Toothpick Stagecoach Nearing Completion
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Toothpick Stagecoach Nearing Completion
By Daniel [email protected]
On Thanksgiving Day 2009, his wife Sharon may be giving thanks that it is.
Nearly 15 years ago, Terry started taking flat toothpicks and putting them together.
His goal was to build a replica of a Wells Fargo stagecoach.[[In-content Ad]]Now he's finally reached his goal. He still has some finishing up to do but for all intents and purposes, it's finished.
The stagecoach is more than 8 feet tall, 13-feet long, more than six feet wide and made of more than 1.5 million toothpicks and loads of carpenter's glue.
Every time he'd go to Marsh or Owen's, Terry said, he'd clean them out of flat toothpicks. He would even drive to Elkhart if there were none to be found locally.
After he retired from DePuy in 2001, Terry was able to put even more time into his seemingly impossible vision.
After gluing it, Terry primed it, put a couple of coats of paint on it and sprayed it with polyurethane.
The stagecoach, with its black and yellow wheels, is so detailed Woodling even wrote "Wells Fargo & Co. Overland Stage" on it.
It's resemblance to the stagecoach model sitting on a shelf in Woodling's spare garage where his toothpick stagecoach resides is uncanny.
It all started for Terry when in 1953 he built a DC-3 aircraft with 15,000 toothpicks.
The 1956 Warsaw High School grad then turned to model railroads until 1981 when he began building motorcycles and helicopters with toothpicks.
Then came the stagecoach project.
"I didn't think I'd ever get I'd done," said Woodling. "Then as I got closer my wife saw it may get done and start pushing me to finish it."
His wife, Sharon, said she fully supports all of Terry's projects but joked Tuesday that she's looking forward to getting her garage back.
Terry has built models that are in museums at Grissom Air Force Base, The National Railroad Museum in Elkhart and The Children's Museum in Indianapolis.
Woodling is hoping to donate the stagecoach to a museum.
By his own estimates, Woodling has spend nearly $1,600 on tools and supplies to build the stagecoach.
The stagecoach breaks down into 25 different parts so it can be transported.
The stagecoach has a door that opens and he even placed a couple of benches inside though they are purely for show.
So does Terry plan on a bigger project? A full-scale model of a tractor or Studebaker?
"No I think this is my last one," said Woodling. "I think I'm going to go back to model railroads."
For more information on the stagecoach you can e-mail the Woodlings at [email protected]
On Thanksgiving Day 2009, his wife Sharon may be giving thanks that it is.
Nearly 15 years ago, Terry started taking flat toothpicks and putting them together.
His goal was to build a replica of a Wells Fargo stagecoach.[[In-content Ad]]Now he's finally reached his goal. He still has some finishing up to do but for all intents and purposes, it's finished.
The stagecoach is more than 8 feet tall, 13-feet long, more than six feet wide and made of more than 1.5 million toothpicks and loads of carpenter's glue.
Every time he'd go to Marsh or Owen's, Terry said, he'd clean them out of flat toothpicks. He would even drive to Elkhart if there were none to be found locally.
After he retired from DePuy in 2001, Terry was able to put even more time into his seemingly impossible vision.
After gluing it, Terry primed it, put a couple of coats of paint on it and sprayed it with polyurethane.
The stagecoach, with its black and yellow wheels, is so detailed Woodling even wrote "Wells Fargo & Co. Overland Stage" on it.
It's resemblance to the stagecoach model sitting on a shelf in Woodling's spare garage where his toothpick stagecoach resides is uncanny.
It all started for Terry when in 1953 he built a DC-3 aircraft with 15,000 toothpicks.
The 1956 Warsaw High School grad then turned to model railroads until 1981 when he began building motorcycles and helicopters with toothpicks.
Then came the stagecoach project.
"I didn't think I'd ever get I'd done," said Woodling. "Then as I got closer my wife saw it may get done and start pushing me to finish it."
His wife, Sharon, said she fully supports all of Terry's projects but joked Tuesday that she's looking forward to getting her garage back.
Terry has built models that are in museums at Grissom Air Force Base, The National Railroad Museum in Elkhart and The Children's Museum in Indianapolis.
Woodling is hoping to donate the stagecoach to a museum.
By his own estimates, Woodling has spend nearly $1,600 on tools and supplies to build the stagecoach.
The stagecoach breaks down into 25 different parts so it can be transported.
The stagecoach has a door that opens and he even placed a couple of benches inside though they are purely for show.
So does Terry plan on a bigger project? A full-scale model of a tractor or Studebaker?
"No I think this is my last one," said Woodling. "I think I'm going to go back to model railroads."
For more information on the stagecoach you can e-mail the Woodlings at [email protected]
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