My tale of woe is that when I was 18 a friend took me to the one dealer at 24th and Walnut in Philadelphia that carried foreign cars (every brand!). he wanted a Saab that had a two cycle engine with an oil well on the firewall that you filled with oil when you refueled it. There were no envinronmental concerns back then in 1963. I thought it was a piece of junk and on the way back to the showroom we passed this huge wheel with a tarp over the car and I came to a halt. The dealer asked if I was interested in that and I asked what it was. he took the tarp off to expose a 1927 Rolls Royce opera car with a single enclosed seat and a chauffer compartment with an oval glass window for a windshield. It had spoked wheeles at least three feet high and big brass headlights about 14" across each. That car was every bit of 24’ long. I asked him what he wanted for it and he said to make an offer. I told him $3000 and he said he would have it ready the next day as nobody wanted it. I went home and told my old man who told me in no uncertain terms in rather colorful language I wasn’t buying it and back then you had to be 21 to be an adult. I often wonder what that car would have been worth once the collector market really heated up or how much money it would have brought in from weddings and proms.
. Heh: “The Antique Automobile Club of America defines an Antique car as over 25 years old.” - meaning your 1981 Chevy Chevette is offically a antique car!
One thing to remember is that during the war there was a large scrap drive in effect that eliminated a great many cars, and following the war,new cars were extremely hard to get. It was not unheard of to pay double the advertized price for a car, and waiting lists were incredible. That was coupled to strikes by auto workers. An example of the result of this can be measured in auto production (I do realize that there are many variables in this). In 1941 there were 1,008,886 new Chevrolets. In 1947 there were 696,449. By 1949 strikes were minimalized, and production was now meeting demand. Chevrolet was back over the 1,000,000 mark. I have several books on car dealerships and gas stations. In just using the pictures from them as guides, I notice that there is a marked difference between the ‘old’ cars in the 46-50 range and the 51-55 range. In the former there are still a few of the pre35 cars noticed, but in the latter it’s like a big vacuum came along and sucked them all up. Interestingly there are some seen in the car dealership books, but they’re at the very back of the lots.
I was born in 1935. I remember riding in “rumble seats” and people cranking their cars to start them. I was in high school 1950-3 and drove a 1940 Ford covertible. My friend Lester drove a 1939 Mercury covertible. His dad drove a Model A. In college 1953-57 I drove a 41 Chev club coupe and then a 47 Nash Ambassador.
Model As, not too common, but some still running. Remember, Model A production ended in 1931. More likely on postwar streets were the Model B and later, which would have been up to ten years old when civilian production ended at the end of 1941.
Model Ts very rare to nonexistant, despite all the conventional model railroading wisdom and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Don’t forget; the Model T was obsolete when it was discontinued in 1927. Henry Ford believed his Tin Lizzy was all the car anyone could want or need and therefore made very few changes, even while automotive technology was improving all around him. Ford discontinued the Model T because people weren’t buying them anymore, even though Ford kept cutting the price.
Model Ts weren’t street-legal in some states even before World War II. Safety laws concerning things like sealed-beam headlights, brakes, etc., would have made a Model T a postwar museum piece or parade fixture. I remember Bill McClanahan writing about it being okay to use a Model T in a contemporary layout (this was back in the late 1950s), saying the town skinflint wouldn’t part with his first car. Odds are the old miser had probably had enough winters by 1948, ten years before McClanahan, and 21 years after the last Model T left the line, to really want a heater, something that was never even offered on a Model T.
In addition, as has been mentioned, cars in those days didn’t last. Yes, there was more steel, but there was less rustproofing and sealant (oddly enough, the Model T was one of the exceptions because of its use of vanadium steel). In addition, there was a surprising amount of wood used in car bodies up to the mid-1930s. The 1934 Chrysler Airflow was the first production car with an all-steel body. There were other issues, as well. Cars in those years were generally much higher-maintenance than later cars, requiring more frequent oil changes, general lubrication and
Model T’s on the road were pretty scarce by the end of WWII. I don’t remember seeing even one as a child. Model A’s were more common. I had two buddies driving stock model A’s in the late '50’s early '60s. You could put maybe one model A on the layout, but I wouldn’t do more than that. My family bought a '41 Caddy as a second car in the late '50’s. A lot of 1930’s cars were still on t"he street in the early '50’s. I can remember the radical modern styling of '49 Fords and the Lowry Studebakers standing out in a sea of undistinguished rounded black prewar cars. '55 was the big restyle year where the wrap around windowshields came in. The '55’s made everything else on the road look old fashioned.
