A photo of the full-sized truck replicated for a retired trucker. ​

The Love’s name is a single decal and goes on without any problem. Larger decals may need to be cut into several pieces, depending on how many coats of clear decal film you spray. ​

Whether they possess nerves of steel or a hidden death wish, we still call ’em suicide jockeys and with good reason. These are the guys...and gals who drive fuel tankers so that we can fill up our car’s gas tank at the nearest Chevron, Texaco, Shell, QT or Love’s station.
When an accident does occur—and it’s a question of when, not if—odds are that the driver doesn’t survive. The last one I’m familiar with occurred in May 2011, here in Fort Worth. Some drunk in a pickup truck, driving the wrong way on I-30, rammed head-on into a fuel rig. The resulting explosion and fire warped steel bridge supports and shut down half of one side of the freeway for several months.
Sadly, the rig driver—who took the job to provide for his family and had only two deliveries left before going home that night—left a wife and several children. What about the drunk, you ask? A few stitches over one eye.
In spite of what I just described, fuel trailers are some of the most colorful you’ll ever see on the road. One that really gets your attention—it definitely gets mine—are the rigs belonging to Love’s Travel Stops. Solid yellow with red stripes, the Love’s name and three overlapping hearts, the result is more than a little striking. It’s also a perfect choice for inclusion in a collection of trailers. 


Since I happened to have...
...one of the old 1/25 AMT fuel tanker kits in Amoco markings sitting on a back shelf, I decided to build one. A couple of phone calls put me in touch with Love’s, who graciously provided me with a layout for one of the older markings used on their trailers. That’s when I discovered a problem. Love’s uses Beall tankers, not the Fruehauf design that AMT replicated. The major difference—among other minor ones—is that Beall uses an oval cross-section while Fruehauf’s is circular.

Other stories in the June TT&C 2017 are:
• Need for MODEL BARGE spurs a business
• Oro Werke Toy Company, Popular with kids and collectors
• Dan Nethercott, Getting his hands and models 'Dirty'
• More 2017 Custom-Built & Scratch Built projects

When Ryan Hinkley spends time in the basement of his Romney, Ind., home, he relives his working life—in miniature.
The Peterbilt trucks with cattle pots, grain trailers, flatbeds and livestock trailers, and other trucks in a 128-square-foot diorama replicate rigs he has driven since 1995 when he was a teenager. With a grain setup, sale barn and farm fields, it’s apparent that agriculture and trucking are interconnected and equally important to Ryan. 


Livestock hauler at heart
Ryan was 20 years old when he moved to the Lafayette, Ind., area to begin taking classes at Purdue University in 1995 and also started working with a farmer who raised corn and hogs.
“They threw me in a truck with a feed trailer and said, ‘Learn,’ and I did,” Ryan recalls. “Then I started hauling his market hogs to a packer in Indiana, three loads a week. When I was 24, I got my CDL (commercial driver’s license).”
That started Ryan’s livestock trucking career, a job he really enjoyed.
“It’s a challenge, and I enjoyed the challenge,” he explains, as he was responsible for loading and transporting animals safely. “I miss hauling livestock, but I don’t miss being gone from home a lot.”
Ryan gave up livestock hauling about eight years ago so he could be home every day. He started working for a farmer and hauls grain, maintains equipment and helps with planting and harvest, but he still lives vicariously on the road through his collection of about 100 trucks and the diorama that started as a 4-H project.

