Parts, Pallets

In World War Two especially but even in the Cold War the US Army used just about every type of vehicle you ever heard of and a lot you never saw before.  This is a plain old city bus, typical from the 1940s until the 1960s.  They would be seen around Army bases providing bus service just like in a city.  Buses also took soldiers around in administrative and training movements.  If a group were headed for the range, or going to the train station to move to a new location for a while, they might go by bus.  Often they were painted like other military vehicles and sometimes they were left in their original civilian colors as they came from the factory. 

Note the large electrical engine, it is mounted on a bit of sheet plastic.  It will fit in the back of a Roco 2 1/2 ton truck.  I use items like that for engineers or just general cargo.  Such an electric motor could be used in a factory or on board a ship.  The Army has often run factories and major repair facilities so a massive electric motor would not be that unusual.

Some of the other supplies include old drums, and various boxes of supplies.  By mounting them on sheets of plastic that fit into my truck fleet I can create a supply depot, have trucks move the supplies to the front, and then have them dropped at a forward resupply point. 

 In the top right of this photo you can see a Roco 2 1/2 ton truck with a cement truck body.  I have never seen such a truck in real life, nor even a photo of one.  However, the 2 1/2 ton truck was used in the hundreds of thousands and who is to say there was never one of them that had a cement mixer on the back?  US Army built bases all over the world and so having a cement truck would have been handy.  I took the body off of a junk vehicle from the dollar store and put it on a junk Roco 2 1/2 ton truck to make a unique and useful vehicle.  I don't think I would want ten of them, but certainly one is okay.

Also along the right side note the supplies.  First are oil drums, armies use lots of fuel.  Then there is an ammunition collection point.  Look carefully and see ammo boxes, belts of ammo, gathered up after the battle for re-issue or disposal.  The next pallet is Sherman tank maintenance items.  A Sherman commanders cupola, engine, and some other parts and tools.  The next pallet is boat propellers.  The Army used landing craft to cross the Rhine and also other rivers and lakes in WWII.  So having a supply of propellers was likely handy.  Next is plumbing fixtures.  Once a nation is conquered they are able to enjoy the benefits of American indoor plumbing. 

At the upper left is a partial view of one of those Hobby Lobby Christmas pick up trucks.  Original paint stripped and painted olive drab.  They are very inexpensive and not many other HO scale pick up choices out there.

The Roco 37mm US anti-tank gun is a nice little model and it functions well.  The trails open and close, the wheels turn, and the cannon moves up and down.  Sadly this also makes it fragile and I have a large number of them that have sustained damage over the decades.  So I have mounted many of them on little squares of sheet plastic.  Typically I flock them so they look nice.