ostrich racing carts and around the farm ostrich wagons

Full gallery about an LA ostrich farm in 1900 at 

movie references found on a Jeep and a truck

That's a first...

Can you believe I just learned of special edition Mustangs I've previously never heard of? "Miilionth Anniversary Gold", and the "Gold Nugget Special"

About 50 were made in 1966, maybe 5 still exist. They were not much more than a hard top with a 289, pony interior, and special gold paint.

This car was in two magazines: The June 2009 issue of Cars and Parts, and the July 2009 issue of Mustang Monthly. The original owner says this car was the first unit produced, and that it had been on promotional display as Metke Ford in Bellevue Washington. 'Treasure Chest' keys were mailed to area residents - inside the dealership's chest were keys to the Gold Mustang.

The owner's father-in-law stopped by the Ford place while his wife went shopping for a dress: the car was his. The whole story was told in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post Intelligencer. It has been in storage since 1985 by the original owner, then sold in 1994

Found on http://mustangattitude.com/cgi-bin/picsearch.cgi?modl=All&year=1966&cond=All&excl=anniversary+gold&incl=All&roof=All&rfcl=All&ownr=All&emai=All&loca=All&vinn=All&post=All&sett=All&show=All&smod=anniversary&comm=&page=1

1968 Seattle area special. Black vinyl top and black hood scoop decals. 525 made. http://mustangattitude.com/cgi-bin/showcar.cgi?pic=/1968/1968_00164_01

there were some more that I've never heard of before, but you might not be interested in them, they were really nothing but special paint colors;
Black Hills Gold was a special color for the January 1968, Color of the Month promotion rumored to be in the Denver area only with cars special ordered from the San Jose factory. Although we have identified other Black Hills Gold and other Color of the Month Mustangs built at other factories and sent across the nation. The Color of the Month was a promotion for the first four months of 1968, where special colors were connected to main holidays for special sales: Black Hills Gold paint for the New Year celebration in January, Passionate Pink for Valentine's day in February, Emerald Green for St. Patrick's day in March, and Eastertime Coral for Easter in April.

 Spanish Gold was one of 13 special order colors available for the west coast Rainbow of Colors promotion running from 1968 through 1969. This promotion offered new Mustang owners optional upgrades and special colors such as
Madagascar Orange,
Whipped Cream,
Spanish Gold,
Dandelion Yellow,
Hot Pink,
Caribbean Coral,
Forest Green,
Sierra Blue, and Moss Green.

All Rainbow of Colors promotional Mustangs were built in San Jose (VIN starting with 8R or 9R) and ordered in the Los Angeles (DSO 71) or San Jose (DSO 72) area.

http://mustangattitude.com/mustang/68rainbowofcolors.shtml

early taxi, just a year or two after letting the horse off the hook of pulling it around

How about that crazy steering?

Found on https://www.toovia.com/posts/2014/sep/10/0.13503.458568042255613962

1906 San Francisco dog catcher

Found on https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.bracquemond.7?fref=nf

rail inspectors were outfitted with Chevys, Fords, etc... the company President, though, he went full force and got a Caddy limo

New Haven Railroads lines managing director, Pat McGinnis.

Notice the vanity plates with his initials... he mush have been ridiculously wealthy

Found on https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRailway and photos from https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/4925148772/in/photostream/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York,_New_Haven_and_Hartford_Railroad

The New Haven Railroad operated in New England from 1872 to 1968, dominating the region's rail traffic for the first half of the 20th century. By 1912, the New Haven practically monopolized traffic in a wide swath from Boston to New York City.

 The line went bankrupt in 1935, was reorganized and reduced in scope, went bankrupt again in 1961, and in 1969 was merged into the Penn Central system, which itself went bankrupt.

 A reorganization was completed on September 18, 1947. Frederic C. Dumaine, Sr. and others, including Patrick B. McGinnis (1904-1973), gained control in 1948.

Frederic C. Dumaine, Jr. took over after his father's death in 1951 and immediately set about restoring the condition of the railroad and the morale of the employees. In 1953, control passed from the preferred stockholders to the common stockholders.

A proxy fight then ensued between McGinnis and incumbent president Dumaine; McGinnis emerged as the victor and sought to maximize revenue for shareholders.

To do this, he deferred maintenance and ordered experimental lightweight trains for Boston-New York service. Another McGinnis contribution was the imposition of parking charges at stations.

Hurricanes in 1955 washed out a number of important lines. Upon McGinnis' departure for the B&M in 1956, auditors found the NH earnings for 1955 were less than half of what McGinnis had claimed.

 McGinnis' financial dealings ultimately culminated in a prison sentence for receiving kickbacks on the sale of B&M's streamlined passenger cars, ending his career in railroading.

City of Portland fireman is ceremonially handed a salmon in Oregon�s Columbia River Gorge

Found on https://www.facebook.com/pages/Railroads-Pleasures/290116334470566?fref=photo

McKeen motor car photo poster sized photo on the wall in O's restaurant

LaJolla and Pacific Beach are smaller communities just North of San Diego on the coast, below that it says "Ramona's Home" and this refers to "Old Town" San Diego, the first settlement of Spanish in California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramona

Supermarine nighthawk, a quadruplane designed to intercept Zeppelins.

Found on https://www.facebook.com/les.gardner.12?fref=nf

Jeep Experience Facebook page had an interesting vehicle this morning

and it reminded me of

They are both pretty damn cool.

https://www.facebook.com/JeepEXPERIENCE?fref=nf  and I can't remember where I found the bottom one, probably http://darkdraggon.tumblr.com/

It was April 1917 and Goodyear set out to create trucking as we know it. From coast to coast on pnuematic tires, in days not weeks.

