I have serious problems to find smaller truck and delivery truck models correct for the timeframe 1980 - 1990.

The only one I could find is the Ford C from Athearn <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog.php?id=377&item=46758">http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog ... item=46758</a><!-- m -->
The F850 is used asa farm truck only <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog.php?id=377&item=59768">http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog ... item=59768</a><!-- m --> and not very useful on a urban layout.
The Walthers Scenemaster 4300 and 4900 are far to modern <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog.php?id=2030&item=67766">http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog ... item=67766</a><!-- m -->
I am not sure about the UPS delivery truck <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog.php?id=1100&item=40336">http://www.rd-hobby.de/shopping/catalog ... item=40336</a><!-- m -->

Is there a web page with photos and date of built for trucks in general? I have serious lack of skill in that area and need some online help to lookup some facts about various trucks.

What is correct timeframe to use these models?

a. a plumbers truck
b. U Hauls truck to lease
c. Perkins Bakery delivery truck

Reinhard, the plumbers truck is available in at least two other liveries for small freight deliveries - there are also some small Mitsubishi freight trucks from Japan labled for Canter - I'll try to fins a link

Edit <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Mitsubishi+Canter+TC10+Trayback+Truck+HO+1+87+Scale+RED+&_itemId=320746725491">http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/sis.html?_nk ... 0746725491</a><!-- m -->
and
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=HO+scale+van&_sacat=0&_odkw=HO+scale+lorry&_osacat=0&_from=R40">http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=H ... &_from=R40</a><!-- m -->

Reinhard,the Ford F850 can be used as a staked delivery truck that is used for delivering single steel drums of oil,paint,cleaners,chemicals etc that is used in manufacturing..Such trucks can be used for delivery of industrial propane gas for torches.

Reinhard,the Ford F-850 is also available as a box truck.The stakebed version would be quite useful to with all but the front rack removed.I drove a GMC flatbed for about 15 years making deliveries and picking up materials here in the Grand Rapids,MI.area.

Thanks for the fast response. It is good news to use the F850 and I will look for "Canter".

Reinhard, I don't know what or if you have an equivalent of our dollar general stores, but I am envious of the modelers in the 80's era because there are a lot of toy trucks and autos that fall in your era, and are very nice at prices well below the ho hobby industry prices. Models are expensive, toys are cheap, even if the same molds may be used. Even when searching you can try putting "toy" in to the string instead of model.
Charlie

Reinhard,

The trucks from left to right:

The Stepvan is okay for 1980 onwards,

The U-Haul is an international harvester truck, and that cab style was introduced in 1990.

The Box truck on the far right is also an International Harvester truck, circa 1985.

EDIT: Yes, there is a fantastic site for looking up trucks: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/">http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/</a><!-- m -->

Also searching for available HO models and researching model year is pretty easy.

Second EDIT: Also 87scale cars is a perfect resource. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.1-87vehicles.org/">http://www.1-87vehicles.org/</a><!-- m -->
They also have a yahoo! group.

Thank you. Very valuable information. Looks like the trucks market is more complicated than the diesel locomotive variety.

Here is an example of a stake body used for carrying industrial gas. The photo is from 2012, but the use was very common in the 1980s and still is. Bar Mills has urethane clusters of tanks that can be used as a load.
[attachment=13724]
Here is another one:
[attachment=13723]

While the Boley stake body shown is more modern, this should give an idea of what you can do with the Bar Mills tank clusters. This reminds me I need to paint the tanks various different colors.
[attachment=13725]

Hi Reinhard, it's a common problem, trying to find the right trucks and cars for your layout.

not just trucks, but also cars. What's more regardless of what era, most car models are usually 'top of the range' versions of the cars you'd normally see, I mean, how many ford mustangs, or Mercedes S class can you put on the streets when what you realy need are the average honda accord, vw golf (and not the GTI version), and chevrolet caprice classic etc to make the scene more believable, and not an exotic car show......

I hope Herpa, Wiking etc are reading this and take note!

Koos

You think it's hard to find HO vehicles, try finding era appropriate N scale vehicles....

Got three stake body Athearn F850 (the only available at this time) for my 198x scenery. One simple modification was to remove three sides and get a flat bad. I am looking for gas bottles for the second F850 as suggested by John.


ps. The Walthers H0 SW1200 are wonderful smooth runners. The drive is comparable to the best ones from Atlas.

I routinely see stake body trucks with crates like that carried with all the stakes in place, so I'd go ahead and keep the stakes on that one.

Are you going to hook up the rooftop flasher on the BN loco to the decoder output?

jwb Wrote:...Are you going to hook up the rooftop flasher on the BN loco to the decoder output?

There is no lamp or LED installed by Walthers. It is a dummy only. I did do it at some engines myself but I do not like a nervous flasher on my layout and keep them switched off all the time.