Born a week after Pearl Harbor & being a native Oregonian, I don’t remember a lot of the cars on the road until the early 50s. I can’t recall seeing any"T"s but a lot of 30s vintage autos into the early 50s. By then, kids were buying to run as is or to Hot Rod. Alot of Ford & Chevy coupes or fastbacks. My 1st car bought from a friend in 56 for 50$ was a 41 Ford convertable. (wish I still had it) . My 2nd was a 47 Dodge coupe also 50$ in 57 that I drove till early 60.(the army got me). Both cars had serious mechanical problems, but the bodies were solid as a tank.Some 50s hung aroud well into the 70s. Bought a 57 Chevy 2dr 210 series and had various models that I drove on a regular basis until 95. Hence the handle.
57 chevy
Circle track racing started about that time too. T’s and A’s were the cheap and plentiful.
T bodies were modified to fit A chassis, being smaller and lighter. The racing was more rough and tumble than today, safety standards were non exsistant. A lot of cars were lost due to crashes.Some were modified for dry lakes / Bonniville speed trials. Southern California is where it started. Production numbers were lower, compared to more recent times.
I remember a few A’s and a few T’s. Some were old relics and there were a few collectors even back then. By 45 we were making hot rods with the T’s. I remember an elctric car, driven by an old lady in the early forties. I would guess it was made in the teens. I model the unussual, so there will be even more on my layout.
I grew up in Piedmont North Carolina near Charlotte. Born in 1942, I DID see a number of A’s and some T’s around town. Late 30’s cars were abundant, even into the early 50’s. My first car (1959) was a 3rd-hand 1952 Plymouth. Several classmates had late 40’s models at school. I agree that it was more a case of WHERE you grew up, given the same time frame.
Waving the flag for my old homeland, don’t forget the odd, and in some cases very odd, British car. Post war Britain exported most of its auto production and a lot of it came to the USA. MG TD’s and TF, early Austin Healey’s, Triumph TR3’s, Jaguar XK120’s and the peculiar Austin Atlantic. Not that there would have been many of these compared to US domestic products, but they certainly would not be out of place.
jep1267… In 1956 to 1958 in small town Indiana (population 21,000), there were four of us who had Model A Fords (1928 - 1932) and there were other very old cars. Most could not afford anything newer, and the ‘old’ cars at that time were not collector’s items yet. So there were quite a few being driven because of the cost savings. Use what you like and remember on your layout; who could dispute that?
Indiana Bob
The way I look at it , its your train layout. Personaly, my layout is set in 1982, ( the last year of operation for the L&N, and K&IT). So its not uncommon to see early 80’s cars on back as far as 1950 on my layout. Also I cant wait for my local hobby shop to get the new 70’s era cars( AMC Pacer, Ford Pinto, etc.) because they will populate my layout. By the way , My first car that I bought in 1978 was a 1963 Chevy Impala that I wish I still had! Happy RR ing!!
Oops!! I knew that, guess my fingers forgot while I was typing. [:I]
Babe magnet:
Yeah, it looks a bit big to me, too, especially next to that Chevy.
Ho come nobody mentioned the Morgan with the leather belt over the bonnet to keep it in place?
I could write volumes of automotive impressions observed through my ‘war baby’ eyes, but I’d just like to note that the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue carried Model T parts in their listing well into the 1960’s. Lehigh Vic
In the early 1960s I remember an eccentric old farmer and a marginal “handyman” (more like a junk dealer) drove Model A trucks, both heavily modified. That farmer was still using draft horses to farm when I would walk to high school in 1969-70! Rumor had it he was very very rich but miserly. Those were the oldest vehicles in town. [I am editing my post because I just remembered that the South Milwaukee Fire Department had a classic old LaFrance from the mid 1920s – wood spoke wheels! – that they would pull out for parades and special events, and let the volunteer firemen practice with across the street from our house – it was gorgeous. So IT was probably the oldest working vehicle in town.] A few vehicles from the late 1930s were still being driven and the local coal dealer had a very old truck from the 1930s. Trucks and cars from the 1940s were not uncommon. On balance it seems to me that trucks lasted longer than cars
Dave Nelson
I was born in ‘44’. Lived in rural Montana. Don’t remember any T’s or A’s. Mostly late forties and early fifties as I got old enough to know what was what. On the farm we had a 39 ford PU and a 39 or so international truck.Gramma had a green 49 chrysler and my uncle had a dark green 49 Nash. The one that looked like a turtle. My dad drove a boat tailed studebaker,and traaded that in on a blue 51 ford sedan. My Uncle talked about having a model A before the war but that was it.
I could be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that it pretty easy to hook up a belt to a Model T motor so that they were often used to power farm equipment, so in the early fifties maybe you could find an old Model T (or parts of one) being used to power a small “Waltons” type sawmill or a threshing machine or something??
BTW I also heard that when Ford quit making the Model A, they sold the dies and stuff to a company in South America that kept making Model A’s into the 1970’s or 80’s?? [:O]