Decals on Steam Locomotives

[Jay Criswell]

....and a little later the same logo had Back Shop. I really don't know how the partnership was dealt with along side his own line. From everyone I've talked to that knew the players, it was a fairly loose group of characters. VB&B still has thousands of molds that were created by these guys. None of which were part of model railroading or CalScale. I spent a day rummaging through them and came out dazed and confused (even more than went I went it). What an eye opener. Door knobs, skeleton keys, furniture hardware, and occasional porno piece, you name, they cast it.

Jay

[R.K. Maroon]

Jay, there seems to be something in that Central Valley water that makes for interesting characters (a-hem!..*cough*...*cough*).

I dug a little deeper on the internet and found a connection between the Hodge and the USRA truck, specifically this ad. Note the reference to USRA type, circled (by me) in red at bottom left:




Bob sent me these photos of what he is calling modified Hodge trucks:





They are a slightly different from the others posted above, but I am not sure what the definitive distinction is that separates the Hodge from the modified Hodge. The Hodge does appear to be of riveted construction while the modified may utilize castings or forgings?

Hope everybody has a nice Thanksgiving!
Jim

[bob turner]

Not an expert. A search of the Google reveals little except that consensus is "Hodges."

The SP Mikes have Hodges trucks, readily identifiable by the trapezoid that the journal box slides up and down in. You can see one of those on my MM-2.

The above admittedly rough models show what I think is a modified Hodges, identified by the horizontal gussets each side of the journal box. The difference is that it is a partially cast truck. The original hodges frame was entirely fabricated.

The photo of the HO truck is, in my rather uneducated opinion, not a Hodges type at all, but a USRA design.

From there we graduate to Cole and Delta trucks - I believe both were cast frames with internal leaf springs. I could be wrong about Cole. Further research is warranted.

The Rock Island Mike needs what I am calling a modified Hodges.

Again, not sure of any of this.

[bob turner]

So here is a semi-educated correction. Both the Hodges and Cole trucks had externally visible leaf springs. Baldwin had the patent on the Hodges, and its feature was that the leaf spring sort of swung with the journal box.

The Cole was Alco, and its feature - the journal box would move under the leaf springs, which were laterally fixed to the tail beam. Note that the Hodges trucks had open tail beams, and the Cole the more conventional bar tail beam.

The USRA - my opinion is that it is the HO version shown above.

The Delta is the one we most often see - one piece casting with leaf spring inside.

I am not yet sure we are looking at a Cole for the Rock Island Mike. That leaf spring looks like the Baldwin patent.

Help? Is everybody sucked in to TV football?