Toy truck collectors launch their hobby through many different scenarios. Gary Tabor’s interest in toy trucks materialized through his family’s farming operation. “I don’t know how I started gathering toy trucks, it just happened. I bought my first trucks from the dairy that picked up our milk off the farm. About the same time I got into the Hess truck line. Hess put out a truck every year. I now have about 36 years’ worth. Tonka trucks fascinated me so I added several of those to my collection up to about 1960.  Those early Tonka trucks resembled Fords. I also got involved with fire trucks because they held a special interest. There’s about every line represented, including: Nylint, Winross, Matchbox, Tootsie, Hess, Marx, Turner and some older cast-iron pieces.   My former hobbies had potential danger connected with them, but accumulating toy trucks made it very hard to get hurt,” Gary stated. Gary along with his late wife farmed and raised their family of four children in the obscure community known by the locals as Dolittle Corners. 
A notable location may be familiar by a landmark or by a settlement, village, town or city. Dolittle Corners is a notable location to the natives, but there are no remaining landmarks only homes and farm buildings. Gary reflected, “There’s a ‘Y’ in the road on the west side of our farm. There was a small settlement that formed at that fork; it became a central meeting point. There was a house with a church connected on the backside. That old church has become the garage on our family home. There was a one-room schoolhouse, a blacksmith’s shop, a cheese factory, a small country store, a train station, stockyards, post office and milk factory.  A neighbor came up with the catchy name as folks would gather in one of the stores and do nothing but catch up on local happenings. So it became known as Dolittle Corners. None of that exists today, only the ‘Y’ in the road.”
Dolittle Corners is located near Williamsfield of Ashtabula County, situated in Northeast Ohio. Williamsfield was one of the primary dairy farming communities of the county. Although unincorporated, Williamsfield has a post office including zip code. Williamsfield was named after an early landholder, General Joseph Williams. In 1799, Williams bought a large parcel of land from the Connecticut Land Company and began developing the area. The first Williamsfield School soon followed in 1809. During the mid-1800s, Williamsfield prospered resulting from two railroad lines that crossed through the township. Over time, history left its mark on Williamsfield, but its bustling community thrives today, albeit a small population. And without any remaining landmarks, old-timers remember Dolittle Corners at the familiar ‘Y’ in the road.

Other stories in the April TT&C 2013 are:
• Scratch-Builder Strives for Details by Bill Vossler• STRUCTO Storied History of a Toy Truck Company by Fred Hendricks
• 2013 custom-built/scratch-built Projects
• Gary Morton’s Cast-resin Truck Model Collection by Larry LeMasters

Collectors often get diverted or find an alternate course with their hobby. Model train enthusiast Lowell Henthorn had that experience in the recent past.  
“People accuse me of getting sidetracked from my years as a model railroader. Much of our basement is occupied by a large model railroad setup. I continue to find fulfillment with the setup as I’m applying enhancements all along. 
“Through my employment at Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, I marveled at the massive heavy haulers that transport the equipment from the shop at Mount Vernon, Ohio. I had never seen a commercially made scale replica of a heavy hauler, but I learned about Vernon White of Scribner, Nebraska, who scratch builds truck models.  
“After several discussions with Vernon, he agreed to build a heavy hauler in 1:64 scale that would fit my S-gauge railroad operation. Once I received Vern’s nice rig, I started dreaming about the possibilities of building one myself in a larger scale.  
“It’s true, I’ve gotten sidetracked. I’m devoting most of my time building heavy haulers these days. With one completed, I’m now working on the second one,” Lowell admitted.
Lowell was born on a farm near Mount Vernon. At 3 years of age, his parents quit farming and moved to town. Although his early years were on the farm, the toys of preference were trucks.  
“My parents were wonderful, but we grew up in an average home so they couldn’t afford a lot of toys. Among our limited toys, the trucks were always my favorite. When we were a little older, my brother and I played with model trains. I still have some of those trucks made by Structo we had as kids, but model railroading has been my principal hobby as an adult,” he shared.
Lowell and Carleen Henthorn reside in the picturesque Apple Valley Lake development located in the Knox County, Ohio, community of Howard. The county seat is Mount Vernon and is named for General Henry Knox, an officer in the American Revolutionary War. 
A longtime friend of George Washington, Henry Knox later became the Secretary of War. Through time, Knox County has prospered with a large portion of the economy derived from agriculture. The county is known for Kenyon College, located in Gambier and Mount Vernon Nazarene University situated in Mount Vernon.


Building the Heavy Hauler 
While Lowell’s labor of love was model railroading, he wanted to explore something different. He explained, “I had devoted my hobby to the scale model trains for years. As mentioned earlier, I’ve always admired the massive Diamond Heavy Haul trucks that transport from our Mount Vernon Rolls-Royce plant. The plant manufactures power generators used in connection with oil and gas production. I wanted to try something new. I wanted to build one like those immense over-the-road carriers.”  
On an occasion when Lowell was attending a train and toy show, he discovered a 1:50 scale Peterbilt tractor made by First Gear. Lowell began admiring the sleek truck, and he reflected on the possibility of building the complementary trailer for the heavy equipment.  
“My creative juices got churned up when I saw that nice Peterbilt truck. Without thinking through all that was involved with the materials needed for a trailer, I bought the truck. 
“That’s the joy in taking on a project like that. There are unknowns, but you begin researching. And soon, leads and referrals help develop the course of action. My experience in building the model railroad helped a lot,” Lowell reflected.  

German mechanical windup, aerial ladder fire truck by Oro Werke Toy Company. ​

Ryan Hinkley’s first DCP purchase was similar to the real truck he was driving at the time. ​