1899 electric omnibus. Berlin, Germany.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=7628732470491362&set=g.811703519221774

The first battery bus to be put into commercial bus service was a bus built by the coachbuilder and later car manufacturer, Kühlstein Wagenbau in Charlottenburg , Berlin. In connection with an international car exhibition in Berlin from 3 September 1899, the battery bus was in traffic between Anhalter Bahnhof and Stettiner Bahnhof. The batteries had enough power for six trips before recharging was necessary. Along this route was a charging station in Askanischen Platz. From 13 March 1900, ten battery-powered buses were in service in Berlin, but had to be withdrawn at the end of the same year.

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batteribuss

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/elektromobilitat-im-jahr-1899-5169433.html

the Berlin automobile manufacturer Kühlstein Wagenbau presented an electric bus in September 1899. The “18-seater Mail Coach” is capable of “traveling a distance of approximately 100 km on a single charge,” reports the “Polytechnical Journal.”

The Kühlstein carriage factory, a traditional carriage builder and purveyor to the court, invites you to take tours on the innovative vehicle. The automotive industry is booming. At the first Berlin car exhibition two years earlier in the Hotel Bristol, just eight vehicles from four manufacturers were on display. In addition to the motor cars from Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Friedrich Lutzmann, Kühlstein presented an electric vehicle there in 1897 - less like a car than like a carriage without horses.

the Kühlstein company was a wheelwright company that made the richly decorated gala carriage for the Crown Prince's wedding in 1905, and built a few more cars in small series before the company went bankrupt in 1926. Daimler-Benz bought the property at Salzufer 4 in Charlottenburg in 1934 in order to expand its headquarters in Berlin.

this is amazing, someone found a new way to get the sand out of vehicles carpets... without expensive gadgets, just use a sander to vibrate the hell out of the carpet

 

See the video at https://www.tumblr.com/willcodehtmlforfood/744870936181866496?source=share

Interesting to me, because it's really hard to get car floormats clean. Regardless of how long you hose down and repeat the shampooing, or vacuum, there is always more dirt. No matter how long you beat on the damn carpet, there is more dust and sand in it. But this, gets that to vibrate up. Very clever! 

remember the Roach Coach?

https://www.gatsbyonline.com/automobile/hot-rods/hot-rod-roach-coach-365182/

The animated series I learned about at last years Comic Con is now on Hulu, and roughly, it's a tank battle between the good guys in 1 stolen tank vs the 5 the bad guys army sent in chase.

Skip the first 30 seconds, and yes, the whole series you'll have to read the captions on. 

for the comic con gallery of the Sand Land booth: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2023/07/great-tank-at-sandman-boothi-couldnt.html

hot rods, built from regular roadsters etc, are very cool. But some hot rods were built from things like Pierce Arrow limos! I kids you not! Jason Graham Hot Rods started with a 1931 Pierce Arrow ex-limo

A '55 Oldsmobile was used as the donor car for many of the parts, including the engine, dashboard and several trim pieces. 

 The headlights were borrowed from a '29 Duesenberg, a '34 Chevy was given its grille which Jason modified with elements from Pierce Arrow including the radiator ornament, finally the taillights came from a '48 Hudson sedan ...and the strange steering wheel is an accessory item from a '40 Chevy “Fatman”.

jasongrahamhotrods.com isn't online anymore, probably went out of business during the covid quarantine 

Jason Graham's business was building Hot-Rods in a style rather distinct from other customs..., as is often the case with many other small automakers, he began as a teenager working in the family garage, but his life transition to ownership workshop wasn't a direct result

“I started building Hot-Rods full time about seven years after losing my regular job as a as a CAD technician. I had been building these machines as a hobby since I was 13. I eventually created my workshop in Portland, Tennessee.

