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Prime Times Weekly feature of the Mail Tribune , Medford, Oregon Bend man creates scale models of old-time wagons out of love for their craftsmanship and as a lesson in the... WHEELS of HISTORY LeRoy Wickham built this model of a plate & window glass wagon built in Chicago in 1900. He uses an old Sears Roebuck catalog for many of his creations, now numbering in the hundreds. Wickham hopes to open a museum for the miniature wagons someday. By REBECCA MERRITT for The Associated Press BEND -- LeRoy Wickham wants to bring back a piece of the Old West, and he's got a 1902 catalog from Sears and Roebuck to help him do it. "All the old Western stuff is disappearing," said Wickham, a 60-year-old retiree. Wickham works on a dry-goods wagon, background. In the foreground is a single-horse brougham. Wickham makes detailed miniature wagons in the garage of his southeast Bend home. He uses pictures and specifications from the Sears catalog and other books to create the historic wagons, ranging from simple two-horse farm wagons to elaborate buggies with leather upholstery and folding tops. Some of his wagons come from blueprints and designs that date back 150 years. It's a hobby that's becoming a sideline business. This spring, Wickham will exhibit his wagons at an invitation-only miniatures show in Chicago. He also has wagons on display at the Soda Creek Gallery and Beacham's Clock Co. in Sisters. His wagons range in price from $250 to $1,000. But he doesn't seem too concerned about making his creations into a profitable business. "If nothing really comes of it, I'll just keep making them for myself," he said. "The wagons," he said, "represent an important piece of history. People don't understand what these wagons really represent. "You learn how the original stuff was built and why it was made," he said. Wickham, who has worked in a number of professions ranging from driving a truck to steel fabrication, started building the miniatures about 15 years ago. He had become intrigued by wagons, and he always has loved doing things with his hands, so this seemed to be a natural hobby. "I've been a tinkerer all my life," he said. When Wickham began building miniatures, he owned a furniture-manufacturing business in Woodford, Calif., and had many of the tools needed to get started. But after he had been involved in his new hobby for a year, a forest fire destroyed his business, including all his tools and the plans that he had acquired for building miniatures. That didn't stop him, though. He went searching for new plans, finding the 1902 Sears catalog at a second-hand store. He continued building miniatures when he was not working. Now that he's retired, Wickham is getting more serious about the small trucks and furniture. He spends much of his day in his garage working on his creations. Sometimes he get so wrapped up in his work that he forgets to eat lunch, Wickham said. Building a miniature wagon from scratch is time-consuming. "It's far more involved than the kits you can buy," he said. "I probably spend more time making the miniatures than I would with a real-sized wagon." He spends a lot of time studying different designs. He even travels around the West taking pictures of antique wagons to use as examples. Wickham has to convert plans for life-sized wagons to a smaller scale: 1 foot equals 1 inch. He also has to scout for the best wood possible for the designs. Usually, he uses fir and pine, but the trick is finding wood with a small enough grain for the miniatures. "What can be more difficult," he said, "is soldering the hinges and hardware for the wagon. He also builds the steel suspensions for the bottoms of the wagons. You can't be in a hurry when you're working with such small pieces, Wickham said. "My fingers are so big," he said. "It takes a lot of patience." He's careful to put every miniature detail on the wagon to make it as authentic as possible. He even has buggy lights on some of them. Wickham will be busy the next few months building wagons to take to the show in Chicago. He also builds miniature furniture, using the Sears catalog, that he may take along. After that, he would like to work on building a miniature Old West town. He has a picture of one as a starting point. Plus, he has designs of future wagons -- including a hearse -- he wants to work from. His ultimate goal would be to open a miniature wagon museum. If he didn't keep busy, he'd go crazy, he said. When he's not building miniatures, he's building hot-rod cars and fixing his house. "When I had a job, I thought it was terrible to work eight to ten hours five days a week," he said. "Now I work 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week." Prime Times Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA