The Little World

Local Model Car Sunday…with vehicles that really do resonate with our city and state.

Not to diss the hot rodders or race car builders, but there is also a world that is average, mundane, and historically real and it can reach out to the viewer as much as the candy apple paint job or the giant racing tyres.

We live in a state that has long roads used to haul wheat, fertiliser, iron ore, and livestock. So it is natural that some modellers familiar with these trades can record them with scale vehicles. The iron-ore road train is not the sort of thing that is seen on European or Asian roads, nor much in New York City. It is inclined to look beaten up and dirty early in the piece and never really change until it is retired. Drivers who plan to pass one on the road need all their skill, nerve, and luck.

It must have needed nerve to ride in the Articulated trailer bus of the post-war period here in Perth. Older buses were worn out and until new ones started to come out from the UK ( itself short of transport ) innovative solutions were tried. This Foden plied the streets down to Scarborough beach, presumably with a clippie in the back trailer to keep the local hoons under control. While some of the conductors would have been returned servicemen, the really fierce and dangerous ones were the ladies. Anyone hit round the head with a cast-metal ticket machine would wear the scar for life.

And finally, the D-8 Cat. Whether it was equipped with a tree-pusher, a dozer blade, or two ripper teeth, there is not a man or boy in my acquaintance who would not work all day driving one for free if they had a chance. Just the other day a brand-new Cat D-11 went by on a low-loader and I got all damp just imagining myself at the controls.