Reo Speedwagon autobuses and trucks

[Hauk]

In the thirties a lot of new autobus companies sprung up all over Norway. A lot of these buses had superstuctures built by local workshops and underframes from large american companies like Reo Speedwagon. I think these buses have an undeniable charm, and I would love to build an 0-scale model of a bus of this type.

Here are some samples:











As the companies that built the superstructures are long gone and few of them left any records, I have to estimate all dimensions from pictures.
It would have been a great help to know the wheel dimensions to have something to base  the estimates on.

So does anyone here know the wheel/tyre dimensions on a Reo Speedwagon truck/bus from around 1935-1940? I have studied pictures of american REO pickup trucks from the period, and they usually have the exact same type of wheels as the buses in my pictuers.  

[Gordon Ferguson]

Hauk, great pics ..... Love these

No idea about the chassis , but that second picture definitely has Ford AA wheels , these were 20" diameter ( approx 500mm) if it was based on Ford AA chassis then you could get them first of all 131 inch wheel base and then in an extended form at 157 inches ......... Most of the the buses conversions I have seen are based on longer chassis.

I would hazard a guess that the Reo buses are on 20" wheels as well but stand to be corrected.

[brane]

Hello Håvard

Try to buy this Reo speewagon catalog.
You maybe get some help with the chassie length.

Michael Brane
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1930s-reo-speedwagon-buses-advertising-catalog-lansing-mi/351344919736?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D29005%26meid%3Dd697f09750e74b2e853d96350c5270f2%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D371279271795

[Hauk]

Hauk, great pics ..... Love these

No idea about the chassis , but that second picture definitely has Ford AA wheels , these were 20" diameter ( approx 500mm) if it was based on Ford AA chassis then you could get them first of all 131 inch wheel base and then in an extended form at 157 inches ......... Most of the the buses conversions I have seen are based on longer chassis.

I would hazard a guess that the Reo buses are on 20" wheels as well but stand to be corrected.

Thanks a lot for the input! It is the first clue I have gotten on the diameter on the wheels.

I have another picture showing three of the buses lined up side by side, and it seems like the diameter of the wheels are the same:



So if I can trust that the wheel diameter is 20" , I have somewhere to start!
The 20" is the hub diameter I presume, anyone know how much the hub +tyre would be?

[Hauk]

Hello Håvard

Try to buy this Reo speewagon catalog.
You maybe get some help with the chassie length.

Michael Brane

Thats a great tip, Michael! I was able to read the wheelbases on the sample page, and it seems likely that my bus has a wheelbase of around 165".

This is the actual bus I am planning to model:



The picture is taken at Løkken station on the Thamshavn Railroad that I model.

[Gordon Ferguson]

Typical truck bus tyre of that period would be  Diameter(mm)889 Section Width(mm)192 to fit a 20" rim.
Remember that 20" is the measurement  to the inside of the rim where the bead of the tyre sits ...... So when you look at picture you have the outer top lip which is not included in that 20" figure ..... I would gues that lip adds another 6 to 10mm
This is the type of tyre I am basing above figures on .... Crossply or biased ply as the Americans would call them , the tyre width is almost identical to sidewall height hence so you get a ratio of 100% as opposed todays modern radial tyres which typically have a ratio of 50%

[Stoker]

Is bus #2 equipped with a wood gas fuel system?

[eTraxx]

Not the 30's but might be helpful. This is from "The Transit Journal" published 1922

[Ray Dunakin]

What is the purpose of all that "plumbing" on the bus in the second photo??

[Hauk]

What is the purpose of all that "plumbing" on the bus in the second photo??

As James suggested, it is a wood gas fuel system. The picture were taken in 1942 during the German occupation of Norway. A lot of vehicles were equipped with wood gas fuel systems during WWII due to petrol shortages.

Here is a link to a quite entertaining article on WGFS´s:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_woodgas.html

[Hauk]

Typical truck bus tyre of that period would be  Diameter(mm)889 Section Width(mm)192 to fit a 20" rim.
Remember that 20" is the measurement  to the inside of the rim where the bead of the tyre sits ...... So when you look at picture you have the outer top lip which is not included in that 20" figure ..... I would gues that lip adds another 6 to 10mm
This is the type of tyre I am basing above figures on .... Crossply or biased ply as the Americans would call them , the tyre width is almost identical to sidewall height hence so you get a ratio of 100% as opposed todays modern radial tyres which typically have a ratio of 50%

That is some very helpful information, thanks a lot!

And thanks to all the other replies as well, you always get some interesting and informative feedback on this forum, no matter what you ask about.

[Hauk]

If anyone  plans to tackle this one in 0-scale, you can get a set of Ford AA resin wheels:
https://www.modelimex.com/1-48-gaz-aaa-resin-wheels-umm
(They are actually for a russian truck produced on a license from Ford, but they look identical to me)

I am a bit tempted myself, but it is really "out of my area" even if it is damn close...

[Hauk]

A little more info on my REO bus documentation project.

I got this newspaper clipping with a picture of the two buses that I am most interested in:



There is very little distortion to this image, so it was easy to convert the image into this using Photoshop:



Since I know the dimension (and shape!) of the wheels, I could scale the image to 1:1 in my CAD program (VectorWorks)

So now I can estimate the wheelbase to 170" which corresponds well with  a couple of the buses in the flyer from REO that had 165" and 169" respectively. It should already be possible to make a decent set of scale drawings from the info, but I will hold back for a couple of more weeks to see if any more information surfaces.

[Hauk]

Just got my hands on the REO-flyer on eBay (Thanks for the tip, Michael!). There was a nice surprise on the back page, a picture of the chassis with the body removed:



A lot of  useful information for a modelling project!

Here are all the pages in the flyer:









If anyone would like higher resolution versions, send me a PM and I will email them to you.