Scania LS141 6x2 with Holmes 750 wrecker body

Towing truck

In the early 90s I built a couple of towing trucks. Just with the help pictures and mostly from my own inspiration. They were looking quite well but of course it could be done better. But what you build when you was 14 years old is of course not to compare with what you're building when you are twice as old.
But it wasn't easy to find something in the world of towing and recovery wat you can build in a proper way on scale 1:13. From Erik Fontein I received some documentation and home made drawings of a Holmes 750 wrecker body and he was so kind to add some photos of a Scania LS141 of in Winterswijk (NL) based company Pillen. This should be him! After some searching on the world wide web I found lots of detailed pictures of such towing equipment and old Scania's. At the yard of a company in my neighbourhood I pictured a similar Scania from top to bottom so I had sufficient information to start building it.

The second classic Scania

The L140 was launched in 1972. His successor four years later was the L141. The aren't built many of them and you saw most of them in Scandinavia. Scania designed this model because the strong V8 engine wouldn't fit in the bonneted trucks they were building for quite a while. The L140 has the same driver's cab as the LB80 and in front of that they placed the hood. He was not available with a 6 cylinder engine but the later ranges had both V8 and 6 cylinder engines.
The chassis is mainly identical to the LS111 so it was a matter of copying it. Just the front axle is different and the chassis is a few studs longer. It wasn't that difficult to construct. On the internet I have found quite a lot of pictures of V8 engines from that decade. Because the engine is based on the standard LEGO cylinder heads such a block is easy to build. Of course the engine is driven. I have tried to make it better than the ones before because formerly I used to hold my old building techniques and used the same engine for a model of the same brand and range. But nowadays I take a lot more pictures of the real thing before I get started and searching for the information needed takes a lot of time on beforehand.
The cab is more squared than the one of the LS111 but I wanted to make the backside round. Next to this I wanted to have more relief in the cab. This could be done with some SNOT techniques. The cabine is not difficult to build more or less. The window rods fit precisely (they're five studs in length) and also the mirror rods are better shaped thanks to nowadays LEGO parts. The sun roof is quite big but that was normal in the 70s. The interor is quite restrained; a flat floor with two seats and a flat dash board. To fill this 'empty' space I've added a fire distinguisher. Different from the last T3 I wanted the hood more smooth by using wedges. Now it's more wedged and it looks more realistic. A disadvantage is now you can see some small holes on the sides but because I would add some striping in a later phase most of them would disappear. By coincidence the length compares to the real thing on scale, the angle is similar (I used three studs long wedges). The top of the hood I sloped with conventional plates but it's not necassary to build it as smooth as the side parts (it still is LEGOs). To the mudguard I've added a couple of arches to create the right curve. For the front grille I had to modify some pieces because it's seven studs in height (...).
Things like a front bumper, airtanks and air filter were added to the chassis. Something which took me a lot of time to think about where the steps on both sides of the driver's cab. I wanted to make it as accurate as possible so a construction off plates or Technic elements where no option. Actually I had to know it on beforehand because when a collegue AFOL so my model he immediately mentioned: "Oh, you should use Minifig hands!". I knew it because I already saw it once on train models. So I immediately ordered some grey Minifig hands (the hoses were put on the model already but without the steps).

Towing truck

And then I started to build the thing for which is was all about: the wrecker body. This is a real old fashioned towing truck; no hydraulics but all working mechanicly with wires. You saw the Holmes 750 on any kind of vehicle. Not just in the Netherlands but also in Great Britain and in the US off course. And I think you still can find many of them in the States. In the Netherlands most of them are out of service or exported to foreign countries. The period the "cowboys" were towing around is already far behind us and in the world of recovery they were getting more and more professional and also because the equipment is heavier than some decades before. This Scania is still running but not in the Netherlands unfortunately. It has been sold to a Frechman if I'm correct.
With the help of some documentation and hand made drawing Erik gave me I could build almost the whole body. I was able to build the crane base. At first I equiped it with 4.5V motors but after a few weeks I removed them (while I was still in the building phase). The motors with reduction unit took to much space in the crane body and I replaced them for geared 9V motors. I'm not really a fan of those but for light purposes they're doing it quite well. All pieces in the drive train should be colored black and that was also for the 40z gears. They're quite rare and were just available in a Slizer sets. There weren't cheap as well; more than seven Dollars each. But I needed them and ordered a couple. And when you compare it to the rest of the pieces needed those few Dollars is just a small amount. In a meanwhile the prices are more reasonable. Anyhow further I haven't ordered a lot of pieces for this model. Next to those big gears I also put some smaller ones in it in black. It just looks much better.
The winches for the hoist mechanism of the boom are placed next to the chassis and the ropes are going through pin joiners. I connected a few joiners with black friction pins. I took the ones of which the holes are slightly bigger so the ropes are going through it very easily. It's just like on the real thing. The hoist winches are placed in the middle of the crane and are driven by one motor. For each I boom I used a separate motor.
The finishing touch and body work didn't took me much time. For the mudguards I used 1x1 slopes and than they looks rounder. I'm very pleased with those pieces. I changed the bar in a later phase with pieces from the Red Baron. In the hook I hang up a Scania L110 Super. Just because I like the model and it suits very well with the towing truck (the same height).
It didn't took me a lot of time to build this model, about six months. And I think that's very short. It was less difficult than I thought but it still was a nice challange. I managed to build it that quick because I had all the information I needed like pictures and drawings. Often I get stuck while building a model because I mis a picture of one certain detail. Also if you can't see it I would like to build it!

Other data

Length:	59.0 cm
Width:	19.2 cm
Height:	23.5 cm
Wheelbase:	32.3 cm
Construction:	about 6 months
Date:	July 2005 - January 2006

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