 Over the years, I have acquired an excellent reputation with clients in good financial health. With my business booming, life was good, but everything changed late one night in February 2010 when the shop caught on fire. 

https://www.gatsbyonline.com/automobile/1930-hot-rod-pierce-arrow-359266/

It was up for sale by 2020, the first owner bought it, showed it, got it into Rod and Custom Jan 2012 issue

the engineers at Scewo ( pronounced Ski Whoa for some reason ) have made a very advanced wheelchair that can climb stairs, but it costs $50k

all you need at the first 25 seconds 

https://www.scewo.com/en/

Browns service station on rt16 at Belva,W.V. In continuous operation for over 100 years. Still owned and operated by the same family, still full service at the pump

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1607507766754784&set=pcb.1381946182506224

old handtools can be transformed into pretty realistic "futuristic" movie prop guns

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225351968166390&set=a.1617402035143

For those who are dealing with the age-old problem of purchasing a truck only to realize it’s haunted, say hello to Kroggett’s Haunted Truck Translation Dictionary.

Skip to 1:41 of this video, because they did not edit a cut that would play independent of the Tonight Show

“Hi, I’m David Harbour. 

Let me guess, you bought an old truck. You thought you’d fix it up but now it just sits in the garage and sometimes it just starts flashing its lights and honking loudly on its own…That’s because it’s haunted by the spirit of its former owner.”

https://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/stephen-colbert-enlists-david-harbour-to-promote-a-hilariously-haunted-sponsor.php

https://www.nathanetteburdinesthenylemagazine.com/Sometimes%20dead%20people%20haunt%20their%20trucks.html

What happened to the Shaggy Dog hot rod? It was a '27 T on A rails with a deuce grill that Von Dutch striped... yes, I wonder about stuff like this.

That's Annette sitting in the car. So, famous Disney movie, Annette used the car on screen, and supposedly, Von Dutch striped it. That's a rare and historically significant hot rod! 

I don't know what to make of the license plates on this car, or on the Mustang and station wagon in the Ugly Dachshund movie I posted last week, they aren't California plates

Stuntman, Carey Loftin was the real driver of the hot rod hiding underneath. Metal was cut away under the dashboard and right through the hood on the right side so he would be able to see the road. For night shooting a series of lights on the right hand side of the road was used so Carey could follow the road. Loftin's steering wheel was synchronized with the steering wheel Sam used so it looked like Sam was driving. A special bucket seat was made for Sammy to sit in and hair covered mittens were laced to the steering wheel for Sam to slide in his paws. He also followed the rules of safety and wore a seat belt that was hidden under all his shaggy fur. Assistant Director Arthur Vitarelli, " The dog would look over the top of the windshield and out the side. It looked like he was really driving."  https://norlinreelhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-shaggy-dog.html

the front and back hu caps are different. That's odd. I've never seen a car that I can remember that had different hub caps front to back

and why change the license plate info on the movie poster?

The car was first used in the "Spin & Marty" serials on the Mickey Mouse club!

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-shaggy-dog-movie-1959.521372/

In the Sept '59 issue of "Hot Rod" magazine is a letter in post entry from George Ausburn, Long Beach, Ca. 

He wrote that when he took his kids to the movie "Shaggy Dog" he discovered that the model T roadster was his old race car. He describes the dash as 36 Dodge, louvered hood, radius rods and the license plate light fabrication, he did on the car when he owned it. He was a member of the "Road Runners". He said he began building it in 1940 and finished it after the war. Ran 114 at the lakes

https://thedisneysophisticate.com/2013/02/27/the-shaggy-dog-1959/

https://250films.net/movies/38867-the-shaggy-dog

The exhaust tips exit out the back of the frame, under the tail lights. 

rewatching the movie to get some photos of the hot rod turned up this scene where the cops have no option but to drive the hot rod, and a hell of a door ding shows 

a business card of a famous or amazing person, is a mighty fine keepsake to have to remember the many cool people you'll meet in this life.

thank you Jack S!

The season finale of Masters of the Air was tonight, in case you've been waiting until all the episodes have aired to watch the series (better than slowly week after week) all at once. They had these epic scenes in the last episode

back when the legends were showing up with a SET of cars (I don't know if it was for racing in different classes, or in case one broke)

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=406526512000200&set=a.185776640741856

'67 GT500 (dual quad 428, 3spd auto) last registered in 1981 was sitting in a barn for four decades, until it was finally splashed on social media. It was disassembled in the early 80s, and that was the end of the project, it sat ever since

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/barn-find-1967-shelby-gt500

It was sold 2 days after this video was released

Compliment of the day! Thank you Jack!

