WW II Nurse Recruitment Billboard Refrigerator Car

This is not what was to be the topic of the next Post. However, as you read the Post you'll understand the reason it is the next Post.

Many years ago someone was selling on EBay vintage refrigerator sides printed on card stock for the recruiting of Nurses for the Army during WW II. To use these printed sides either an existing vintage refrigerator kit or scratch-built body had to be used. 

Since my wife, Lois, is a Nurse; the sides were purchased. To build a vintage car, an old Walthers wooden refrigerator kit of the correct dimensions was obtained. My plan had been to build the model as one of the last models I built.

With the advent of the COVID-19 virus and resultant problems, the building of the kit with the paper sides seemed very appropriate. There are many commercials on TV giving "Thanks" to Doctors and Nurses. But to me it should be the other way around. At most hospitals, there are more Nurses involved in patient care.

 At the same time don't forget to thank the countless number of other health care professionals, technologists, technicians, and more who are working at hospitals either directly or indirectly involved in patient care. Include in this are the nursing and medical students who have been drafted to help.

Assembled body prior to sanding the side smooth and more parts applied.

Prior to painting and application of the paper sides.

The Precision Scale Company brass parts were used to replace the parts either lost or not included with the kit.  The assembled body was painted with red ends and a dark blue roof prior to attaching the white paper sides with white glue. The dark blue and red are Testors enamel paint brushed on in thinned coats. The underbody is painted black. 

To make the paper sides more realistic, most of the black painted parts were "reapplied" using styrene, Grandt Line, and Berkshire Valley parts. added. Finally the entire car was sprayed with Dullcote. The Dullcote gave the car a weathered look. 

Finally, the Nurse recruitment car was placed in a predominant location in the Zoo Loop.

Cheers,

Ed

Wagner Car Co. M-404 Drawbar

You may have thought after all the literature from Wagner Car Co. in this Blog, we were finished with Wagner. So did I until some thoughts about a long discontinued Wagner product came to mind.

Somewhere, long ago in a distant galaxy a Wagner Car Co. M-404, Drawbar was found in a hobby shop. This turned out to be a product Wagner had cataloged early in the history of Wagner. It was discontinued when Wagner's supply of parts ran out probably in the late 1950's or early 60's.

Early in the history of trolleys and streetcars instead of railroad couplers streetcars and even interurbans had drawbars. Couplers were heavy and expensive. Drawbars were not.

The picture shows the M-404 Drawbar Wagner had. It came with:
     Drawbar support - red arrow,
     Drawbar - maroon arrow,
     Mounting pins - blue arrow,
     Drawbar head - green arrow, and
     Drawbar coupling pin - black arrow.

Perhaps the valuable part was the drawbar head. More about the head later. Unfortunately no instructions were included. Then in another distant galaxy also long time ago, far removed from the first galaxy, a Pittman Electrical Developments Co. 1 pr. Radial Drawbar product was found. From what I can ascertain, since Pittman was an older company than Wagner, Pittman had the parts made and was selling them. Eventually Pittman sold all the parts to Wagner. 

The envelop contained all the information needed to assemble the drawbars. Everything was purchased including loose parts. Assembly was started using all the parts available. 

The drawbar heads were Zamak castings. Back then Zamak was not always the best material to use. It is an alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium, and copper. If not prepared to ridged standards over time the alloy would start to disintegrate. As some of the drawbar heads castings were cleaned-up, the heads would fall apart.

This is a photo of a pair of assembled drawbars. The heads are mounted on the drawbar with the heads held in pace with the pins in the kit. Instead of cutting and hammering the end of the pin like a rivet. instant glue was used to hold the pin in place.

As it turned out, there was just enough parts to make drawbars for mounting on the models I had. This photo shows the drawbars mounted on 2 of my models.

If the drawbar head castings, the most unique of the drawbar parts, are not available; then the heads have to be made using square or rectangular brass tubing. After the tubing sections are soldered together, the head would have to be filed into the correct shape.

Better yet would be for someone to prepare the 3D drawings for the "manufacturer" of the drawbar head from a company like Shapeways.

More on drawbars in the next Post.  Cheers,

Ed