# Imagine a guy in a cowboy hat and driving...



## jonbailey (May 7, 2018)

a one-horse farm wagon in 2019. Also, imagine a Harley-Davidson dealership in rural America as in northern Idaho or Montana surrounded by pine trees and snow-capped mountains. Imagine also that this guy driving the wagon drives onto the lot of the bike shop and drives around the back of it and back onto the road again. This is what I have depicted on a scale-model layout. 

You ask yourself why would a guy drive a farm wagon to a motorcycle shop? They only offer parking for cars or "Motorcycles Only" after all.

My only guess is that the cowboy's brother owns and operates the shop and he is stopping by to pay a visit. Perhaps, the cowboy's pickup truck is out of service with a busted driveshaft so that's when he had to get the American Quarter Horse (named Sam?) hitched up to the old wooden wagon. 

My cowboy drives his wagon on a rural highway at 5 mph but is not displaying an orange slow-moving-vehicle sign on back as seen on Amish buggies. Well, his other brother is perhaps the Sheriff in that particular country and lets him slide on this traffic technicality. 

You can see the possible family connections in rural America. Everybody knows everybody's brother's dog and everybody's sister's horse in them parts of the boonies. :cowboy:


----------



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

You have quite the imagination....


What you write of exists already in Amish country where cars and horse-drawn share the road...
Share, not always in harmony....


The rest of your "story" is weird to me...sorry.
I read the book flap cover but would not go further.... :|
:runninghorse2:...


----------



## jonbailey (May 7, 2018)

Weird? Not your cup of tea?

It's not possible that a cowboy's brother owns a motorcycle shop?

The idea of a rural motorcycle shop is a bit off the wall?

Farm wagons on rural American roads in 2019 are non-existent? 

Yes, some people view the "biker culture" as a bit odd. 

If you think that wagon-and-bike-shop scene sounds eccentric, you should have heard the story my mother told about the Santa Claus displayed in a store window in the late 1950's that was waving a Confederate flag while she was down in Georgia visiting my father's family members. 

Perhaps light-hearted humor is not welcomed here, but I do find the term* weird* a bit insulting.

I'm a model railroader by hobby and I do like to display *special scenarios* on my layout. 

Some men have even displayed scenes of English-style fox hunts. Men on horses with horns and hounds chasing a fox across RR tracks.


----------



## jonbailey (May 7, 2018)

jonbailey said:


> Weird? Not your cup of tea?
> 
> It's not possible that a cowboy's brother owns a motorcycle shop?
> 
> ...


Meet John Patton. His wagon is being pulled by his horse, Sam. He is stopping by to visit his older brother, David, who owns this rural Harley shop. A weird or even impossible scenario in America where whole semi trucks are displayed on top of sign posts at some businesses in the Nevada desert?? Is there anything wrong about driving old-west farm wagons in 2019 in the West and on public roads?
http://tinypic.com/m/kak86x/2


----------



## Wild Heart (Oct 4, 2010)

There is a local museum in the town where I live that have some lovely displays of model railroads. They have all sorts of different scales I believe. But as a child, my favorite part was always watching the train go through the little mountain tunnels. 

When my grandfather passed away he left behind a very cool (yet slightly rusted) Pre-war Lionel Flying Yankee with backlit passenger cars. My sister is trying to get it running again. 

What scale are your railroads?


----------



## jonbailey (May 7, 2018)

Wild Heart said:


> There is a local museum in the town where I live that have some lovely displays of model railroads. They have all sorts of different scales I believe. But as a child, my favorite part was always watching the train go through the little mountain tunnels.
> 
> When my grandfather passed away he left behind a very cool (yet slightly rusted) Pre-war Lionel Flying Yankee with backlit passenger cars. My sister is trying to get it running again.
> 
> What scale are your railroads?


G-Scale, it is a computer game however, virtual. 

Cowboys and horses also spark my fancy and that's why they are displayed in various parts of my modern western American rural-scenes model layout. I have working O'Conner stagecoach models that gives modern tourists rides as well running through the northern pine forests. Yes, I have a snow-capped mountain with trains running through it too as well as over a mountain river bridge.

Being a Harley buff, I had to display one of those buildings too. 

Cowboys, trucks, trains, horses, wagons, old cars, guns, hunting, the rural West, and Harleys: what's more American, adventurous and exciting?

I think of horses and old wagons as nostalgic animals and vehicles out of old John Wayne cowboy films.


----------



## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I don't have a problem envisioning this.

Horses that can be driven are valued here in the west. And we do ride or drive into town. If a business doesn't want a horse in their parking lot they better put up a sign at the entrance.

Still, it sounds like your scenario may be unbelievable to many.


