I know it's got the ramps, but I wonder if that thing could get up onto the trailer just using the scoop and clever maneuvering like a modern day excavator. They're both similar and yet quite different machines, but I want to know if the SteamShovel could do it.

@bue_car said:
"This would have been amazing as a kid at that time for sure. "

This came out seven years before I was born, but I believe kid me would have enjoyed it, although he would have been annoyed that minifigs couldn't fit into the cab of either vehicle.

I bought a mixed vintage box a few months ago and got both this and 337-2. Both good sets for the day.

@MCLegoboy said:
"I know it's got the ramps, but I wonder if that thing could get up onto the trailer just using the scoop and clever maneuvering like a modern day excavator. They're both similar and yet quite different machines, but I want to know if the SteamShovel could do it."

Sure. All you have to do is dig a pit with a depth that’s the exact same as the trailer’s height. Back the trailer in, and drive onto it from level ground. This also works if you use the shovel to deposit a ramp the same height as the trailer and drive up the ramp afterwards.

Ah me and thee, of an age the same! Tho I have held a shovel, never have I been steam powered. Hopefully I won't need a carrier either.

I still have one of that metal handle crank, I really wonder from which old set I had it comes from .

I love the photography on this one, with the background buildings all in grayscale. Very elegant.

@Brick_t_ said:
"I still have one of that metal handle crank, I really wonder from which old set I had it comes from . "
I had it in 680-1 and 643-2.

Still more Technic than todays "Technic" sets.

@ra226 said:
"I love the photography on this one, with the background buildings all in grayscale. Very elegant."

I was going to remark on the dark silhouettes in the box art too, but I wasn't thinking "love"--my first impression was "Fright Knights" and my second was "Victorian smog." It needs the higher resolution image to make the full impression.

@sjr60 said:
" @Brick_t_ said:
"I still have one of that metal handle crank, I really wonder from which old set I had it comes from . "
I had it in 680-1 and 643-2."

Got mine from 128-2...

Love these sets with this steering mechanism and (not actually) "dual molded" doors. Cool stuff!

The book 'Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel' suddenly springs to mind here. Yes, Mary Anne the steam shovel is in the wrong colors, there wasn't a tractor-trailer transporter in the book, and Mike is nowhere to be seen, but my point stands!

@Murdoch17 said:
"The book 'Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel' suddenly springs to mind here. Yes, Mary Anne the steam shovel is in the wrong colors, there wasn't a tractor-trailer transporter in the book, and Mike is nowhere to be seen, but my point stands!"

One of my favorite books when I was little.

I got this set for my seventh birthday in 1973, the big red plate broke and the black special plate broke. shovel is still complete after 53 years.

@ra226 said:
"I love the photography on this one, with the background buildings all in grayscale. Very elegant."

Pre-Photoshop photoshopping!

@biffuz said:
" @ra226 said:
"I love the photography on this one, with the background buildings all in grayscale. Very elegant."

Pre-Photoshop photoshopping!"

They weren’t making any gray parts at this time, nor were they sourcing uncolored plastic and doing inline coloring for several decades after. The only way I can imagine them doing this would be to build full-color background models, photograph them, print that out in B/W, and photograph the actual model in front of that. So matte photo, essentially.

The background isn't greyscale, I can see yellow in the mill and red in the windowsill. It's just very underlit. Silhouetted against a lit limbo backdrop. The white building with the red window is just ever so slightly filled in, I think from the soft light that lights the main model bouncing off the white floor. That's what I see..

The background isn't greyscale, I can see yellow in the mill and red in the windowsill. It's just very underlit. Silhouetted against a lit limbo backdrop. The white building with the red window is just ever so slightly filled in, I think from the soft light that lights the main model bouncing off the white floor. That's what I see..

@PurpleDave said:
" @biffuz said:
" @ra226 said:
"I love the photography on this one, with the background buildings all in grayscale. Very elegant."

Pre-Photoshop photoshopping!"

They weren’t making any gray parts at this time, nor were they sourcing uncolored plastic and doing inline coloring for several decades after. The only way I can imagine them doing this would be to build full-color background models, photograph them, print that out in B/W, and photograph the actual model in front of that. So matte photo, essentially."

It didn't even dawn on me that light gray hadn't been invented yet, but you're right! You can see the same effect (and same models) used in 540-3 and 560-2, and you can even see some of the color coming through on those. They might not even be so complicated as any compositing, it almost looks like they just were clever with the lighting, and maybe did some burn/dodge when developing.