Derrick the Ner-a-car was a gracious gift of a Aeronautics teaching professor who was also Head of the Imperial College Red Cross Service. He had intended to restore Derrick but never found the time, so he gave Derrick to Guilds.
Derrick makes the annual London-Brighton run alongside Boanerges.
Well, that's nice, but maybe you're thinking what's the best historical point, of the 102 year old fire engine?
Jez was there when Zeppelin firebombs raids threatened London. Jezabel, known then simply as LP8389, was one of a batch of six fire engines supplied to the London Fire Brigade on 16 April 1916. Not many vehicles still running under their own power were on the job working emergency units in WW1.... despite the trivial point that the engine crankshaft was made in Germany
What a comical point to bring up the emotional low of a WW1 London bombing? Well, I have one of those too... the cross town rivalry of colleges resulted in this mascot also being stolen by the rival college students. (like the Georgia Tech Wreck story of yesterday)
In May 1957 the Queen Mother dropped by the college for a visit, prompting a fast paint job for superb display quality and the stunning good looks over took good car show etiquette resulting in the QM reaching out to touch the fresh red paint with her snow white gloves
Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip visited college in 1969 to open the administration block, and on seeing Jez remarked, “My mother warned me about that thing, she ruined a brand new coat on it.”
November 1973 re-christening dinner, with Lord Montague of Beaulieu and Stirling Moss as guests of honour. The sign writing and gold leafing, some of it still in evidence today, was completed with only three days to spare.
In early 1986 a complete repainting of the bodywork was undertaken, a job which eventually took four months longer than expected, but she was completed in time to go posing in front of the Royal wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson in July.
Jez has made the London to Brighton run several times.
Her registration number is LP 8389 and she served in the London Fire Brigade, before being transferred to Joseph Crosfield, a soap factory in 1932. She was acquired by the students' union, the Royal College of Science Union in 1955 for official transport of the President.
Due to destruction of records of the LFB during World War Two, it was not until 2003 that it was established Jez, as she is affectionately known, served first at Vauxhall, and then at Rotherhithe in 1919.
Jezebel is still maintained by students of Imperial College London. She is lovingly looked after by a motley collection of current and past students to keep her in good mechanical condition, and to ensure that her 55 square feet of brasswork is kept highly polished.
Since the occasional engine breakdown happens, sometimes disastrously, as when a con rod escapes to freedom, enormous efforts have been required to keep the engine (and water pump) running.
As there are not many sumps lying around for a 1916 Dennis, it was feared that Jez would never run again. It was only by having expensive (£1700) patterns made up specially that a new sump and crankcase could be made.
Having patterns made, new castings were made free of charge by apprentices at Alcan laboratories of Banbury, and after a lot of machining in the college department of Mechanical Engineering workshops, the engine was rebuilt and running in November 1979.
A new pump was fitted about this time, when a 1923 Dennis No. 2 was obtained from Merseyside Metropolitan Fire Brigade. For the first time in nearly forty years, Jez was able to pump, and quite creditably projected water half way across the Thames at Richmond.
Jez attends all sorts of rallies and shows throughout the year, (in 2017, went to both Brooklands, and Isle Of Wight Steam Show) as well as many pub-crawls and charity events. The Motor Club philosophy is that she is there to be run (she travels everywhere under her own power, never on a transporter) and her raison d'etre is to amuse and arouse both students and the general public.
Pulled by two white ponies named Boomer and Sooner, the Schooner made its debut at Owen Field in 1964, and it became the University's official mascot in 1980.
The Schooner is maintained and driven by members of the RUF/NEKS, the university's all-male spirit organization. At home football games and bowl games, the Sooner Schooner is driven onto the field in an arc that almost reaches the 50-yard line after every score.
The RUF/NEK Queen sits next to the driver, and a young member of the RUF/NEKS usually hangs by his legs off the back, waving the university's flag.
Before you get the idea that this is just a simple ordinary car, with nice paint... read the history, it's pretty damn cool, and about as unique as you now might expect
Dean of Student Affairs began a search for a new official symbol in 1960, specifically a classic pre-war Ford. Dull's search would entail newspaper ads, radio commercials, and other means to locate this vehicle. The search took him throughout the state and country, but no suitable vehicle was found until the autumn of 1960.
He spotted a polished 1930 Ford Model A outside of his apartment. How'd he miss that all year long? Well... that's a cool story.
The owner was Captain Ted J. Johnson, Atlanta's chief Delta Air Lines pilot, and he'd purchased the car from a junkyard in 1956 to restore the car as a father-son project. 2 years and over $1,800, plus spare parts from many different sources , extremely different considering the mahogany dash was from a parts dealer in Caracas, Venezuela and he used Convair 440 aluminum sheets to replace the flooring.
On the day the Dean of GT looked outside his out his apartment window, the father and son were in Atlanta competing against Tech at the track meet. Capt Johnson, wanting to see his son compete, took the Model A to Tech campus, parked it near Towers dormitory, and went to watch his son compete.
