Saturday, September 03, 2022

Formula One drivers give swamp buggy racing a try


steam shovel love from the Rollag Steam festival (better known as the Western Minnesota etc etc) from my sister who unexpectedly went to see it! So, thank you Niki!





Bill Rudicill's 1929 Bucyrus-Erie 50-B

a blaze known as the Mill Fire was wind whipped and raced from Roseburg Forest Products, into the Lincoln Heights neighborhood where a significant number of homes burned and residents had to flee for their lives on Friday afternoon.



I don't see any flame retardant on the poor neighborhood. 


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/us/california-mill-fire.html

the wildfires in Nor Cal claim a Road Runner... this doesn't look like a normal situation though


A wind-whipped fire that erupted near a defunct lumber mill in Northern California on Friday and became a fast-moving inferno has destroyed at least 50 structures and prompted the evacuation of thousands of people



 a street in downtown Weed the day after the Mill Fire broke out in Weed and raced north toward the Northern California community of Lake Shastina near the Oregon border. 



I'm constantly surprised and delighted to learn people's life stories, as I love history, AND stories (you know this) and here's a shocker, Gepetto went to flight school with Neil Armstrong.


Enlisting in the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II, Alex went to flight school with future NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong.

 He served in Korea and Vietnam before retiring as a lieutenant commander in 1967. 

After several post-service careers, he was in retirement but decided he enjoyed Walt Disney World Resort so much that he wanted a full time role with the resort. 

He repeatedly brightened the days of his fellow cast members. The cast saw him as a confidant and friend. Whenever someone was facing struggles or a conflict, he would answer, “Ask yourself this question: will it matter 50 years from now?’ (most Navy vets have said this!) 

Earlier this summer, after Alex had informed Magic Kingdom Park that he was ill and would soon be going into hospice care, the team responded by visiting his home and sharing some news: he had been previously nominated and selected for The Walt Disney Legacy Award. He was given his blue Legacy nametag: the first cast member to receive it in 2022.

Ever the optimist, Alex offered words of encouragement during this emotional visit with his friends and fellow cast members saying, “It’s up to you, now. Greet the guests and make their day magical.” 

Then, recalling the words of a song from the Disney-Pixar feature, “Coco,” he added one request of them: “Remember me.” 

Case road grader


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2412194478936198&set=p.2412194478936198&type=3

Disney World has a lot going on you only learn of by chance, they are restoring the rail road, and have the DOD Warrior Games






and they have a lot of reasons to celebrate National Roller Coaster Day!


I just learned there are women that love steam engines! Ladies of Steam educate people in the historical significance of antique engines, operate a Minneapolis Steam Traction Engine, and sell a calendar every year


 a clinical psychologist at the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and an agricultural engineer met in 2011 at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion (WMSTR) in Rollag, Minnesota.

 Both women grew up in families full of steam enthusiasts and have had hands-on engine experience since their early teens. 


As they became better acquainted, Jen and Nicole hit on the idea of establishing a platform where interested people could share their interest in the steam hobby. 

When they started a Facebook page in 2015, they never expected to draw steam enthusiasts from more than 60 countries. “We had international participation within the first week,” Jen notes, “and currently have more than 10,000 followers.”

"There are so many cool women who love steam, and we wanted to start up a Facebook page to celebrate them, and interact with them," added Eden-Roth, who hails from Sartell. "Within just a few weeks, we had gone international."





In 2019, the two branched out, recruiting other women in the hobby to participate in their inaugural Ladies of Steam 2020 calendar, which they sold through Etsy. “We wanted to include women on a global level,” Nicole says. The calendars were an immediate success, selling out on the first printing.


the 16-horsepower, 1916 Minneapolis engine was the machine that we learned on... we ended up purchasing it. Now it's our family's machine, and we take it out every year, just for teaching (at the Steam School), and for Rollag



As a means of bringing more women into their group, however, one of the things the duo likes to do each year is to host an all-female, mini "steam school" during Rollag

They've expanded to do similar classes at other steam powered events in the area as well, including the James Valley Threshing Show and the Albert City Thresherman Show

But of course, Rollag is their first love: Wallace says that her grandparents first brought her to WMSTR when she was just 11 months old.


https://www.facebook.com/ladiesofsteam/

Rumley cold start and dyno run


Farmers from far and wide came to help with the harvest of two of the men killed in a murder-suicide near Fargo North Dakota, on this last Monday


Dulmage, and 3 Bracken men, ages 34 to 64, all of  North Dakota, died in a field on Aug. 29.  A .357 revolver was recovered at the scene, the Sheriff won't speculate on the hows or whys surrounding the deaths. Dulmage, age 56, was shot in his combine while harvesting.

