Old Coyote

Beautiful build, outstanding quality.

Gorgeous build Bruce. So typical of your beautiful work.

No sir, from what I can find out it was originally set to be 1/48, although some model railroaders display O gauge trains with 1/43 automobiles.

No sir, it is not powered. The unit was gutted before it was placed in pieces in the box where I found it. My intention was not to get it to running condition but just to get it to display condition. I had to scour the internet to find the image of Reddy Kilowatt. The unit is decorated to resemble the little switcher which plied its trade at the Southwestern Public Service plant in Amarillo, Texas back in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

Here are before and after pictures of the diesel electric switcher I have bee restoring from my father's "O" Gauge model railroad collection. When I found the switcher in a box, it had been disassembled and gutted. I remember this unit from when I was a kid. I scrounged parts from his boxes, modified some, and scratchbuilt some parts to get this beast back into display condition. This switcher was originally built (and run) back in the early 1950's. The piece is all metal with the exception of the wood base I built to attach the driving trucks to the metal body.

Beautiful build sir. Very nicely done.

Gorgeous build Bruce, that looks spectacular. Your builds are always so clean and accurate.

One of the most gorgeous builds I have ever seen. Your talents are simply off the scale.

A beautiful build of a great piece of history.

Great build sir, beautifully done !

Fabulous builds Mark ...... absolutely stunning sir. Your work is brilliant.

Great build sir, that is amazing !

Alan, The basic chassis and rear slicks are straight out of the Ramchargers kit. The only "tweaking" I did was to the oil pan on the Chevy engine. I used the pan from a Revell funny car (which is much taller at the rear than in the front). When placed in the chassis (which has a full floor under the engine) it created the nose down attitude I was looking for. Hope to see your nose-down legs under dragster soon. John And just to show you these legs under dragsters did in fact exist, look at the accompying photo of one being built ..... look at the position of the driver's legs in comparison to the axle placement and the offset steering needed to clear the position of the rear end.

Very nice build sir, very clean building style, love the gorgeous paint.

Beautiful build sir, that's some real craftsmanship. I really like that one ! You have such a clean building style.

That's really cool Alan. I like it a lot.

Yep, one of the quickest and fastest was the Shubert & Herbert car driven by Zane Shubert ..... it was powered by a mouse motor Chevrolet on a big gulp of nitro

Wow, that's great. Can't wait to see it finished.

I knew there was something about you that I really like ! SSGT, USAF escaped after 1,461 days active (but who counts) ?

No offense taken Gary. I just wanted to explain my reasoning when I posted the original in this thread. I do admire your sense of history when it comes to this sport.

Just to show you that "legs under" fuelers with their nose down engines really did exist, here is a picture of "Terrible" Ted Gotelli's gorgeous Chrysler powered unit. and here's a picture of the last Chevy powered top fueler I saw at Amarillo Dragway in June of 1972.

Gary, I'm sure there were more of those short wheelbased Chevy powered fuelers out there in the late '60's, but I was getting to see the world courtesy of the U.S. Air Force during those years (I have a hole in my drag racing memories from July 1967 to July 1971) ..... the first of those rigs I have pictures of was at Amarillo Dragway in October 1971 just after I got out of the service. That's why I related them to the early '70's. Besides, we were always 5-10 years behind California when I lived in the Texas Panhandle?

.... don't know how many of you can remember the early '70's ....... short wheelbase top fuelers ....... and shock, some of them were powered by big block Chevrolets ......... and some were a "legs under" design which raised the rear end so the drivers legs could go under the axles ...... that also caused the engines to sit in a very "nose down" attitude ....... not many drivers liked that configuration, but some of those cars were very competitive I built this "phantom" BBC Chevrolet fueler from a Ramchargers kit ....... used the 427 Chevy from an AMT '37 Chevy which was perfect for the "legs under" configuration ....... Painted the car Testors gloss black with a Testors Orange chassis ...... details from Pro Tech ..... and a set of Slixx decals designed for use on Graeme Cowin's funny car ..... and of course the cowl had to sport a Chevrolet "Bow Tie" and "Taz" wreaking a little havoc

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments.

...... well. sort of. After seeing Hmman68's beautiful build of this very marginal kit, I thought I would show you my feeble attempt at this competition coupe. Not liking the Ramchargers nose and chassis, I kitbashed my coupe using a Two Much chassis and an engine from a Bantam Blast. A set of plug wires and a couple of fuel lines were the only detailing and the paint is Cobracolors Sunset Orange Metallic.