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Daron NYC Sanitation Truck.  Figures are "convicts" from a Model Power set I got.  I figure sanitation workers wear coveralls, and if I worked a garbage truck on NYC streets, I'd want to be wearing day-glow orange!  I just love the guy hanging off the back.  

 

This runs great (I upgraded to an oversized flywheel motor, and it gets power from all six wheels and an extra center pickup I added at the bac). But it was a difficult conversion (short diecast cab-over cabs like this always are, and the multi-piece plastic rear body was both difficult to nail down tightly to the chassis, and so light I had to add four ounces of weight) and it is too wide: in the first video it runs through downtown smoothly, but you will see multiple places where I had to remove parked cars, etc.  In the second video (which I took earlier) you will see the rear bobble three times as it brushes parked cars.  Eighteen-wheelers and buses make it through downtown without my having the remove any parked cars.  This guy is just too wide with all that mechansim hanging off the sides.

 

Still, it looks so cool with the two figures in the cab and that guy hanging off the back.  

DSCN7941

 

When I was a kid I thought it was so cool that the guy would ride standing on the back.  The model has little fold down platforms for the guys are the rear: he's standing on one!

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I had to remove a total of eight cars to get this video of a clear run down Mainstreet.  Never had to do that before.

This is a video prior to that above - I had removed several parked cars that caused total wrecks before, but still I got the three times in this video where the truck brushes up against a parked car. 

 

This truck goes on a shelf for now.  I will eventually find a diecast garbage truck that is just a tad narrower (1/8 inch on each side would do it) and diecast: then just saw the rear off and use that: I love the cab of this. 

 

Edit: Geez, I'm slow today.  The  rear body is plastic.  Tomorrow I'll take a bandsaw and cut 1/4 out of the middle of it and glue to the two sides together, them put it back on the chassis: problem solved.

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Cleared road
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Last edited by Lee Willis
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Great looking scene. Here in the West I have not seen manually loaded trash pickup in at least 25 years. I was amazed when visiting MI, where I grew up, a few years back that the trash service is still done by guys riding on trucks who jump off and manually dump the trash into the truck out of regular trash cans instead of using trash bins that are picked up with hydraulic arms and dumped into the truck. Is there some sort of Union (pronounced "mob") thing preventing trash service from modernizing in the East and having 1 or 2 guys picking up trash 4x as fast as it takes 3-4 guys east of the Mississippi?

That's how I found a high school classmate when I was in basic training at Lackland AFB in 1949.  I was getting ready to go to my permanent assignment when I saw this kid on the back of a trash pick up truck.  It was Benno Anslager.  He was a high school classmate.  I know you second arriving Americans can't pronounce that name.  In fact, at my High School in Giddings, Texas, you could only pronounce my name and Keith Black, the quarterback.  Anyway, garbage trucks have their place!

Lee, great job as always!  What's next, a Lionel Legacy Locomotive and rolling stock made into a garbage train heading to Upstate New York State from New York City with a landfill on your layout ? You could have a garbage transfer station to transfer the garbage from your truck to the train. All garbage aboard! You do some amazing things!
Originally Posted by Owen Thurdee:

Great looking scene. Here in the West I have not seen manually loaded trash pickup in at least 25 years. I was amazed when visiting MI, where I grew up, a few years back that the trash service is still done by guys riding on trucks who jump off and manually dump the trash into the truck out of regular trash cans instead of using trash bins that are picked up with hydraulic arms and dumped into the truck. Is there some sort of Union (pronounced "mob") thing preventing trash service from modernizing in the East and having 1 or 2 guys picking up trash 4x as fast as it takes 3-4 guys east of the Mississippi?

Here in NYC the garbage guys wear both kelly green and day glow green with Scotchbright stripes. I think part of the reason we still have manual loading trucks is that the automated trash bin size is ridiculously huge. Buildings in the city here just don' t have the room to store these bins. Many buildings are old and this is the way it has always been done. There are both city sanitation and private trash carting for big newer private buildings. Trash and separated recycling that makes it to the street is all in bags and picked up twice a week.

 

Many East coast suburbs often have the big automated bin loaders but those areas have more space to store these huge bins as well as less frequent pickups in part because the trash can be stored in the bin.

 

A large portion of the trash is taken out of New York city by barge and alot is taken by train. The subway has it's own trash trains that go out every night, late nights when the subways switch to local service. It is a blessing and curse to see the trash trains because while they are older and unusual cars to look at, it means you will be that much later getting home.

Last edited by Silver Lake

Thanks for the info SL, but it does not seem to add up to me. I am well aware that east coast cities are congested, a lot of which is due to the road passage standards of long ago. However, there are lots of cities on the Western side of the US that have been around as long as many of the Eastern cities, yet they all (AFAIK) use containerized/automated trash pickup, even at the individual level.

Owen -

 

My guess is that, in addition to what SL said, there are too many obstacles. Most of the roads are one-way (at least where I am, in Brooklyn), and there are cars parked nose to tail (well, a foot or two between them) on both sides of the street, with few curb cuts for driveways. There are also trees. Sidewalk space is narrow between the front of property and the street.

 

David

David: Your congestion explanation does not explain why a lot (most?) of the Eastern US still has manual trash can pick up and most of the Western US has automated bin trash pickup regardless of whether it is an Urban, Suburban, or Rural location. I do not know why this is so, it is just something I happened to notice. My Union/mob comment was more or less a joke, but in my opinion is a distinct possibility as to why this is the case.

Nice job Lee. Growing up in the Bronx and living on Long Island now, manual trash pickup and someone riding on the back is a common site. The truck looks fantastic. I've never seen a garbage truck with an outside rider move so fast though. The "hanger on" is usually there when the truck is picking up in the neighborhood and moving at close to walking speed. When the truck moves from location to location, everyone piles inside and the truck moves faster. 

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