California State Railroad Museum, who was able to give me additional information.
 

Most of the drays are lettered for actual drayage firms operating in Stockton in the 1800s. This one, however, was named for a friend.

There is not much to the construction. All of the parts are of styrene except for the wheels which are SS Ltd.'s small and large wagon wheels. They matched pretty closely to the size of the prototype and had the hefty appearance needed. The long side stakes fit into stake pockets. I had first thought of using manufactured stake pockets but they are much too large so I built these using a styrene rod cut to the right length. The stake was just attached at the top of the "pocket."

Easy loading is the advantage of a dray over a straight wagon.

They are small enough that the lack of a hole in the empty pockets is not really noticed. The lettering is mostly for actual drayage companies operating in Stockton during my era. Horses are now on order from Jordan Products so I can provide some power for the drays.
  The next project will be two more locomotives which are now sitting in pieces on my workbench awaiting new motors, decoders and a paint job. By the way, take a look at a new blog on the Southern Pacific (http://southernpacifclines.blogspot.com/). It should prove 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.

Wagons Galore with Harnesses, Too!

Three companies unloading goods at the Oakdale team track. The typical two-horse teams gave the public track its name. All three wagons are variations of the Jordan Farm Wagon kit.

The wagon building project is done. As mentioned in the last blog (Wagon Assembly Line), Jordan kits were used as a basis for them all. The lettering on the wagons was all decals made by Art Griffin. If you are not familiar with his line, you should check it out at http://www.greatdecals.com/Griffin.htm. The only exceptions were the Wells-Fargo wagon and the Moulton Soda wagon, both of which were made from my artwork. If you look closely at the Wells-Fargo decals, you can see that it says Wells, Fargo & Co's Express. Prior to 1898, this was the name used by the firm. After 1898, they left off the apostrophe-ess on both the spelled-out name and on the diamond-shaped sign that was used.

 

Another Farm Wagon conversion into a flatbed for lumber. This load and
the obvious compression of the rear springs was based on a photo found
in a Blue Springs MO restaurant.

The Jordan horses all have the harnesses cast on the horse so all the modeler has to do is paint the harness to make a good-looking horse. Heretofore, I have left off the traces and reins mostly due to a lack of a good scale-sized material with which to make them. A friend of mine, Keith Robinson, suggested a carbon-fiber based fishing line which was very small. I checked it out and, while I did not buy the exact line Keith suggested, I did find one that seemed to work and it was a light tan color which was close enough to harness color to suit me. The big problem now was to find out what harnesses looked like, where they attached and so on.
 

A couple of pieces of new furniture bound for the local "social" club. The colors and lettering styles for the Wells-Fargo wagon were taken from a period color drawing advertising the wagons.

The Jordan Light Delivery Wagon was the basis for this grocer's delivery.

 I found out that knowledge about harnessing horses is not quite as common as it once was. You can find catalogs of current suppliers of the necessary appliances but they don't publish instructions on their websites. To make matters a bit worse, I found out that, for every application, there were several different rigs. To make a long story short, I found out what I needed to know and applied it to my project wagons. This is a first trial and I am still learning the best way to work with this material but it seems to be promising.

While his horse tries to find a little nutrition, a drayer waits his turn at the team track.

Delivering soda is a big business so the Soda Works keeps a small wagon and a single horse. While the wagon sits outside, the horse gets an inside stall.

 
 

Wagon Assembly Line

The assembly line of wagons almost ready for decals

When I build items where I need more than one, I find it a bit more convenient to build more than one in an assembly line fashion. When you model the nineteenth century, you need a lot of wagons to make the scene look right. Think how many wagon loads are there in a boxcar? I decided to build a few of the Jordan kits I had been accumulating but I wanted some variation so they would look like they came from different manufacturers.
   I chose the Farm Wagon as my basic kit, built one as Jordan intended, another with lower sides, another with a spring seat, one flatbed wagon and a last one with very low sides. These went all right. The Jordan kits are finely detailed and look right if you don't lose too many of the very tiny parts. Most wagons had two colors, one for the wagon bed and another for the wheels and running gear. This now takes a little more planning since the right running gear has to go with the right wagon. You also find that very small parts are often blown away by even the light pressure of an airbrush so you need to make sure that they are very secure. I used painters' tape which worked fairly well.
   The last three wagons were also Jordan products, the light and standard Delivery Wagons. These were assembled per the directions. I used some of Art Griffin's wagon decals (www.greatdecals.com/Griffin.htm) so the colors had to match them.
 

When the body paint is dry, the heads, harnesses and hooves will be painted. The tape is really not holding them upright. They are just standing there on their own. No, the end horses are not blue, they're really gray.

 Painting horses is another interesting chore. Horses are hard to hold while painting. There is not enough hoof surface to hold well on tape. I decided to hold their heads and paint the rest. I'll go back and get the heads after the body dries. Then I have to paint the hooves, add stockings and other small marks to make them more individual and then paint the cast-on harness which is painstaking. I use a water-based paint, a fine brush and a wet Q-tip to wipe off any paint that shouldn't be there.
   Painting figures to drive the wagons come next and that's a little easier.