# the first pickup (Horsedrawn)



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi,





I have started a new horsedrawn vehicle - its quite small, being only 5” long for the body.





Another website calls one of these ‘the first pickup’, which is correct but the full name is ‘carriage builders delivery wagon’ which is much more descriptive.



That name is the one used in the Dover Publications book which shows a very slightly diagonal view of one – the drawing comes form the Hub magazine of 1894.





I had sufficient to start and most importantly the wheels were in stock (laser cut from the USA). The body was worked out and at only a scale 3 foot wide I knew that I would not be able to fit a couple of figures side by side with ease (even the small Chinese copies); so the body has been widened to 3 foot six wide.





The first thing to find was a piece of tube for the inverted semicircle that the body has to allow to front wheels to ‘tuck under’ this is very useful in tight areas. That is a very old piece of tube from the centre of a roll of 2” wide gummed tape! It has been ‘in stock’ for ‘something or other’ for a very long time indeed, and I only used half of it. The rest of the body has been made from plasticard with holes where need to equalize pressure. The cupboard door shapes were scored in before assembly – there are no handles – I envisage the driver using a ‘carriage key’ , like the older railway carriages had, and are still used on the Festiniog Railway. 





Why ‘The world’s first pickup’? Another use for this vehicle is to collect disabled vehicles for repair – there will be some hooks on the rear crossbar of the body – these were used to tow such vehicles to the factory. The vehicle is to be completed for a single horse, with American style shafts (made from tube). 





The vehicle has a double cupboard at the rear of the seat with a turtleback top and doors opening into the open body; I have fitted an internal strengthening frame here on the assumption that sometimes heavy loads would have been carried, and the frame would also add strength to the vehicle. The drawings are incomplete so I have taken some liberties with my design. But it is still conforming to the side view that I worked from.





The roof over the seat has been made with solid sides - where the radii is at its sharpest – made from strips of (scrap) PVC foam sanded to shape, with cross pieces; as a result of the variable curvature the centre portion was then planked with 5mm wide strips of .020mm plasticard; the edges were filled and the whole roof sanded to get a reasonable shape, a side piece was then added to finish of the (supposedly canvas covered) roof. Some extra pieces were needed to keep things in order – bit once assembled they will not be seen The top surface was painted with Masonry paint to which some talc had been added; this gives some e3xtra ‘body’ to the paint and assist in filling in the (still) rough parts, repeat if necessary. 





The four vertical supports for the roof are started with 1.5mm square section; the rear one are glued to the rear inside corners of the cupboards (before the lid for them is fitted), and the front ones have a simple reduction in with to allow them to be fitted to the inside of the seat area. When dry, and having fitted the curved top to the cupboards (cut out slots for the pillars and also the seat supports – those being made from plain, not plastic covered paper clips. They are increased in size by a couple of strips of .020 which makes them much stronger, Finally there are 3 cross pieces two sides and one at the rear – these are the bases for the drop down rubberised canvas weather curtains that are later fitted here.





The under edges of the roof have 4 small depressions for the tops of the pillars to fit into in due course.





That’s all for now - here are 3 photos of most of the work done so far – enjoy!










A side view with a ruler, the width of the vehicle is 2.5 inches, The roof has been painted with masonry paint and talc. 











Rear view of the bed and cupboards - the drawing in the Dover publications book is only a side view to I buuilt my own cupboards and added the turtleback top: the rear door has the same cinstruction as the sides - framing inside. 











A top view without the roof.











I thought that G scale (well FN3) was a large scale - this vehicle is tiny having a body size of 5 x 3.5 inches!


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Peter,
I'm sure this one will turn out as beautiful as the others you have done.
There's a lot more to model trains than just trains and you are certainly showing us this by these wonderful examples you continue to produce.
Lovely job, I look forward to seeing the end result, complete with horse of course.
Cheers.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Cool project!


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Coming along nicely, Peter.....


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Amish Pickup ??








Dennis


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Really cool 
I love your design 
Dennis


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

"Amish pickup" Good one!


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi,





I have now built the chassis, using the isometric drawing in the Dover Publications book as a guide, and also my versions of other vehicles that are from Northeast Narrow Gauge range as well.





The springs are made from one leaf of .020 aluminum with 2 or 3 more from styrene sheet; the aluminum allows the spring to keep its shape, it is roughly bent to shape before adding the extra leaves; pieces of .050 rod replicate the shackles at the ends.





The rear axle is some Plastruct 3mm square styrene tube with a piece of their 1.5mm plastic covered wire through the center, that holds the (Northeast Narrow Gauge) wheels. These have a small piece of plastic tube on the outside painted gold to replicate the brass hubs. The tyre is a piece of black painted (paint it twice to preserve it better) thick paper, glued to the outer edge as a rim, which is easier to add than styrene card, add a rough coat of silver later to add some ‘wear’ to them, then a couple of coats of varnish as well.








The chassis is made from scrap Sintra board cut to 3mm square strips; the metal 


reinforcement is strips of pop/beer cans. There are also for the rear axle a couple of stiffening wires from .8mm brass wire. In addition the springs have some rods from top to bottom – these are .75mm plastic rod painted black and glued in position. Having painted the chassis it was put on one side, whilst I finished off the body


The front axle is a slightly bent downwards piece of 2mm diameter copper tube with an elongated half circle to match the other one on the chassis I added a styrene rod pin to align them later. A couple of eyelets are fitted for the front wheels to be glued against. 






