Just A Car Guy

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I'm impressed and amazed by the obscurity of 1967 fashion photoshoot at the Irwindale Raceway, with drag racer Danny Ongais, driver for MT & Leong

So you too must be wondering, who in the hell thought dragsters and womens fashion couture had anything in common? It was Vogue magazine, April 1967 issue

From http://community.livejournal.com/ru_glamour/2737588.html who did a poor repost of the originals at http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f109/us-vogue-april-15-1967-twiggy-bert-stern-69487.html and I was immediately reminded of the 1968 fashion magazine photo shoot with the Dodge line up for 1969: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post_24.html and a one page Dodge Dart ad http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/picture-is-worth-thousand-words-except.html

Monday, June 28, 2010

A freshly restored 1929 Graham-Paige Sound Train was just shown at the 2010 Amelia Island Concours

Above photo via: http://www.remarkablecars.com/for-sale/showproduct.php/product/23535/cat/4296/date/1277135154 by Douglas Wilkinson, the car is a the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum, 3550A Mahan Drive (Highway 90), Tallahassee, Florida
Phone: (850) 942-0137
Website: http://tacm.com/

Via: http://www.conceptcarz.com/events/eventVehicle.aspx?carID=18238&eventID=557&catID=2283&whichPage=1

This 1929 Graham-Paige Sound Train began life as a limousine, and then was sent to the Indianapolis, IN Harry O. McGee Company for modifications. These modifications included a large public address system. The limousine interior was left pretty much unchanged, but the front-end sheet metal around the hood area was rounded to give the appearance of being the boiler of a locomotive. A large headlight was mounted up front along with a smoke stack, bell, steam dome, and whistle. The chrome-plated bell had a wire running inside to the instrument panel so the driver could attract even more attention to the vehicle.

These vehicles were built in the late 1920s and 1930s for the parent company of Paramount Pictures. They were used for all kinds of publicity situations: to advertise the opening of a new movie in a town or to deliver a star to an opening in grand style with dancing girls riding on the seats located on the fenders.

For my previous post, with 3 different photos of the variety of the Sound Trains: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/12/1929-graham-paige-sound-train-and-mgm.html

For the only thing I've came across about the Trackless Train: http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/TT/AA-TT-150.pdf

For a gallery of the San Diego sound train Graham Paige that I just photographed in Sept 2010 http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/09/san-diego-1929-graham-paige-sound-train.html

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Airstream, the USS Hornet, and NASA , Quite a combination, and not the first time I've posted about NASA's airstream, incredibly enough

Offloading of the Mobile Quarantine Facility from the prime recovery vessel, the U.S.S. Hornet, July 24, 1969.

Via http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/ap11-S69-21881HR.jpg from the unusual and NSFW website http://melisaki.tumblr.com/page/91

For more on the NASA airstream: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/04/remember-apollo-astronauts-getting.html

Melisaki.tumbler.com has a cool variety of car and aircraft photos, here's a couple

1910 Fiat S76, the beast of turin, 28.3 liter engine

Cord 810 & Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie 1936

What happened to the high level of restroom cleanliness as the high priority? Former First lady Eleanor Roosevelt once toured the US inspecting them, and that is quite a feat of publicity!

Showing an obsolete public facility, the motordrome. Motordrome racer on an Excelsior motorcycle 1914

1967 Autorama I think, photo by Margery Krevsky

The Overland Train Mark II, Yuma proving ground, Arizona

P51 small scale in aerodynamics research and developement

1944, a Corsair

Boeing 2707-300 1966 full scale mockup

XB 70 Valkyrie

Via: http://melisaki.tumblr.com

Jack Benny and Pres. Harry Truman in the photo, Jack Benny, Mel Blanc and Johnny Carson talking about the Maxwell

Drving a 1908 Maxwell, because as a long running joke Jack Benny was playing a miserly guy who wouldn't waste a cent on anything better than a 1923 Maxwell.

