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Linesman's truck 1960s/70s


oldplastic

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I am looking for any help with a project to build one of these trucks as part of a display. Very few photos on the internet and most just seem to show cab and driver in black and white. Can anybody help with correct colours and details of body style and equipment carried also what type of truck were these built on?

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John - A number of years ago a company called The Yorkshire Company produced a number of 1/25th scale trucks as MA BELL telephone company line trucks of all kinds. These are for Telephone lines, but Electric line trucks are not much different for the most part, although there are obviously some very specialized Electric Line trucks! I have 8 of them including the Dodge Power Wagon in the thumbnail photo [ not a actual photo, I just scanned so quality is not great, but you get the idea. Some of the others are Model T's and Model A Fords. If you can find these you could use the parts to build Lineman Trucks of almost any kind. They can generally be found on The Big Bad Bay and if you can get damaged ones you can save a few bucks. Hope this helps.

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John - I finally got time to take a few photo's of my Lineman trucks from The Yorktown Company. These are all 1/25th scale. The one with most useful equipment is the 1950 Dodge Power Wagon. Almost all Lineman trucks have a Auger on top and if you look at the one photo I found of a real Lineman truck you will see there is a hook on the end of the boom as well. These trucks usually had a trailer with Telephone/Electrical Poles and were capable of drilling the post hole with the Auger and using the boom to install the pole to replace and repair poles and broken wires. I think that when they installed new line they also had a specialized wire reel truck for long runs of wire? Here are some photo's of my trucks as well as a scan from American Work Trucks and a few photo's I took myself and the Vintage and Antique Truck Museum in Campo California.

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I think I need to explain the Truck Museum better. The strange looking Cherry Picker was in fact a San Diego Electric Company equipment according to the Docent I talked to. The odd looking Boom Contraction was also used for placing Electric Poles in San Diego County in 20/30''s time frame. I also included a photo of a 1950 time frame Dodge Power Wagon for reference on the Yorkshire Model. I did some research on The Big Bad Bay and if you put in "The Yorkshire Company" into the search and to "All Category's" and a number of these models come up, There is one of the 1050 Power Wagons for $14.95 [buy it now] that would be a good start for parts? Hope this helps and it would be great to see you project when you start.

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John - Is this info enough or would you like me to do more digging on Lineman Trucks? I have about 25 books on American Work Trucks Semi's and Pickups, although I doubt there is very much more on these? Maybe someone out there who actually worked as a Telephone/ Electric Lineman could jump in with some ideas or advice or better yet photo's? Dan King

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Dannie First off sorry I have been so long replying, life gets in the way sometimes, yes the info is all helpful thanks. The project is for Scale Model World in November, we are doing a display of cars on records so 'Linesman for the County' sprang to mind as one of my builds. You have given me a good start to plan a project now, I may base the model on a 1960s pick-up and go from there. I will let you know how I get on. John

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