Kansas Department of Transportation

There was no snow to been seen anywhere in Kansas on June 21, Father’s Day, except on the gift Brett Carlson received from his family.

Carlson, a Kansas Department of Transportation Equipment Operator Specialist from LaCrosse, received a model of a snow plow that was built by KDOT retiree Mark Logan.

The model is a 1995 Ford Tandem Axle Truck built to 1/25th scale, and was the type of the dump truck that Carlson drove when he started at KDOT. The truck was hand built by Logan, who retired in 2014 after 31 years with KDOT.

The original model for the truck was a 1974 Ford Truck model kit, but most of the truck had to be rebuilt to change it to a 1995 model, and the spreader and plow were all fabricated by Logan. The interior dash has all of the instruments, controls, dash lights and exterior lights all work, including the strobes, and the spreader is full of sand and salt just in case it needs to be used.

It took Logan 600 plus hours to build over the span of a year and half.

Carlson’s wife had asked Logan to build him a snow plow as a Father’s Day gift and Logan chose that model to do.

Logan modeled the gift after a snow plow that he once drove, a 1995 Ford L8000 dump truck, a truck that ten years ago he quit driving when he was promoted and assigned a pickup to use.

The new KDOT employee that would be assigned that Ford dump truck? Brett Carlson.