Jack Benny appears onscreen driving a Maxwell in the film It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

An antique 1923 Maxwell automobile owned by Jack Benny, the "Cheapest Man in the World" was used as a running gag on both radio (first appeared in 1937) and later on his TV comedy series THE JACK BENNY SHOW/CBS/1950-64. Jack insisted that he could always get a few more miles out of his beat up jalopy. But for all of his tinkering, the car usually drove for about 15 minutes at which time the radiator boiled over, forcing Jack to wait for the engine to cool down before moving along. Jack bought the car second-hand from a dealer called the Smiling Pilgrim.

Once Jack saw his servant Rochester (Eddie Anderson) daintily sponging down the car. "For Heaven sake, Jack yelled "Why don't you use the garden hose on it?" Rochester answered, "Don't you remember the last time I used the hose on it, Boss? The fender fell off!"
from http://www.tvacres.com/autos_antique_jackbenny.htm

In 1907 Maxwell constructed the largest automobile factory in the world, it was in New Castle Indiana, and about 1910-1914 the Maxwell automobile was considered one of the top 3 auto companies in America

Unless you knew the make, you'd never guess what type of car this is

Toyota Model AB Phaeton, 1936 (via Joel Abroad)

they don't give anyone a Legion of Valor license plate, I've never seen one before

Bad train wreck, great photo

I don't know the source

I'd rather have a motorbike to ride the rails, but if you've got a ten speed, and a bit of time, this oughta work!

via: http://theokie.tumblr.com

Once, helicopters and electromagnets were the standard escape method for bad guys. The good old days

via: http://bendingconcrete.tumblr.com

back tires just starting to smoke, nice!

via: http://tentenths.tumblr.com

Plaster City, 1947... and the Blue Goose, a pair of 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Club Coupes that were joined at their rears to transport miners for U.S. Gypsum. Designed by Keith Terry

former curator of the Imperial Valley transportation museum Steve wrote in the comments to inform us about this and said...

This was used for years to transport crews by rail over the narrow gauge railroad (last industrial narrow gauge railway in the state, if not the whole country) between the processing mill at Plaster City California, and the gypsum mine in the Fish Mountains 25 miles away.

With two front ends, it wasn't necessary to turn it around for the return trip. After it wore out it was acquired by the owner of the trucking company that hauled the finished sheetrock from the mill. About 12 years ago the vehicle was donated back to the company.

I can't reply by email to thank Steve because this blog set up doesn't require email addresses to comment. But I can thank you sincerely for providing me and all the readers with this incredible information that likely, you are the only person to know. It's astonishing that of all the people who might have known the information on the railcar, one reads my blog, and took the time to help us all know what this railcars history is.

My compliments, and applause! Thanks for sharing!

Wikipedia has a good article on narrow gauge railways, and confirms the part about the Plaster City line being the last "There is one narrow gauge industrial railroad still in commercial operation in the United States, the US Gypsum operation in Plaster City, California" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrow_gauge_railroads_in_the_United_States

For a post about the coolest old 1920's through 1940's railroad cars:
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/11/inspection-cars-for-railroad-inspectors.html

update, Aug 2024: https://www.thedrive.com/news/100-mph-in-a-1953-chrysler-on-rails-untold-tales-of-the-blue-goose

Keith Terry was the head of plant engineering at U.S. Gypsum’s drywall facility at Plaster City, California where the Blue Goose originated. Daily operations during the mid-1950s required sending mining crews 26 miles to the gypsum quarry in the Fish Mountains in a fleet of Jeeps and trucks, which followed the railroad tracks used to haul down the rock. The desert environment was harsh though, and vehicles regularly became stuck in windblown sand, or got inhospitably hot in the summer.

At some point, USG realized it could eliminate these problems by just transporting its miners the way it moved material: on the rails. But because there were no off-the-shelf solutions to the problem, Keith was assigned to find a solution.

Keith bought in custom-built flanged wheels that fit Michelin truck tires, keeping the Blue Goose on the rails while also improving traction.