Timpo Time#7 'The Stagecoach'

Sadly the Awdry pocket money didn't stretch to the luxury Timpo 'Overland Stagecoach' but this is rather nice example of their simpler version available from the late sixties.  The companies name clearly visible, Wells Fargo,  above the windows.  Stagecoaches employed for use in the 'Butterfield Overland Mail' would travel  across the United States continuously for up to twenty two days, whenever possible traveling at night.  The passengers would be crowded into the coaches and at the mercy of the elements and other possible dangers.  These conditions prompted Wells Fargo to post the following rules as guidance  passenger behaviour:

• Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.
• If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the gentler sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit with the wind, not against it.
• Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children.
• Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort in cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver.
• Don't snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger's shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result.
• Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses.
• In the event of runaway horses remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry coyotes.
• Forbidden topics of conversation are: stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings.
• Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It's a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.

Perhaps our local Rail Networks would benefit from publishing something similar on their trains.

Faster than a speeding bullet.

So why was it that the Stagecoach would continue its relents pace across the states?  Well one of the reasons would be for fear of a hold up; perhaps from this bunch of colourfully clothed chaps.  The Mexicans or Mexican Bandits as they were later known, were Timpo's longest running unchanged range, available again from the late sixties.  They were distinctive in that their heads had a plug on top that would fit snugly into the sombrero.  I am very fortunate to have managed to have picked up a copy of shy, retiring types who feel the need to cover their faces with their neckerchiefs.