Post WW1 to early 1920s vehicles

[RogerTE]

I am building a 4mm (P4)  layout set in 1920/21, but now need to find suitable road vehicles.

 

I have found several tractors, steam powered vehicles and ex-WW1 military lorries, but am having difficulty finding other suitable road vehicles.

 

Can anyone let me know of suitable models?

 

Many thanks

[cypherman]

Hi,

I think for the time period you want to model most of the traffic was still horse drawn. Especially in country areas. Langly models do quite a nice selection in 1.76 scale.

[RogerTE]

I was expecting horse drawn vehicles to predominate, but I have several photos of the area I am modelling taken in the period 1919 - 21, and was suprised at the number of cars (and motorcycles), even though it is primarily a semi-rural area.

[Nearholmer]

Registered cars in Britain in 1920 c185k, motorcycles c279k. How they were sprinkled across the nations I don’t know, but there are a few regional motoring histories that go into this, I’ve got one about Suffolk somewhere which has numbers registered in that county by year. If you want a look at lorries, ‘Commercial Motor’ has an on-line archive of back numbers that is very interesting, but the big thing at this time was the demobbing of army lorries, which I think was still underway in 1920. You will want plenty of pushbikes too, and ex-army lorries converted to excursion charabancs were popular too,  some owners swapping vehicle bodies for the weekend.

 

(There are c39 million licensed vehicles of all classes in Great Britain today)

 

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Nearholmer

[Johann Marsbar]

Don't forget that there were quite a few electric lorries around in the early 1920's as well - depending on the setting of your layout.  The likes of Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies and Garrett sold a number around that time to the likes of breweries, railway companies and Municipal operators.......

 

 

The one pictured actually remained in use until the early 1960's !   (The Co-Op livery is actually not original, though they did buy one like that in 1916)

[phil_sutters]

Oxford Diecast do several Austin Seven cars and vans. WD Models of Bangor do a Crossley staff car kit - a bit pricey. They also do a WW1 motorcycle kit - resin & etched parts. Scale Link have some early cars in their white metal kit range  https://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Vehicles___Scale_1_76__OO_.html

Edited September 19, 2022 by phil_sutters

[RogerTE]

I had forgotten about Scalelink vehicles and there are a couple there that might do (although a bit early as they are pre-WW1). With regard to Oxford, most of the 1920s era vehicles (e.g. Austin 7) are from the later years in that decade. Having said that there is a coach that almost matches one in a photo I have, but like many of their items it is marked out of stock!

[Nearholmer]

A good proportion of the cars would have been pre-war in 1920, and the Austin 7 didn’t get into high volume production until 1924.

 

The light cars before the Austin 7 were weird crossbreed things called  cyclecars, but I don’t think they were very common. If you look on Graces Guide they have copies of the periodical of the time that was devoted to them.

 

Sidecars with some of the motorbikes definitely.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Nearholmer

[Bernard Lamb]

Watsonian, who make side cars for motor bikes, have been around since 1912.

They seem very interested in the history of the company and might be worth contacting about the specific period that is of interest to you.

Bernard

[JeremyC]

How about a folding car?

 

[phil_sutters]

15 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

A good proportion of the cars would have been pre-war in 1920, and the Austin 7 didn’t get into high volume production until 1924.

 

The light cars before the Austin 7 were weird crossbreed things called  cyclecars, but I don’t think they were very common. If you look on Graces Guide they have copies of the periodical of the time that was devoted to them.

 

Sidecars with some of the motorbikes definitely.

Not a sidecar but a frontcar!

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/25840397/in/album/1201682

Now this is a sidecar - from about 1922 - as my Mum looks about 2 years old.

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/39670358/in/album/823404

[davidbr]

I am coming to this topic very late - I have been without an internet connection for several months.

 

There are many more vehicles than one might think and attached is a list of suppliers of pre-Grouping road vehicles.  Unfortunately, I see W^D Models' website has disappeared and don't know if they are still in business.  If they have gone, then it leaves quite a hole, especially in the lorry department.

SOURCES-4mm road vehicles.doc

[IWCR]

Outside  of  large  towns  there  would  be  very  few  motor  vehicles.

I  have  an  aerial  photo  of  Cowes,  Isle  of  Wight  were you  can  see  most  roads.  There  are  no  motor  vehicles  visible  at  all  and  only  one  or  two  horse  drawn  carts,  the  date  about  1955!

 

Pete

[phil_sutters]

On 07/02/2023 at 11:42, davidbr said:

I am coming to this topic very late - I have been without an internet connection for several months.

 

There are many more vehicles than one might think and attached is a list of suppliers of pre-Grouping road vehicles.  Unfortunately, I see W^D Models' website has disappeared and don't know if they are still in business.  If they have gone, then it leaves quite a hole, especially in the lorry department.

SOURCES-4mm road vehicles.doc 44 kB · 14 downloads

I am in correspondence with Barry of WD Models. He is winding down the business. I hope to have more news, about stock he may still have, soon.

[Nearholmer]

5 hours ago, IWCR said:

Outside  of  large  towns  there  would  be  very  few  motor  vehicles.

I’m coming to the view that the only real way to get this right would be to delve into the detail of a particular area, because I’ve come to understand that my home town seems to have been an instance of a place where the general rule wasn’t true.

 

A small town, c6000 people at the time, but until cWW2 it was a sort of small scale “inland resort”, with an unusually high number of posh hotels and big, posh houses. Looking at old photos, it’s surprised me how many cars there were from pretty much the start of motoring. and 1930s photos of the high street consistently show multiple big, posh cars. As well as private cars there seems to have been a busy trade in hire cars too, hired by the day, with chauffeur, and one firm that started that way after WW1, also owning a couple of charabancs and lorries, was still in business as the local taxi firm as recently as as c25 years ago. 
 

It seems that the distribution of cars across the country was very uneven, and that a good clue to car density might be to look at Edwardian mansion density. Follow the money, basically.

[cliff park]

The other side of this is the rural situation. With very little public transport cars were more essential to anyone who could afford them. Hence in Norfolk where I live small villages would have a higher proportion of cars per head than nearby towns