A friend is working on a layout set in rural Norway in the 1930s. There would still be quite a few horse drawn farm waggons around in Norway in the 1930s - hauling hay, manure, milk and such things.
Thought I might try to find a couple of horsedrawn farm style waggons for him to bring back with me from America to Norway. Here is a picures showing how these things looked in real life :
Milkcart (milk in metal containers)
haywaggon (4 wheel waggon, front wheels smaller) - empty
Stick with European manufacturers for model wagons. American and Euro horse drawn vehicles did NOT look alike. It’s like running German steam engines on a D&RGW narrow gauge layout.
For the two wheeled carts and small freight wagons, look to one of the many British and French wargaming manufacturers. Dixon might just have what you’re looking for. Stick to 15mm or 20mm vehicles, as anything else will be the wrong size for HO scale.
I’ll have a look around and see if I can find a supplier of Preiser, too.
Btw - what is the difference between “European style” and “US style” waggons ? I mean - I probably wouldn’t have put a covered pioneer style waggon on a layout that was not far west in the late 1800s, but say a haywaggon probably wouldn’t be all that different in style ?
On this website, if you click on train crews, then click on modile3: Horse-drawn dump cart, driver , it looks like a pretty close match to picture one.
Have tried to click my way around, but I don’t spot any promising horse drawn waggons right off the bat. Any suggestions for where on their web pages they may have stuff that looks somewhat similar to the pictures I posted ?
What’s the difference between a Kansas farmhouse and a Bavarian one, or a Swiss one? What’s the difference between a Missouri courthouse and a French one? What’s the difference between a farn in Montana and one in Brittany?
Different cultures produce different ways of doing EVERYTHING, and that includes building horse-drawn vehicles. Living even just 50-100 years ago, enery country had slight variations on how to build a two or four wheeled vehicle, and adding the 2000 miles of the Atlantic and the peculiar ways we Americans lived produced a LOT of differences.
On the surface, those two photos you posted could have been taken in upstate Wisconsin or Michigan, where there were LARGE communities of European immigrants that settled less than 150 years ago. They brought over their own vehicle designs and practices, which took a while to be overwhelmed by the American way of doing things. So it is possible to see European-influenced wagons in the USA. HOWEVER, there has never been a mass-migration from the new world back to the old, so American vehicle designs that predate the Model T never made it to Europe. Because of that, you would never see ANY type of American horse drawn vehicle in Euro-land, be it a connestoga, a prarie schooner, a stage coach, a doctor’s buggy, a delivery wagon, or a New York City cabriolet.
American horse-drawn vehicles are MUCH different than Euro vehicles. In general, Euros painted their vehicles more brilliantly, making them look different. Moreover, Americans had an unlimited supply of better wood than the Euros had, making Euro vehicles look thicker, heavier, and clunkier. Euros, being blessed
Look in the 15mm sections, and specifically look through the European wars sections from about 1600 through WWII (especially for German transport vehicles). YOu should come up with dozens of useful wagons for European-themed layouts.
That is a too wide generalization. Europe consists of quite a few countries, with quite a few culture and histories. You won’t find any roman roads in Norway - muddy dirt tracks was more of the order of the day. Neither will you find many farming waggons artistically engraved and painted in brilliantly colors.
What may be appropriate for a layout set in Bavaria in the 1890s is not necessarily appropriate for a layout set in rural Norway in the 1930s.
[quote user=“orsonroy”]
So while it’s attractive to use Preiser vehicles in a “wild west” layout, or Jordan delivery wagons on a 1890s Noewegian layout, they’re both VERY wrong. You might as well add a four-
