The Georgia Power Heritage Preservation Club

The newest vehicle in the Georgia Power fleet is made almost entirely of wood.

The Georgia Power Heritage Preservation Club has acquired a scale model of the typical vehicle used for line work in the 1920s. It's not a line truck but a line wagon, complete with wooden wheels, a wooden tongue and a collapsible raised wooden platform.

Club President Don Mapp said the wagon will become a centerpiece for Heritage events, representing the group at gatherings and in the lobby at 241 Ralph McGill. Monday's quarterly meeting would have been the first appearance for the wagon, but wintery weather forced its cancellation. Ironically, the topic was to have been the birth of Georgia Power's storm restoration procedures.

Mapp said the wagon was built by Ken Thrasher, a master wainwright and wheelwright based in Gordo, Ala. He builds wagons, carriages and stagecoaches, and his creations have appeared in Hollywood movies.

Thrasher's replica for Heritage is built of cherry, weighs about 300 pounds and is about 6 feet long, 13 including the tongue. Because it is only 35 inches wide, the wagon can pass through most standard doorways for inside storage. The work platform extends to over 7 feet tall.

Over time, the club hopes the freshly worked wood will weather and darken. Thrasher has recommended promoting the process with applications of linseed oil.

The Heritage Club does not plan to acquire miniature ponies to pull the wagon.