Dulmage lived with his wife and two daughters in Leeds, but farmed with his 95-year-old father at their acreage outside of town.

On Friday at least a half dozen farmers brought their combines, grain carts, tractors and semis to the fields of Dulmage and Bracken.

Instead, the harvest effort was about doing what needed to be done. “This is just what you do. It’s as simple as that; help where help is needed,” said Tyler Sears as he wheeled his combine down the wheat field

Helping their neighbors in need is just something people in rural communities do and that makes Sears glad to call one of those his home.

“Makes you proud of the community you live in,” Sears said.

He and the other men who lent a hand during Dulmage’s and Bracken’s harvests were working on an as-needed-basis in the effort coordinated by Lee Simon, owner of Simon Total Ag Consulting Inc., Oberon, North Dakota.

Simon, an agronomist for both Dulmage and Bracken, didn’t need to put out a call for harvest volunteers — people called him and asked how they could help.

Down the road about a mile, Brian Engstrom, Dulmage’s friend since childhood, was helping harvest another wheat field on Friday. He volunteered his harvest equipment, crew and time when he heard about Simon organizing harvest shifts.

“Everybody’s taking their turn,” Engstrom said.

After the wheat harvest is completed, volunteers will combine the flax, soybeans and corn when those crops are ready to be combined.

“All of the early wheat will be off by the end of the day,” Simon said on Sept. 2. After that he has people lined up to harvest the flax, and then late-planted wheat.

“After that will be soybeans and corn,” he said.

Engstrom wasn’t surprised there were more offers to help harvest Dulmage’s and Bracken’s crops than there were fields to harvest because it’s common for many people to respond when someone they know — and even that they don’t

Dulmage was active in the North Dakota Farm Bureau, where he served as Benson County president and was a Pioneer Seed dealer. Bracken, who worked for Dulmage and farmed some land on his own  was outgoing and it was obvious he enjoyed life, Moore said. “You would have a lot of fun talking to him,” he said.


Towner County Sheriff Andrew Hillier identified the deceased

ever heard of the 600 hp Snow Gas Engine? I hadn't until now


 




see it in action in this video, start at the 26 minute 12 second mark, 

Western Minnesota Steam Thresher’s Reunion is happening all weekend, as it is an annual event every Labor Day weekend since 1954 (and the temp is a cool 70 degrees there today!)


this video gives a real good look at everything all over the 200 acres of steam powered everything, and tractor driven vintage farm equipment too

The Rollag grounds cover more than 260 acres and include a “sandbox” where giant steam shovels gulp bucketfuls of earth, a re-creation of a prairie town and a smattering of church dining halls serving family-style meals.

 Along with the traction engines, there are more than 600 stationary steam engines housed in permanent buildings, all built and maintained by volunteers.









the 353, which served as a switching engine, carries visitors around the 2 mile track loop to get them to the various displays of steam shovels, traction engines, steam tractors, threshers, excavators, and dozers

the 353 Soo Line 060 switch engine built by Brooks-Alco of New York joined the 
Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion (WMSTR) in 1971.






It all started in 1940 when the Nelson boys fired up the old Garr-Scott engine to thresh with steam again for old time sake with family & friends. 

The event continued once a year until 1954, when Western Minnesota Steam Thresher’s Reunion met formally for the first time and invited the public. 


Today the show has grown to include hundreds of demonstrations and exhibits spread over 210 beautiful acres and is a 501c(3) organization. There is no selling of products or merchandise on the show grounds from outside vendors. All receipts are used for the growth and development of the show. Everyone there is a volunteer or visitor


the event is near Fargo, and about 8 hours West of Green Bay


You probably remember that just a couple months ago I learned about the Boise, Idaho, JUMP tractor museum, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2022/04/amazing-collection-of-cool-old-tractors.html  they just finished restoring the 1909 Rumely Oil Pull prototype, which was used for only a year, and then sat behind the Indiana factory as newer and better models were made in the great race for better sales, until the collector who ran ran what was once called Oscar's Dreamland of Billings, Montana, found and restored it. 

During a 1998 auction of that collection, J.R. Simplot purchased 110 machines, including Kerosene Annie, and gave it a permanent home, under curator Rob Bearden. 




