On Friday, July 11th, 1903 the first new Oldsmobiles were delivered to the Kreider Machine Co. in downtown Lancaster, Pa. (Kreider's appears to have been replaced by Lebzelter's, the first Goodyear dealer in the world.) Since I built the old Aurora kit in 1/16 a long time ago, I was wondering if any have ever shown up in 1/25. Scratching one might not be too hard except for locating wheels.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Thanks, Art. I hadn't realised Model T wheels would be close in size. I have aa "Antique Automobile" mag here from 1973 that has a beauty of an Olds on the cover wearing wire wheels. They look quite like bicycle wheels which isn't too hard to figure if you know how many manufacturers started out building bikes. Thanks also for clearing up an unasked question relating to demountable wheels. It's hard to believe one couldn't take the wheels off to change tires. Now I know why those were such a popular option! We discussed those pre-war tires once before so I do know what you mean. It didn't hit me until after I made that original post that the Kreider outfit were well located for deliveries. At 36 W. Chestnut they were about 50 feet from the old Pennsy RR freight houses that were torn down in the late '60s. :)
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Bill,
Since when are questions about model cars (even if prefaced by a bit of history) OT in this group????
Art
Because it started out as an historical note rather than a question. I was just going to mention the delivery and then took it further into the area of a question. There were a couple of other interesting historical items that I can't figure a direct modelling connection for in that column. Usually the column mentions all kinds of board meetings of this or that society or even the occasional murder or strange disappearance. Last week was outstanding in subject matter.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
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