1915 REO found in the woods

https://www.facebook.com/groups/197491484165115/permalink/432309940683267/

President Roosevelt on his way to address the graduating class at Michigan Agricultural College, East Lansing Michigan 50th Anniversary, May 30, 1907

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214389585586301&set=gm.983671665162077&type=3&permPage=1

REO Speedwagons

https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Lafayette+Studios+photographs%3A+1930s+decade&offset=3260&per_page=20

the first fully functional miniature gas-powered car ever built? Well, hybrid actually, it was converted to run on compressed air for the Barnum and Bailey Circus! It was the 1906 REO "Baby". It cost $3,000 to make it.

a perfectly accurate ½-scale model of the REO Model A 5-passenger Light Touring Car introduced to the public at the New York auto show in 1906. The Baby REO, hand built in 1905, is powered by a structurally accurate but scaled-down, horizontally-opposed, two-cylinder engine making 2 horsepower (as compared to the full-size car’s 16 horsepower) mated to a planetary transmission, smaller, of course, but just like the big car’s unit. The brass details, chassis, radiator shell – everything is accurate and exactly to scale. If we do the math we find that the Baby’s footprint is ¼ of the full-size car and 1/8th its volume. The Baby REO cost $3,000 to build – just about twice the cost of the car it was made to promote.

Having spent its usefulness in its first life, the Baby ran off to join the circus in 1911, being leased to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey folks until 1936. The circus people made only one modification. In deference to their highly flammable tents they rigged the engine to run on compressed air instead of gasoline.

Baby REO was 'lost' in 1936. In anticipation of REO's 50th Anniversary, the company started a nationwide search for Baby REO. It was found in 1954 in Altoona, PA in a REO truck dealer's collection and was returned to Lansing for the first time in nearly 50 years. It went on temporary display in the REO corporate offices but was again lost until the mid 1980s

The next chapter of this story begins in about 1979 with a visit to REO headquarters by Richard “Dick” Teague, then VP of design for American Motors. AMC was contemplating the purchase of REO and Teague saw the Baby REO calling out to him from its display in the lobby.

 Teague was immediately intrigued with the Baby REO and it possibilities. His idea was not only to restore the Baby REO but to hook it up with a perfect, matching 1906 REO Model A Light Touring Car as well.

And that’s what he did. But first he had to track it down again. In the meantime it had been moved to the Mississippi offices of one of REO’s financial backers who had taken informal possession of it. Teague would not take no for an answer and ended up paying $3,000 (just about the original cost to build the Baby) plus a nice dinner out for the seller.

That project, matching a Mama to the Baby and meticulously restoring both, became a labor of love that took Teague more than a few years. But it was well worth it by any measure, and Teague had them in his famous collection until his death in the 1980s. Mama and Baby then ended up back on the lam once again from one collector to another.

Mama and Baby REO have traveled as an identical pair continually since the late 1980s.

In mid-August 2008, Mama and Baby were auctioned in Pebble Beach, CA and were purchased by Peter and Debbie Stephens, the great-granddaughter of Ransom Eli Olds and her husband. The Stephens are loaning the cars to the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing on a permanent long-term basis. The family is pleased to have the pair back together and in an ideal place for display.

The 1906 Baby REO is an identical, working gas-powered 1/2 scale miniature replica of its full-sized Mama. Built as a REO promotional tool for the 1906 model year, Baby REO was the first fully functional miniature gas-powered car ever built. The pair is valued at a priceless amount.