Rumely made kerosene powered tractors, because  kerosene cost 5 cents, and gasoline in 1910 was 25 cents, so the Rumely engineers started work to find a way to fuel a tractor with inexpensive kerosene. Cheap diesel didn't become the dominant fuel until the 30s

Of the 900 or so Type B Oil Pull kerosene powered Rumely tractors, only 2% have survived, about 20.

Because the Rollag Steam event is annual, to entice return visitors the event needs to bring things no one has seen before to keep things fresh, and there was nothing greater than Kerosene Annie to do that this year.



An Osprey is stuck in the nature reserve on a Norwegian island since it made an emergency landing there on August 12th


Since the event, the Osprey is stuck on the island as repairs onsite are thought to be impossible.

Norwegian Armed Forces have been investigating several options to salvage the plane from the nature reserve, ‘As of now, the sea route is plan A,’ says chief sergeant Odd Helge Wang to Norway Posts.

The Norwegians environmental officers must ensure that the aircraft is transported out in a way that safeguards nature in the area. A road, a ramp and a jetty must be built in the nature reserve in order to transport the aircraft out.

‘It is quite complicated to carry out technically, and something neither we nor the Americans have done before,’ says Wang. ‘We are probably talking about millions. But it is the Americans who have to foot the bill because it is their machine, and we hope that a decision will be made on their part during this or next week. Once it is taken, it will take about two to three weeks to carry out the operation,’ says Wang.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Westerman in the 352 Special Operations Wing cannot say concretely when the decision will be made on the American side. ‘That decision is made by someone higher up in the system than me, so I don’t have a good answer for that,’ he said. ‘But we are aware that the Norwegian winter will be able to affect the operation.’


This emergency landing is one of the events that recently led to the grounding of all CV-22s. As already reported in fact, as part of a safety stand down, on Aug. 16, 2022 the US Air Force grounded its CV-22 Osprey fleet after two incidents of “hard clutch engagement.” which came after two in the previous five years.

A hard clutch engagement involves the clutch connecting the rotor gear box to the engine slipping, then catching hard, causing the aircraft to lurch.

the propellers appear too small to be effective


the Mercedes Classic Center has moved from Irvine to a larger facility in Long Beach


Irvine was a bit crowded, I toured it in 2013, anf if you haven't seen the gallery, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/01/welcome-to-inventor-of-automobile-as.html you might like to, as the variety of cars is so impressive
 

“Irvine was 27,000 square feet, but a lot of it was office space and the ceilings were lower,” said the Classic Center’s manager, the affable Mike Kunz. “This place is 41,500 square feet, but we have another 20,000 beyond that wall and 10,000 more in another building.”

https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/classic-cars/a40919790/mercedes-classic-center-moves-to-long-beach has a gallery on the event where the grand opening occurred, the red carpet and gull wings, but no photos of the inside

Friday, September 02, 2022

Jay Ward wrote an article on the history of the flame job, he missed a few things though



but this example was a mistake, as this was the Gilmore lion's mane, not flames. 

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/flame-job-the-hottest-cars-were-an-entirely-american-invention/

And he didn't show the crabclaw flame lick, or Ed Roth's famous flames. 
And he didn't mention "True Fire" the revolutionary style that changed the flamejob about 20 years ago of Mike Lavallee
or the use of Chromostereopsis for 3d flames, in 2d paint. 
no mention of ghost flames, inverse flames, and reversed flames. 

I really do wish experts would ask me about car guy stuff, I could fill them in on the things they don't know

because I already posted about it, a couple years ago http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/07/who-invented-flame-job-sondre-kvipt.html

If you haven't seen my previous post about Jay Ward, he's a creative director at Pixar, focused on the Cars franchise since 1998, and also runs the campus classic car show, the "Pixar Motorama"

Before Pixar, he was the editor of Hop Up magazine from 2007 to 2009. He started at Pixar as an entry-level assistant position in the art department around 1996 because a college classmate got a job there and let him in on the secret that it was going to be the next big thing, then worked his way up in quick time from production assistant to coordinator
Before that, he was managing the parts department at an Oakland Harley-Davidson dealership.
Before that, he worked at an auto parts store and then attended California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, now called California College of the Arts.
He joined the Navy Reserves out of high school
Lately he's been an honorary judge at Pebble Beach and the Quail

Road and Track did an article on cycle car racing, fyi

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a40848496/driving-the-cyclekart-a-pint-sized-throwback-death-wish/

Flight path shows plane flipping middle finger to Washington state

 https://nypost.com/2022/09/02/flight-path-shows-plane-flipping-off-washington-state