[***************]At Your Dealer Now!
These Great New Mini Metals HO and N Scale Vehicles.

[/COLOR]New HO ‘54 Ford F-350 Railroad MOW Pickups!
See www.classicmetalworks.com Joe

 

Varney used to make some plastic HO scale 1953 Ford trucks many moons ago.

 

Here's the ultimate mixture of F Series and trains:

 

They also make a 54 F-700.

 

wow those are some great pics of a combo hirailer/truck. yeah i am a railroad fan as i worked for the AAR (American Association of Railroads) at what is called the transportation test center. nothing like seeing a 50 ft long nuclear tipped missle come a rising out of 75t armoured launchcar, or jet powered loco's that float on air, so yea, i am fan of the rails. however, do not forget that the railroads in helping win a civil/world war and span a continent were some of the greediest most ruthless entities in our great nations history.

 

You also have to remember Henry Ford was one of the greediest, ruthless industrial giants in our history too. At the height of the Great Depression, while people stood in bread lines he gave Edsel $21 million for his 21st birthday. He also ran his factories like labor camps, no talking, no breaks on the line. Don't forget about Ford hiring Pinkerton guards to bash heads during labor disputes. Ford, like the train barons, was very focused on making a buck at almost any cost.

You can't gloss over these facts but you also can't let them take away from the enjoyment we get from our hobbies.

 

Never heard of Ford hiring Pinkerton guards, which weren't necessary, because Henry had Harry Bennett and his "goon" squad.

Harry Bennett was head of the "Service Department" which was Ford's name for their in-house security service. All of Bennett's squad were ex-cons.

These were the same guys that beat the scheiss out of Walter Reuther and other UAW officials at the "Battle of the Bridge" in 1938.

The entire incident was filmed by a local cameraman and shown in theater news films nationwide.

Reuther (a former Ford line worker) and his UAW crew were on a bridge that connected the Ford-Rouge plant with the employee parking lots.

The goon squad first told them to move, but before they could act, all were horribly beaten and sent to the hospital.

Henry didn't care one damn bit, but finally was forced to cave in during 1941, and sign on with the UAW.

When it suited him, Ford accompanied by several goon squad members, walked the employee parking lots.

If a car was found that wasn't a Ford product, the employee that was driving it was fired.

btw: After Edsel died in 1943, FoMoCo went to seed, and was very close to bankruptcy. Because Henry was senile, Bennett was now the de facto head of the company.

Edsel's 21 year old son Henry Ford II (aka The Deuce), took over in 1945 as head of FoMoCo after a protracted battle between Henry, the War Production Board and Henry's wife Clara.

Clara threatened to sell her Ford stock if Henry didn't relent and step down.

The first thing The Deuce did, was fire Harry Bennett and the goon squad. He gave Bennett one hour to clean out his office and "get the hell out!"

 

ND, sorry, I got mixed up. I think it was Carnegie I was thinking about, I guess all the millionaires are easy to mix up.

I digress, back to the subject of trains and Fords. I like them both but it's easier for my to park a truck in my garage.

 

This last year there also was a 55 F-100 pickup and a 55 panel truck released in HO by Athearn.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

 

How about this for a flat-powered rail car?

 

i guess it was only fitting that henry and the railroads found each other. i am sure there was much "desk diving" going on between henry and carnegie and jp morgan, just to see who could screw some poor sap over.

 

J. Pierpont Morgan died in 1913, before Ford made his fortune. I've never read anything on Ford's history that they knew each other.

Morgan might have died in April 1912, but at the last minute, he cancelled his cabin...on the RMS Titanic.

Ford's long time close knit pals were: Thomas Edison, Harvey S. Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs.

Ford worked for Edison before going into the autobiz.

btw: Carnegie founded US Steel. He started at the very bottom of the ladder as a common laborer, as did Henry Ford, Walter P. Chrysler and other well known wealthy figures of the time.

Say what you will about Andrew Carnegie, but...he bought the land, then built 100's of library's all across the US, stocked them with books and gave them to the American Public = free.

It was his way of saying thanks for all he accomplished.

 

Nowadays you could count the number of millionaires who've gotten their money from production of something tangible on one hand. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and many other things, is about the only one I can relate to. He says wearing a suit tells the world that you are above getting your hands dirty, and have a disdain for manual work. He only wears jeans to work. From Wikipedia:

His primary residence is a hexagonal shed style mansion he has dubbed Westwind, located in Bedford, New Hampshire, just outside of the larger city of Manchester. The house has at least four different levels and is very eclectically conceived, with such things as hallways resembling mine shafts, 1960s novelty furniture, spiral staircases and secret passages, an observation tower, a fully-equipped machine shop, and a huge cast-iron steam engine which once belonged to Henry Ford built into the center atrium of the house (which is actually small in comparison), which Kamen has had converted into a Stirling engine-powered kinetic sculpture.

[see there is both a Henry Ford connection, and a railroad connection -- I'm not rambling!]

 

When Ford died in 1947, the newspapers said..."Ford dies in cold, unheated house."

Well, the reason the house wasn't heated had nothing to do with the vast steam engine Ford installed in his residence (which he dubbed Fairlane) to heat the place.

A heavy rain had caused the basement of Ford's house to flood, knocking out the steam engine in the process.

 

carnagie only did what he did because of the guilt factor. i think it was over the killing of some striking steelworkers by his goon squads (i donot recall the exact details). it was after this episode that he became the philantropist.