Mark, thank you for your kind words. How I came up with this concept and design is an amalgamation of all the things you mentioned; memories, observations, pictures, movies, the works. Driving by a good number of tree lots on the way to work over the years I do look at them closely and take in their details. But I'm modeling a lot from many years ago (1930's/1940's) and obviously do not include modern features like a port-a-john, propane heaters, tree baler, etc. Besides childhood memories, I have found pictures on Shorpy of tree lots from even earlier, like the couple shown below. The first is New York City, 1903, and the second is Providence, RI, 1940. Pretty basic affairs - trees bound up, in piles or standing up on racks.
Bill, glad you're enjoying this project's progress. Yeah, getting your tree in the city was/is a different affair. You parked on the street near the lot if you were lucky, or in an alley somewhere if you weren't. One year some guys put up a tree lot in an empty corner house lot down the street from our house. You could just carry the tree home.
Dave, no plastic netting tree balers here. Interesting historical tidbit about them though, thanks. As mentioned above, I'm creating a scene roughly from the 1930's/1940's where the trees are all bound up by hand by stout men from Wisconsin and Michigan with names like Johnson, Krueger and Vander Vleet that have hands like a catchers mitt!
NeophyteMRR, thanks for your comments. I just pay attention to real life details and then try to figure out how to recreate them on a model. Earlier attempts were pretty crappy, but I just keep plugging away. Also, look up an Aussie guy on YouTube called Luke Towan, who's produced dozens of videos of him making absolutely astounding detailed dioramas of everything. I've watched many of them and learned quite a bit, plus I like seeing the tools, fixtures, etc., he uses to make his creations. I've seen many items he uses that I didn't know existed, saying dang, I need that!
Finally, the finish line.
Completed the installation of the string lights on top of the light poles. This led string has a fairly large bridge rectifier pack that powers it and needs to be tucked away somewhere. I positioned the lights so that pack is inside the shed, with the wiring coming out of the shed and up to the poles, which I've seen done many times in real life. Just cut a thin notch on the roof's bottom to allow the wire through. Molded all the wiring by hand to give it a real life looking sag between the poles.
All the led wiring crammed inside the shed is a real noodle factory. Had to use some double-sided tape to secure the large led power packs out of the way of the translucent windows so they don't appear when looking at the windows as the interior is now lighted.
Decided to place the other worker by the tree trunk cutting platform, moving a tree into place to trim off the trunk. He seemed to fit that location best.
Finished making the tree lot sign and attaching it to one of the light poles. Since I'm modeling the 30's/40's I wanted to know what a typical Christmas tree sold for back then. After numerous internet searches I learned that they generally cost only a few bucks, lower in the 30's of course during the Depression. Wanting a fairly basic operation, I decided on $2 for a small tree, and $3 for a large one. I didn't want to hand paint one (too much of a PITA in my opinion), so tried to find a font style that looked as close to a hand painted sign as possible. Ended up using 10pt font size Segoe Print that seemed to work. Printed it on plain white paper and glued it onto a small basswood strip painted flat white, using 3M's #77 spray on adhesive.
Also purposefully used the word "Xmas" instead of Christmas as I clearly remember the year when some guys set up a tree lot down the street from our house in Chicago, on the corner of 59th Street and Wood Street. They had a string of lights over the entrance that said Merry Xmas. I asked my older brothers what did that mean and they told me it was just a shortened version of the word Christmas. I'm like 5 years old, so OK.
Done!
Hope everyone enjoyed seeing this project's progress and the end result. Thanks for all the comments, suggestions and replies. Now onto the next project...
Tom