----------



## jonbailey (May 7, 2018)

boots said:


> I don't have a problem envisioning this.
> 
> Horses that can be driven are valued here in the west. And we do ride or drive into town. If a business doesn't want a horse in their parking lot they better put up a sign at the entrance.
> 
> Still, it sounds like your scenario may be unbelievable to many.


It's only a model railroad: a toy where make-believe can run wild to keep things from becoming too ordinary or boring. 

No, I have never seen a cowboy driving a wagon on any modern public motorway roadway of America. 

I've only seen cowboys drive old-fashioned wagons in cowboy films as *Cahill US Marshall*. 

The only modern cowboys I've seen drive pickup trucks on motor roadways or ride horses off road. 

City carriages in the streets of San Francisco, yes.


----------



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

jonbailey said:


> Weird? Not your cup of tea?
> 
> Perhaps light-hearted humor is not welcomed here, but I do find the term* weird* a bit insulting.
> 
> I'm a model railroader by hobby and I do like to display *special scenarios* on my layout.


I edited out some of your comment to shorten it,_ for no other reason..._

I've read many of your past depictions and asking for details threads...
_Please do not twist my words...nor make them seem a put-down or nasty.:frown:
_*They were not.*

What I referred to....
www.learners*dictionary*.com/*definition*/*weird*
*adjective **: * _*unusual or strange*_

It_* is *_a *unusual* hobby to make realistic depictions of such sights...and combinations.
I was intrigued, but your expansion about the family background lost my interest... :shrug:
That is where my "weird" fits....

Actually what you describe exists in reality in some Amish towns today I have been in and driven through...
So, realistic and works in harmony side-by-side in actuality...
The family stuff just...no, not going there.

_Continue on please...._
Many enjoy what you write and show...including I.

True story...
When I was a child my family on vacation went to Yellowstone & Grand Tetons National Park.
We drove to a town named West Yellowstone for lunch and some shopping one afternoon.
We were warned to _*not *_be on the street at 4:00 PM as the cowboys would be coming in as it was Friday afternoon, payday and money to spend...
We were not quite sure what to expect but told to stay, watch but be out of the roadway...
What we saw was the range cowboys ride in on horseback, tie up in front of the numerous saloons and go have a drink with their friends...
Not only did some arrive on horseback but the wagon arrived to replenish supplies needed for out on the range...
The horse and wagon left about a hour later with supplies piled on, a driver/cowboy who had his "beverage" and was headed home...compliments of horse drawn conveyance.
So, story told so you know these places did indeed exist till a few years ago in reality not just make-believe nor a tourist-trap scene of the old-west.
This was the real west...old or not.. it was a real working town where cars, trucks and horses all existed side-by-side daily. :smile:

Maybe a place you might enjoy visiting sometime to see what you create as a hobby be a real town of working proportions.

:runninghorse2:....


----------



## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

Sounds like downtown Ft. Worth Texas to me!!


----------



## jonbailey (May 7, 2018)

horselovinguy said:


> I edited out some of your comment to shorten it,_ for no other reason..._
> 
> I've read many of your past depictions and asking for details threads...
> _Please do not twist my words...nor make them seem a put-down or nasty.:frown:
> ...


My impressions of cowboys come from what is seen in Hollywood films. 

The most surreal part of my layout is the Harley dealership out in the boonies. 

I saw the cowboy humor in_ Blazing Saddles_, Mel Brooks, 1974. 

Hollywood, folk songs, country western music and Disney inspire much of my wild thoughts.

The reason I made the "family connection" with the wagon driver and the shop owner is that a Harley shop might
not be too crazy about a cowboy on a wagon who was a complete stranger. The older man I have placed by the
front door of the motorcycle shop is also dressed in cowboy garb and I fantasize him to be the shop's owner. 
_Midnight Cowboy_ the film makes guys who dress up like a cowboy in a big city to feel unwelcome. I may
have been stereotyping biker types and cowboy types. 

I am sure many model railroaders place people figures on their layouts and have fictitious roles for them to assume.

Legal question: Can a wagon driver or a horseback rider on a public roadway be cited for a DUI?


----------



## HombresArablegacy (Oct 12, 2013)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox40....-while-drunk-along-freeway-in-long-beach/amp/

https://www.sanantoniocriminaldefen...n-you-be-charged-for-dwi-while-riding-a-horse


----------



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

jonbailey said:


> Legal question: Can a wagon driver or a horseback rider on a public roadway be cited for a DUI?



Yes...


Several times has occurred in Florida.
Some serious charges came from one of those riding and drinking arrest...
Animal cruelty charges and jail time along with $$$$ compensation made the news several times...
When you endanger the public and the animal things can get crazy real fast...

:runninghorse2:...


----------



## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

My brother owns a Harley (or two, or three) and has been to some dealerships in some pretty out of the way places. He spends part of the year on rides and travels extensively on his bike.


----------

