Mary Good of Danville, Ill., was born into a truck driving family. Her father, Billy Crouch, drove a tanker for Maurice Transport, hauling jet fuel, oil and gas. Good married young and her first husband was also a truck driver. She said, “My ex-husband would beg for me to go with him. So I gave in and went on the road with him. I got bored of just riding even though sometimes I would lump the load (unloading it because the receiver expected us to). So I decided I would learn how to drive.”
In 1985, a training program called Job Training Partnership Act sent Good to Diesel Truck Driver Training School in Sun Prairie, Wis. Six weeks later on Sept. 6, “I graduated with a diploma. My husband and I signed on with ACB Trucking of North Little Rock, Ark., as a team.”
While driving was serious and hard work, Good can remember some fun times. “One Christmas we had loaded out of the East Coast coming home. It was snowing heavily and we were running in a convoy down the road. Some of the other drivers started singing Christmas carols over the CB. I joined in and the songs lifted our spirits, making it truly seem like Christmas. We had a lot of fun going down the highway at times. I loved driving.”  
Like many a truck driver Good wanted to own her own rig. So with a little help from her grandmother, she bought a 1964 half-cab Mack and signed on with Mid-States Container out of Champaign, Ill. She later traded her Mack for a 1974 Peterbilt with a 350 NTC Cummins, 444 rears and a 13 over—she was in driver’s heaven. Over the course of her driving career, Good hauled dry freight mostly, including railroad parts, switch houses, bricks, steel, watermelons and industrial dryers.
“On our truck,” Good said, “I had a little running buddy too. His name was Petey. He was a male Chihuahua/Dachshund mix. He was totally my baby doll. Petey was very good on the truck. He did get into a little mischief, like raiding my leftover sandwich or chewing on a roll of paper towels. But he was my heart and rock. He went on the truck with me a lot.”
In February 1989, Good lost her Peterbilt through divorce. “My heart was broken to say the least. To this day I miss the Pete but life has to go on.”
Good drove for a few more years, but she was eventually diagnosed with sleep apnea. “I decided for the safety of myself and everyone else I would come off the road all together. I kept my CDL until renewal time this year. I finally let it go, knowing I would never drive again. I will always love the concept of trucking and what it stands for. To be a driver you make sacrifices, use your common sense along with being the best you can be. Trucking is the American economic backbone for all of us and I am proud to have been a part of that as a past driver. So now I collect model trucks to look at, enjoy and to help me remember the days when I drove.”
Today, Good’s collection numbers around 400 models. She doesn’t have any problems choosing her favorite model. “My dad retired in the early 1990s and shortly thereafter he had a huge garage sale. I bought his Standard Oil model truck from him. This will always be my favorite model because it belonged to Dad.”

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Accomplished engineers develop through different backgrounds. They may have had a formal education, or they may have honed their skills through applied experience. Gene Gregory of Loudonville, Ohio, is an accomplished engineer of scale model tractors and he credits his craft through tinkering. Gene’s professional career was working in the pottery industry. Although heavy-built equipment was not part of his background, Gene appreciated and admired tractors and construction implements. This appreciation progressed into owning and restoring about a dozen vintage farm tractors. Through that experience, he contemplated building his own tractor, a scaled-down version. “I have never been an engineer or trained to be one, but I like the challenge of planning and building. I tell people I just tinker. I started thinking about a tractor or piece of equipment so I started planning. And so with time, I had a completed tractor. It was gratifying to see the project completed to my satisfaction,” Gene commented.
Gene and Doris Gregory reside in the fertile rolling farmland of northeast Ohio. The area was stalked as hunting grounds by the Delaware Indians. There were several Delaware villages located in nearby Mohican Valley. White settlers began moving in during the turn of the 19th century. Indians were eventually forced from the area during the War of 1812. John Chapman, celebrated as Johnny Appleseed, frequented the region during the 1800s caring for his apple tree nurseries. And now, farming is the principal source of income throughout the rolling terrain of Ashland County, Ohio.

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Samples of Dave Audlin's emergency vehicle kitbashes.

There may be a smidgen of soot and smoke coursing through Dave Audlin’s veins. As a volunteer firefighter in Ashburn, Va., Dave is the third generation in a family of firefighters. Dave’s father and grandfather were also firefighters, and Dave’s 17-year-old son, Hunter, is now pursuing a career as the family’s fourth generation of firefighters.
Dave has also translated that passion into his hobby, collecting model fire trucks, emergency vehicles and other models, and building a 15-by-20 display of a city scene complete with several fire stations.
Dave is originally from Skaneateles, N.Y., where his father served on a fire department. When Dave’s father retired in 1986, the family moved to Virginia Beach, Va., when Dave was 16 years old. In 1991, Dave started his career, now working as an operations manager for Lincoln Property Company, overseeing several high-rise buildings in Washington, D.C.
Dave’s passion for collecting was also instilled by his father, who was a collector who built a model train display.
“When he passed away, I inherited all his stuff and continued on with it. My son, who is 17 now, also got into it and helped me build the display,” Dave says.
But it wasn’t just trains and fire trucks that drew Dave into the hobby.
“He was very big into Mack Trucks, which made me get into Mack Trucks,” Dave says of his father. When Dave was 12 years old, he built a display of a Mack Trucks factory and was featured in the local newspaper.
Dave’s father had a friend who worked for Brockway Trucks in Cortland, N.Y., a company which was affiliated with Mack Trucks. That led to Dave being featured with his display in Bulldog Magazine when Dave was 13 years old. Dave was invited to Allentown, Pa., to meet with the president of Mack Trucks. He received some die-cast models and autographed books from the company, and got a private tour of the Mack Trucks Historical Museum and the factory floor. He also received a key to the city of Allentown, Pa., with the Bulldog emblem.
That left a big impression on the young collector.
“I’m a big truck fan,” he says with a laugh.

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Australian Trax Trux die-cast 1/50 scale 1940 Chevrolet blitz bush firefighting tanker which John purchased on a visit to the Museum of Fire at Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.​