The Baby REO was first unveiled in January 1906 at the National Auto Show in New York's Grand Central Place, it subsequently made a cross country tour visiting dealers' showrooms, fairs, conventions and other auto shows to critical acclaim and enthusiastic reviews.

http://reoldsmuseum.org/1906-mama-baby-reo
http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2018-05-28T20:35:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=6&by-date=false
https://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1906-reo-model-a-16-hp-light-touring-car-baby-reo/
http://www.thebidwatcher.com/auctions/view/9794
https://www.reoldsfoundation.org/reo-gallery
https://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/11/07/223855.html

for the Baby Cadillacs: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/06/miniature-fully-functional-13rd-scale.html

Graham and Dodge Brothers exhibit at the Buenos Aires Motor Show, November, 1925

Motorist and multiple car dealership powner Julio Fevre (including Mors , Delage , Delahaye , Berliet , Citroën etcetera),  at the time had these two North American makers, and decided to exhibit them in the open with a replica of a Graham Brothers vehicle.

Inside, visitors could discover the commercial offer of both Dodge Brothers and Graham Brothers.

The ACA (Automóvil Club Argentino)'s own publication, which reviewed the exhibition, described it as "The Monster Truck":
"The pavilion built by Julio Fevre y Cia., was very attractive and placed on the right side of the Pavilion of the Roses. An immense truck, of disproportionate dimensions, served as a shelter for a large showroom for the various types of cars of the brand that represented the named exhibitors. The front of the Pavilion was the front of the truck, with its corresponding huge bonnet, headlights, mudguards, and its large pneumatic tires, built with such perfection that it seemed that it could suddenly start up.

 It is an effort worthy of all praise, because to the originality of the presentation, unites the attraction of the public and the enhancement that is given to the ensemble and the ornament of the Exhibition. The public constantly visited this pavilion and admired the construction of the huge simulated truck

These photos were found in Uruguay a couple years ago, and published in the ACA magazine

the Buenos Aires Motor Show will have it's 100th anniversary in 2018

http://autoblog.com.ar/2017/06/15/la-estrella-del-salon-de-buenos-aires-1925/

2 years later, in 1927, REO had a similar exhibit outside the Helsinki Auto Show http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/01/this-is-how-to-grab-attention-at.html

http://vaderetro.com.ar/salon-del-automovil-1925-al-fondo-hay-lugar

A REO Speedwagon ambulance, gifted to Belgium from the people of Nevada in 1921

http://www.shorpy.com/node/21307

What connects R. E. Olds, Reo Flying Cloud model car, Pullman, and Al Capone? A boat.

In 1926 Glen Robinson, owner of Roberson Marine located in Michigan, noticed how the wealthy were spending money through the roaring 20's, and proceeded to build a motorboat that would combine the elegance of a yacht with the sleekness and speed of a runabout.

The first Seagull was produced for major auto manufacturer Ransom E. Olds in 1928. The boat was named “Flying Cloud” and was used by the Olds family for two years before it was sold to the infamous “Scarface” himself, Al Capone in 1930. Capone used the boat for recreation in Florida, where he once owned a mansion near Miami.

The sleek lines of the hull and the black leather-covered hardtop cabin roof give the look of a limousine. The spacious cabin boasts of Pullman berths, galley, ice box, clothes lockers, separate toilet room with fold –down lavatory. The boat was built to carry up to twenty passengers in comfort and style.

http://www.woodyboater.com/blog/2013/02/06/its-a-yacht-its-a-runabout-its-a-seagull/

http://www.woodyboater.com/blog/2015/04/27/2015-toronto-acbs-spring-tour-reveals-some-rare-gems/

Coast to Coast in a REO 6

Thanks Steve!

a Reo went coast to coast through Canada, from Vancouver to New Brunswick in 1920

https://www.facebook.com/groups/388345988038515/

1920's REO fire truck used by the Las Vegas Fire Department.

https://www.facebook.com/Nevada-Armored-Transport-Inc-1946-1984-167970996606882/

I bet you hadn't heard this before... the REO Speed Wagon, was built to cash in on business delivery uses, and Coca Cola was the 1st to contract for a fleet of them

on the side of the cab below the belt line is says, Coca Cola, Orange Crush, Green River.

