This may seem odd, but I grew up on a farm in rural Massachusetts in the late 40s thru the middle of the 60s. The first tractor I remember was an old Fordson with steel wheels and a crank start. The second was a Farmall trike of about 1948 vintage. I didn't know anyone who still plowed with horses, but I often visited my Grandmother in Cambridge where all the rag, junk, and fish peddlers drove wagons. They could be seen in the surrounding towns as well. All my friends with barns had an assortment of wagons parked in them, some disused, but many used for haying. Now for getting produce to market the usual was a grossly overloaded Ford truck. I still remember the time my Father delivered a load to the Farmers Market in Boston. At the end of the day a buyer asked him if he'd hire his truck to take a load back with him to his store. My dad was skeptical when he saw the size of the load, but he needed the cash so away we went. By the time we got where we were going we only had 2 studs left on each rear axle. Now I understand that Maine wagons lasted a good deal longer.
Ed Kozlowsky Sanford, Maine sscale.org >________________________________ >From: dwaskes <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 9:13 PM >Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: Vintage Vehicles (Horsedrawn) > > >Group. >I grew up in New Haven, Connecticut in the forties and fifties. Our milk man >made his deliveries using a horse drawn wagon. It wasn't until after the end >of world War II that his horse was replaced by a truck. The rag and junk man >used a horse drawn wagon to make his rounds too. We had a blacksmith shop >located about three blocks from our house. The world war probably had a lot to >do with horses being used for so long because of rationing constraints etc. > >This was supposed to be a highly industrialized city in the northeast, but the >horse held on for a long time before being finally displaced by vehicles. The >trolley tracks were ripped up at about the same time. (Early fifties.) The >1940s to the 1950's were not as modern as most people nowadays seem to think >they were. I hope that these observations have expanded your modeling >possibilities. > >The farms located in the country around the city were largely not >electrified. My dad had a farmer friend up in North Branford that had to pay >so much per pole (along with his neighbors) to the electric company to get >electricity installed on his farm. This was also done in the early fifties. >The other old timers in this group could add their own similar observations. > > >