When Capt Johnson returned to his car, he found a note from the Dean under the windshield wiper, which asked to purchase the car for service as Georgia Tech's official mascot. Johnson, after great deliberation, agreed to take $1,000, but eventually returned the money in 1984 so that the car would be remembered as an official donation to Georgia Tech and the Alexander-Tharpe Fund.
The current color scheme was selected in 1974 by then athletic director and former head coach, who then loved the colors so much, he changed the football helmet and uniform color to match the new car paint scheme.
Pete George, GT alumni, was the manager of the Ford Mo Co Hapeville Plant in Atlanta, was responsible for Ford's restoration of the car that led to the Gold paint
In 1963 while playing a game at University Of Tennessee, Georgia Tech learned a lesson after UT assured them they had a safe place to stow the car. When they came for it before the game UT had painted the car and wheels Orange, wrote "Go Vols" in the paint! HA! It's even been stolen twice by the University of Georgia
In an strange real story, it turns out it was in a wreck, at 70 mph while being towed. The trailer it was on had a wheel snap off, and suddenly the truck, trailer, and model a were hooking a hard immediate right and ended up on their sides sliding down the road, thankfully not tumbling or rolling.
No one hurt, but, no insurance was covering the model A! It wasn't conceivable that it would be wrecked as it didn't drive off campus... didn't do anything but parades into football stadiums, for example.
The tune is based on an old drinking song called "A son of a Gambolier" ("I'm a rambling rake of poverty/ and a son of a gambolier"). The lyrics are credited to Billy Walthall, an early student of what was then called the Georgia School of Technology. The song is said to date from the early 1890's, and was first published in 1908.
In 1953, the same year that this record was made, the Glee Club performed the song on CBS's Ed Sullivan Show. However, Mr. Sullivan insisted that the lyrics be bowdlerized to subsitute "heckuva" for the proper "helluva". It was also crooned (and strummed on a mandolin) by Gregory Peck in The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, and whistled by John Wayne in The High and Mighty,
Later this decade, the song would be sung by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard Nixon at the 1959 Kitchen Debate. Nixon did not know any Russian songs, but Khrushchev knew one American song - Ramblin' Wreck - having heard it on Ed Sullivan.
Lyrics:
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, and a hell of an engineer—
A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer.
Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear.
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer.
Oh! If I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold,
And put her on the campus to cheer the brave and bold.
But if I had a son, sir, I'll tell you what he'd do—
He would yell, 'To hell with Georgia!' like his daddy used to do.
Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar three thousand pounds,
A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it round.
I'd drink to all the good fellows who come from far and near.
I'm a ramblin', gamblin', hell of an engineer!
Several B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators and at least one F4U Corsair were designated the name Ramblin' Wreck during service in World War II.
I guarantee you never thought you'd learn about Krushschev singing a song from the Ed Sullivan show today. Man, that tops learning that Hendrix was murdered for the most astonishing true fact that has no place on a car blog.
A lot of this truck is all North Dakota, the astro turf is from the Fargodome, the bar stools are from a rural North Dakota cafe, and the wood is original to the truck, it's what the fire hoses used to lay on
The official mascot of the Boilermakers is a replica of a Victorian-era locomotive. Conceived by a Purdue student in the 1930s to exemplify the engineering and agrarian heritage of the university, the first Special was provided by a group of alumni working in executive positions in the rail and automotive industries. Boilermaker Special I made its debut on the first day of classes in 1940.
The president of the Studebaker Corporation in South Bend, donated a 1940 Studebaker chassis to the university.
Next the president of the Purdue Alumni Association and vice president of Baldwin Locomotive Works in Pennsylvania agreed to build the superstructure for the mascot. With designs by an alumni and through changes in the chassis by Ross Gear and Tool Company and the Peter Anderson Motor Company of Lafayette, the chassis arrived in Philadelphia on September 3, 1939. There, the Boilermaker Special was completed.
Alumni, students, faculty and staff have raised funds throughout the years to replace the Special as it has worn out - in 1953, 1960, 1993 and, most recently, in 2011.
The Special returned to campus in July of 2011 as Boilermaker Special VII. Lafayette semi-trailer manufacturer Wabash National took the lead in providing materials and labor to update the Special, and a Navistar 4600 chassis was part of the upgrade
Why are Purdue students and alumni called Boilermakers?
In 1889, Purdue's football team traveled to Crawfordsville, Indiana, to play Wabash College, whom they defeated 18-4.
Wabash students and the people of Crawfordsville were devastated by the defeat. According to one correspondent from the era, the town began referring to the Purdue team as "a great big burly gang of corn-huskers," "rail-splitters," "foundry molders," and "log-haulers."
Over the next few years, Purdue's reputation did not dim, and when their team gave Wabash College a 44-0 drubbing in 1891, the local press wrote wildly about the carnage. One sports writer for the Daily Argus headlined his story "Slaughter of Innocents," with the line under that reading, "Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue."
From 1891 to 1897, the fully operational steam locomotive, The Schenectady, was on hand for research, placed in a newly established locomotive laboratory. It was one more step in the development of Purdue as one of the world's leaders in engineering teaching and research.
At every home football game the Xtra Special leads the team on the field.