Jesse you have a special talent for highlighting people, events and individuals of incredible interest. I , along with many other people, look forward with anticipation each day to see what you have uncovered. Kind of like an Easter egg hunt.

Jack S

a stolen '87 GNX was reacquired 12 years later, it was located just seven miles away. But the cops didn't want to reunite it with it's owner without a fight. It's worth TOO much to let go. (roughly 150k)

It was stolen in 2012 from the front of a restaurant, but the GNX was seized with around a dozen other cars in a Newark drug and gambling operation bust in 2019.

So, that's 7 years of being in the hands of the car thieves, but just because it was found didn’t mean it was returned to it's lawful owner who it was stolen from... nope, it took 7 years to prove the car was his. 

Why would it take so many years to prove who was the rightful owner of a rare vehicle?

 After Essex County law enforcement seized the car along with $1.1 million in drugs, weapons and luxury watches, officials claimed the GNX belonged to the county. 

The owner was required to go to court to obtain it. Studies have found that authorities almost always win in civil asset forfeiture cases and frequently make big money for local governments, which use the funds for padding budgets and funding community programs and equipment upgrades for the police force.

During the hearing, the drug dealer insisted the muscle car was his, stating he bought it in 2012 and it was one of the six Buick Grand Nationals he had previously owned.

However he had tampered with the VIN and scratched off the serial number to obscure the true identity, and ownership related to the VIN and serial number.  A mechanic testified that the car showed signs of tampering, including oddly spaced VIN numbers and a scratched-off serial number.

The drug dealer also claimed the documents proving ownership were all seized by law enforcement and had no proof.

The judge allowed the owners’s mechanic to inspect the car. A 19-page report proved that the car was the same Buick that the mechanic had worked on before it was stolen. To top it off, it was found that the VIN on the car which appeared to be tampered with matched another Buick Regal GNX that was previously reported as a total loss from fire and rollover damage.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/recovered-1987-buick-regal-gnx

there's more than one way to go ice fishing... one doesn't involve spending the rest of the day getting your car out of the lake. Be smart, use a snowmobile instead!

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2653423834824920&set=pcb.7067906793331255

cute movie coming up, with vintage airplanes

A 3.5-mile stretch of abandoned Long Island Rail Road tracks abandoned and overgrown in central Queens that run from Elmhurst to the Rockaways had two possible futures, become a park or another transit line

By reclaiming and redeveloping the abandoned old Rockaway Beach line railroad tracks, the QueensWay will provide public access to green space (Forest Park ) from the Queens neighborhoods of Rego Park, Forest Hills, Glendale, Forest Park, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, and Ozone Park, while acting as a main artery of the borough, connecting six distinct neighborhoods 

the above is an abandoned train station stop

https://ny.curbed.com/2013/12/5/10167526/abandoned-rockaway-rail-line-waits-for-high-line-moment

the above is a very good unbiased article about the tracks, unlike the other links which are so one sided, and opposite views, they gave no real information.

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/queens/queensway-deserted-lirr-tracks-to-be-turned-into-the-high-line-of-queens

the QueensWay backers prioritized building out the section of the rail tracks that run through Forest Park, where homeowners would not need to be inconvenienced or see people near their backyards.

The train tracks were abandoned in 1962. No one in 60 years did a damn thing with them. 

right through the middle of this image, left to right? Nope. That is a DIFFERENT abandoned double train track

above, on the left of the little league baseball fields. That dense woody area. That's it, and

it turns out to be VERY easy to find the other abandoned railroad tracks in the area, they are the isolated lines of trees through the city

https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/deadtracks/

oh the things I'm surprised to see in traffic in the daily commute!

 

the rates of 6th-gen Camaro theft, particularly in urban areas such as Los Angeles, have skyrocketed by approximately 1,173% since last year.

This surge in thefts isn’t merely a consequence of nostalgia or the pursuit of affluent individuals; rather, it’s rooted in the vulnerability of the OBDII port, rendering these vehicles susceptible to rapid theft.  

