Saturday, March 02, 2019

a Hicks National Safety School Bus demonstrating the roof strength

Smokey Bear and Ray Bell, in 1950

P. Rigney’s Elks, Rat Portage, Canada 1880-1900

Harvey Car in front of capitol steps, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Man with hand-powered tricycle, Raton, New Mexico 1910-1925. I don't think I've ever seen a tricycle like this

Postcard view of the interior of the railroad station in Utica, New York, circa 1910.

I have no idea what the hell this license plate means


isn't the point of a vanity plate to tell people something you want them to know? 

Friday, March 01, 2019

Hand Starting 1913 Fairbanks Morse Tractor 25 HP

firing up a variety of old airplane engines

Who left the train outside in the blizzard? That was a Bad idea!

Crawler steam engine tractor recreated based on the originale Hornsby Mammoth



watch this full screen for a muh better appreciation of it's size

wood rim repair machine?

Toyota’s illegal turbo discovered at Rally Catalunya 1995 got Toyota banned for the rest of 1995, and from all 1996 races

Toyota engineered a way to allow air in to the turbo intake that completely bypassed the seals around the restrictor.

when the car was moving and the turbo was engaged, the restrictor plate would be moved back a couple of inches completely nullifying the effect of the restrictor plate.

the engineering was so good that when the turbo was disassembled post-race for inspection, judges couldn’t find any evidence that extra air had passed through the turbo.

This gave the car an estimated 25% extra air coming in to the turbos, which added an 50 BHP.

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wqm9665/?fbclid=IwAR3T_nPffnVvP_wU7h49PlA5JYkyUELv4A2ItTRTHv2vzB4BlRIXjyEMTt4

well, this is a cool new way to get free publicity to help sell your old car, poetry


The engine has four pots inline,
The mileage thousands, sixty-nine,
No rust spots for you to patch,
Please check out this lovely hatch.

32 year-old Nissan Stanza was purchased new here in California and has been driven just over 69,000 miles since. It features a great running original fuel-injected four cylinder engine mated to the factory automatic transmission with working overdrive, air conditioning, original wheel covers, reclining seats, original spare wheel and tire, original owner's manual PLUS the original window sticker!

So far, reserve not met, even though the ebay listing insists that the "low reserve" is less than the taxes on some vague "new car" so, thanks for the bullshit, that might be million dollar Ferrari tax, it's certainly already over the tax on a cheap Fiat at 2650, and I'm guessing it's not going to get bid any higher. No one wants to blow a couple though on rebuilding the engine, trans, brakes, and fuel system to drive it for the next 10 years. Those costs alone will be more than a cheap new car.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1987-Nissan-Stanza-XE/264212607428?fbclid=IwAR2o_hrQ6VFgKGmUm1ntsn77Ash3vbIOeYyZ6v82YvE58LhhZJK8pg4yW7s

Paradise VW Club, St. Thomas & St. Croix 7th Annual Bug Out on St. Thomas

Tire rolling contest

Thank you Martin for clanging my tip jar!



Much appreciated!

Another Dr is selling his Jaguar collection... just how many Drs collected Jags?



just a couple from his dozen, now up for auction

https://pendine.com/jaguar-collection/

When I got an email from Doug about a Drs Jag collection, I thought maybe he was referring to the dentist, Dr James Hull, whosold his collection TO Jaguar for their heritage collection http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-largest-british-car-collection-was.html

February flew by, and here are the banners I hadn't already posted in the 2nd and 3rd week of Feb



















Thursday, February 28, 2019

the train depot of Creston Iowa




Creston had been founded as a camp for railroad workers during the westward expansion and its train station, built in 1899, shaped the skyline. A group of residents agitated to save the depot, early members of a preservationist movement that many attribute to outrage over the demolition of New York’s Penn Station in 1963.

Rather than a parking lot, the depot was converted into City Hall and a senior center. The smoking lounge became an art gallery. In the former baggage room, older residents gather for bingo games and pork loin lunches. And in the waiting room, pew-like benches were left in place.

Soon, that waiting room will come full circle and train riders will again begin their journeys at the depot. Amtrak recently signed a contract to lease the space for its passengers and has started renovations.

In 1970 the mayor wanted to demolish the depot and replace it with a parking lot. What a stupid idea

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/us/train-stations-photos-middle-america.html

If you'd like to save a train depot, there are lots for sale, just look at this one in Joplin Missouri:

(astonishing what was determined to be a train stop) the Interurban Station, Tabor Farms, Sodus, Michigan - real photo postcard, postmarked 1913


https://www.facebook.com/swmpcc/photos/a.469038256556140/1342635029196454/?type=3&permPage=1

Which is a new and unusual source of historic photo graphs, vintage postcard clubs

no administrator in the history of the FMCSA has ever held a CDL or driven a truck professionally.

On Wednesday, February 27, Business Insider, one of the most visited news websites on the net, published an article entitled “None of the people who oversee the federal laws that govern truck drivers were ever truck drivers themselves.”

None of them have ever driven a semi truck — even though they are paid to create and modify the regulations that America’s 1.8 million professional truckers must follow.

Most of the key personnel have had backgrounds in state motor vehicle departments or law enforcement.

the FMCSA, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, whose laws span more than 550,000 truck and bus companies and six million CDL holders, has never had an experienced commercial truck driver running the agency.

https://cdllife.com/2019/reporter-looked-fmcsas-trucking-experience-turns-none
https://www.businessinsider.com/no-fmcsa-administrator-was-truck-driver-2019-1

Would it be ridiculous to have someone running the Maritime Administration that had never been to sea?
Would it be stupid to have someone who has never been to an airport be in charge of the FAA?
How moronic would it be to have someone who hasn't ever seen a railroad be in charge of the Dept of transportation?

So.... what good has come of there never having been a trucker in charge of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration? Would it make sense for a trucker to be one of the board? Certainly it would. So, why hasn't there ever been one? Politics, greed, and profits. 

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

Wow, something new I just learned of, a vacuum pump to make draining/changing your automatic transmission fluid a snap


about 60 bucks, sucks the oil up and out, and then you pour in some fresh. Very handy! 

There are some people with cool cars in the new new neighborhood I'm moving to





for something truly amazing, see Jeremy Clarkson's yacht themed RV. It's astonishing





 All the space inside the rv is a bathroom. Just the one bathroom, about 25 or 30 feet long, one toilet and one shower. But that's only the amusing part, the awesome part is on top. It's nearly exactly like a 30 foot yacht.





he likes a nice view from the throne during the morning constitutional



May created a pub inside his RV, and the side extension slides out and the wall open down, it's pretty cool!








 and they have a RV trailer park game, put the word anal in front of the word on the side or back of other rvs


and the trailer park is next to a rail car graveyard