The body has some very small pieces of square tube added to the top of the sides – 3 each side – I think these (the drawing shows only two at the rear), are location for a cross rod to lay a tarpaulin over; I have made my rods bow shaped so when fitted a ‘tarp’ would be assisted in throwing off the water. The rods are a soft iron wire just under 1mm diameter – the rear one is unpainted so it can be more easily seen. The hooks on the verticals are made from 3 layers of pop can strip and glued onto their respective verticals – at this point I inadvertently sat on the almost complete body – I was to say the least not pleased!! However some careful restorative work eventually had it back together correctly. The side curtains are made from thick paper rolled and glued with strips to hold them rolled, and painted and glued to the inner pre-painted strips under the roof. 






The colors suggested in the Dover Publications book were green with red wheels; I decided on royal blue with red wheels – the royal blue paint looked good but did not cover evenly – so a couple of coats of Navy Blue were added then the royal blue was again painted on top. The center band is a lighter blue and there will be a name added there. 





A vehicle like this with an open rear needs some loads – I have made 4 small crates from scrap, a couple of small barrels from my collection, and a selection of cans. Paint was first sold in cans (according to Wiki) from about 1880 so they are very new in my terms They are made from bits of old scrapped pen tubes with 4 layers of heavy paper; the top two being smaller to replicate the tin lid; the semi-circular handle is a very thin strip from the ever useful pop cans. 1 gallon cans were again from the web, about 8” diameter and 7” tall; I added some smaller ones as well, and some square and oblong cans for variety, these were also made from scrap, wrapped in paper, and have handles from pop can strip. Paint them plain silver and add some small labels to them. They are ten tins in all, and they have been fixed to some 1/2mm sheet to make them easily removable; the tarp bows are not fixed so loads can be added etc., when needed. To go on top of the turtleback roof to the cupboards there are 3 even smaller parcels, these are fitted against the square section styrene glued there to keep them still; they are fixed with ‘sticky wax’ so can be easily removed. 



The driver is a figure from the Schliech ‘covered wagon set and is the right size, the ‘Chinese copy figures’ (off E-bay) are the same size but are noticeably thinner, at least there is going to be some variety! 





The base has been painted and the vehicle is now secured to it so the camera was brought into use for some more photos – here they are.










The chassis ready to be fixed to the body(in due course!)










Body & chassis united











Now complete with a re-painted horse, and a driver as well. Note the timber hung i the hooks on the cab supports and the rear vertical as well.











Some of the 'loads' made for the rear bed, with a ruler (in mm) for size. 











Finally the crates for variety in loads available, also the 'tarp bows' can be seen the rear one now has been painted!



The sun was a bit bright and this has made the paint finish apparently very poor - in normal viewing it looks quite OK. Some of the photos are larger than life size.


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Beautiful work Peter. Could you share a little info on how you made those cans,etc.?

Doc


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Doc,



Being an inveterate 'squirreler' (I know there will be a use for 'this' but at the moment I don't know what it is!') some of my collection of 'tubes' are the central part of kids 'fibre tip' pens; when discarded take out the ink system and discard, cut of the other end which could have a screw thread cast into the now empty tube, and that is the raw material for the 'cans' It can be seen in front of the results in the first photo.

The larger can is just over 10mm high and 9.5mm diameter having cut off a section or three, next cut some discs for the top; I used heavy paper but styrene discs could be used - two layers for the top and two layers for the lid which is naturally slightly proud. Paint the can a dull silver (these are early cans and I don't think that color printing would have been sued for either the can itself or the label), around the smaller discs add a fine line with a waterproof pen (.0.3mm) the handle, on the larger cans, is a 1.5mm wide strip of pop/beer cans aluminum sheet made into a half moon shape and glued on. The smaller cans are the same the larger ones use the blue green tube and the maroon tube for the smaller ones.

The square section cans are from scrap Sintra board laminate if necessary; round off the corners and wrap the can in heavy paper with about 1/2mm projecting, add a handle as above, and a tiny bit of tube and a small disc for the filler/pourer tube.


All cans have have some slight weathering for variety if required. 



Consignee labels are small (5 x 4mm) squares of paper, add some 'squiggles' for the address, and glue on to the can/crate/barrels. 


I think this method could also be used for the pans etc in railroad private cars - make the base from a couple of .030 discs (easier to punch) and a wrap of pop/beer can sheet, and also a handle; the join could be hidden with some glue. 



Crates - all made from scrap Sintra board, with styrene strip for the strips around them; paint them a new wood color (I hold them on the end of a knife blade for painting) and then stain them various colors - I use both chestnut and dark brown for some variations, others can be thinned down paint. Add the plank lines using that0.3mm pen again and add some varnish for rotectionpp My selection are 23, 25, 30, 36 & 47mm long

All the above can be fixed to a base sheet to make it easier to 'load' them onto wagons or frieght cars or baggage carts. 


Here are a couple of 'super close up' new photos, which are larger than 'life size' 














Cans and the main 'raw material' for them. the blue green tube is 9.5mm and the maroon tube is 7.25mm diameter.















various small crate, over twice life size. 


Enjoy.


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Thank you Peter. Excellent information. I'll add it to my reference file. Enjoy seeing your work and keep it coming.

Doc


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