Thieves exploit this vulnerability using handheld diagnostic tools readily available on platforms like eBay. By accessing the car’s neural network through the OBDII port, thieves can erase existing keys and program new ones, effectively gaining unauthorized access to the vehicle. 

Law enforcement agencies rarely search for stolen cars. They rarely have a clue how to find the stolen cars, and have you ever talked to anyone that had LoJack, and got their car back? I haven't

The ease with which thieves can circumvent security measures, coupled with lenient penalties for grand theft auto in some jurisdictions, emboldens criminal activities.

Since law enforcement departments aren't proactive about catching car thieves, even when they know the most stolen cars, and the most stolen from locations (mall parking lots and car dealerships), car thieves have been stealing cars for generations and not been given any indication that police ever will make half the effort to catch car thieves as they do to write speeding tickets. It's simply EASY to write tickets, and rarely do speeders have guns and shoot at cops. 

Car thieves probably are FAR more likely to have a gun and a willingness to use it. Hell the Uvalde school shooting proved that cops will simply not engage for over an hour while innocent kids are murdered. And "Acorn Cop" proved that others are so damn scared shitless to HAVE the job they'll empty clips without having a reasonable cause for even DRAWING their gun. 

So, are there any examples that I know of where cops are looking for car theft rings? Yes, one. In 17 years, I can recall ONE, no matter where the news could have come from. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/08/grand-theft-auto-operating-chop-shop.html

The worst I recall, was the federal police commander CAUGHT with a turbo 911 that had been stolen from Hoehn motors in San Diego

https://www.racingjunk.com/news/safeguard-your-car-the-urgency-of-obd-blockers-in-the-face-of-rising-vehicle-theft

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/20/uvalde-shooting-police-ar-15/

J.D. Power’s recently released 2024 U.S. Customer Service Index Study shows what brand's dealerships are the worst, and most despised, among all the truck makers. I expected these results

 

the brands that feel most confidant that they'll have return customers, no matter how horribly they are treated, do the least to do the customer service job right.

Notice that Jeep, Honda, and Rivian aren't in this survey

only George Miller makes real Mad Max cars, and finally the preview is out for the newest of his movies, Furiosa, and it's got some great post apocalypse vehicles!

 

and I already have a Mad Max tag... I wonder if there will be a vehicle cooler than that guitarist and speaker laden semi, the Doof Wagon? 

this, is terrific parenting!

If your child produces copious amounts of "art" on a daily basis, irrespective of the quality, you are probably presented the work with the expectation for it to be displayed, irrespective of available wall space. 

Based on the quantity, you may find it difficult to highlight the quality pieces, from those destined for the recycling bin.

Create a "One Image Gallery"!

A coat of white paint, a decent frame, a single spotlight, a gallery inspired placard, and a velvet rope, and transform a hallway to an artistic haven of tranquility.

Here, only the best pieces of work produced, or those that have had significant effort invested in them, are displayed on an individual basis for all to appreciate. This allows you to showcase only those works deemed suitably outstanding, giving them the attention they deserve. Change the works on a semi-regular basis, or when the artist produces a notable piece, worthy of display.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10168929254965413&set=pcb.1521172941872575

I wonder how terrific car magazine article writer Exra Dyer is related to LH Dyer, patent holder for car stuff?

 

Dan wrote an article on the "Instruction Plates" on Franklin car firewalls, in order to relate the "licensed by Ricker", and brought up this topic utterly new to me about 100 year old cars, that the "Made By" plate (familiar to most people interested in cars made before 1970) used to have info that relayed who owned some patents needed to manufacture the vehicle, and I was intrigued by Leonard Huntress Dyer's name, and the likelyhood that Ezra Dyer is related to him 

In the Sept 1912 book  Motor Truck: The National Authority of Power Haulage, Volume 3  the focus of an article is LH Dyer's company Enterprize Automobile Company (I've never heard of) (he was the president of it) that bought the rights to patents held by the "Patents Holding Association" that was using the Selden Patent to parasitically get rich from all the car makers (prior to 1911ish) in the Michigan area 

So, they had the patent rights to the sliding gear transmission! Who knew? 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10225440083209514&set=pcb.10225440086169588