The gas tank above the drivers knees says "Speed Wagon"

https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/100thanniversary/reo-motor-car-company-white-motor-company-coca-cola/

http://aacalibrary.tumblr.com/

I just learned from JTB that there is a transportation museum being built in Invercargill New Zealand! Formerly "Harold's shed" aka NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame housed about 40 trucks n busses

one of 3 known Dodge Airflow Fuel Tankers

images all from https://www.facebook.com/truckcollection/photos_stream

Over 300 trucks, 150 petrol bowsers, significant Henry Ford Letter Car and V8 collection and much more motoring memorabilia

keep up with news and progress at https://www.facebook.com/truckcollection/timeline

The REO Mountaineer endurance run from New York to San Francisco and back in 1906

Percy Megargel and David Fassett in the Bronx at the end of their 10-month, 11,000-mile trip in a 16-horsepower REO touring car. 

Why did they do it? Well, Old Steady and Old Scout had just made an endurance run http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/12/old-scout-and-old-steady-endurance-race.html and Megargel was one of the drivers! 

AND Ransom Olds had a reputation to create with the REO, now that he wasn't running Oldsmobile. So he hired the most likely guy to pull it off, and paired him with a respected REO mechanic

Photos found on http://www.zazzle.com/reo_mountaineer_returns_to_new_york_1905_posters-228005652756927057  and info from http://www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com/americanautomobiles10.htm

Mr. Megargel made the trip in the interest of the American Motor League, to gather reliable data with regard to the condition of the roads, the grades to be encountered, streams to be forded, distances from place to place, available stopping places and gasoline supply houses. The trip west was by the Northern route—practically the same as that traversed in the recent race to Portland in the Old Steady; from Portland he went south to San Francisco, and then returned to New York by way of Salt Lake City and Denver.

The Reo Mountaineer, was a regular stock touring car, of 16 rated horsepower. It was fitted with removable front seat, which permitted its occupants to sleep aboard. A 3-inch windlass was built into the front of the frame, to be turned by a 14-inch detachable crank, for the purpose of aid in ascending unusual grades, or drawing the car through the many mud holes so often encountered in the Western roads.

 Percy and David declared that, in the Mountaineer, they could accomplish the first round trip journey from New York to San Francisco and back to New York in an automobile. They estimated 112 days to achieve this feat, which actually took ten months to finish.

The car was sucked into the quicksand of a river once, and three weeks later a flood from snow melt revealed the car again... and off they went.

The clippings are original Motor Way and Automobile articles and advertising for the REO, from Google Books. It's an amazing resource for 109 year old magazines!

Two years earlier, there had been three notable transcontinental runs: Jackson and Crocker in the Winton, Whitman and Hammond in the Oldsmobile, and Fetch and Krarup in the Packard, all going from west to east.

For a detailed synopsis of these runs, see Scientific American, Jan 13th 1906, pages 24 and 25 https://books.google.com/books?id=nqMzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=Megargel+Fassett+REO+Mountaineer&source=bl&ots=vB6HpKuwyY&sig=4m1vNxpEWVKsnr0PLnV-hRUevjQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cjn1VPH9AsjLoATl5oLoAQ&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

But an even better write up that Google scanned at an easier size and clarity to read is in "The Strand" magazine, volume 31, pages 513 to 521 and can be seen here: https://books.google.com/books?id=eLQvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA519&lpg=PA519&dq=Megargel+Fassett+REO+Mountaineer&source=bl&ots=4NvFGMCmYX&sig=Q0FhAfmNPn98xFqqIJyzDNawFTM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r0j1VJz8CojooATKnYD4AQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q=Megargel%20Fassett%20REO%20Mountaineer&f=false

Percy Megargel wrote up a book of the experience of  transcontinental endurance runs in the book, The Car and The Lady

which can be read online at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007667025

Or purchased for around 30 dollars on ABE books, Ebay, or Amazon
 http://www.amazon.com/Car-Lady-Percy-F-Megargel/dp/1290087792/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425357564&sr=8-1&keywords=car+and+the+lady+megargel