The first truckers? Harry Smeltzer and Harry Apple, the pioneers of interstate trucking, and their rig? A 5 ton Packard. 

Above photo and below video courtesy of Mike and Goodyear! Thanks!

image from http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/NPS/03-NPS-Index.html

Image found on The Old Motor http://theoldmotor.com/?p=56024 which is most likely one of the two escort vehicles, which carried supplies. This photo didn't come with info... so it's anyone's guess as to what it was used for

above two images from http://www.camionactualidad.es/noticias-marcas-fabricantes-camiones/vehiculos-historicos-y-clasicos/item/912-goodyear-wingfoot-express.html

The truck made the 740-mile trip from Akron to New England in 28 days, 21 days late and having went through 28 tires. The two-man team and their film crew made it to Goodyear's fabric mill in Killingly, CT, where much to their surprise they were greeted by Mission of Burma a brass band and hundreds of cheerful mill workers.

It's not a reflection on tire quality to mention how many went flat, you have to keep in mind that the amount of horses who'd lost horseshoe nails for the previous hundred years and the terrible conditions of 700 miles of unpaved, non improved roads.

The truck was a five-ton Packard, but the 10-foot-high, specially built body had been designed by Goodyear. Behind the novel traveling bunk, the cargo bed was loaded with a dozen spare tires, a compressor to inflate them, 500 feet of manila line, shovels and a heavy block and tackle.

What was most novel about Goodyear's truck, named the Wingfoot Express, was the big pneumatic tires it rolled on. Hard, solid rubber tires were standard equipment for short hauls in those days.

two escort vehicles were along, sent for safety's sake, carrying in addition to the usual tools...  60 liters of oil, 40 liters of petrol and 60 liters of water. Also, carrying what the convoy needed most, an air compressor to pump up all the replacement tires.

The three-vehicle caravan that set out to do just that was barely to the Akron outskirts when it became mired in the mud. So began an agonizing odyssey of muddy ditches, broken bridges, blown out tires and engine failures.

It came as no surprise that a heavy truck would have much more difficulty on the poorly graded dirt roads than the farmers' lightweight buggy. Bridges that safely carried farm wagons collapsed under the Packard truck. Twice the engine failed and had to be rebuilt.

The support cars were worn out by the time the caravan reached Pittsburgh and were traded for new ones. Blowouts occurred about every 75 miles as the truck plodded ahead at 15 mph.

As Smeltzer described the trip, "It took 28 days and 28 tires." The trip back with fabric from the mill was less eventful and took just five days.

 Walter Shively, the tire engineer, promptly applied the lessons learned in the grueling truck tire test and improved tires were almost immediately available. A stronger bead and heavier sidewalls produced a tire more resistant to blowout.

Future trips employed seven Wingfoot Express trucks, ranging from three- to five-ton models of White, Mack and Packard. The 740-mile run one way was pared down to 80 hours running time within a year.

They carried tires to Goodyear dealers in the Boston area, or shoe soles for New England footwear makers, bringing back tire fabrics from the Connecticut mill.

The success of the Wingfoot Express was reflected by a spurt in highway construction, as state governments strived to improve roads within their jurisdiction. The Lincoln Highway movement, conceived in 1913 to create a modern coast-to-coast highway, was strongly supported by Goodyear's President Frank Seiberling.

by 1919 they were coast to coast

Info from http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history_wingfootexpress.html

In 1918, the same trucks that had conquered the ten-foot snow drifts of Pennsylvania's worst winter in decades, left Boston for San Francisco. This time, the caravan faced a round trip of 7,763 miles, some of it across trackless desert. In Wyoming alone, 36 of 56 wooden bridges gave way beneath the highway giants.

This time the commercial cargo was aviation tires needed by the Army on the West Coast. Again, the persistent Goodyear teams overcame all obstacles of road conditions and weather. After completing four round trips totaling 30,000 miles, the Express trucks had established a new world transcontinental record, coast-to-coast in just 14 days.

Found on http://forums.justoldtrucks.com/25451/cooperation-sleeper-cab?PageIndex=16  and http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history_wingfootexpress.html

image from http://www.cheersandgears.com/topic/78687-gmc-art/

By the 1920's it was decided that another pair of tires would be an engineering necessity to lessen the load and increase the life expectancy of any tire, through the lower load on each, and they added a 2nd axle in the rear

Photo from http://www.camionactualidad.es/noticias-marcas-fabricantes-camiones/vehiculos-historicos-y-clasicos/item/912-goodyear-wingfoot-express.html

photo from http://www.cheersandgears.com/topic/78687-gmc-art/

Not until 1926 was the production of pneumatic tires higher than that of solid tires; four years later the ratio was 10-1 and ten years later by 10,000 to one.

some info from http://www.urlaubsspass.de/auto/160507-wingfoot/160507-wingfoot.htm

the above 8 wheel bus was used to pick up and return Goodyear employees from the company housing development in Goodyear Heights to the Akron tire factories for 2 cents a trip. Firestone did the same thing.

above 3 images from http://www.cheersandgears.com/topic/78687-gmc-art/ and are 1921

the left most tandem axle truck is described in Electric Traction Vol 16

So these ads seem to indicate that Goodyear was selling prefab homes in the 40's during WW2 (notice the "Buy War Bonds") , and using the name Wingfoot Homes and the material that insulated the homes was the "Pliofoam" used to seal war aircraft gas tanks from bullet holes.

and in the 1980s they did an homage to the 1917 Ohio to Connecticut run on the sides of their trucking trailers.

Images from Ebay listings

found on http://www.oldcaradvertising.com/Packard%20Ads/1922/1922%20Packard%20Truck%20Ad-01.html

Evans streamliner dual purpose rail road and street car, 1935, found on Shorpy.com

The "auto railer" consists of front and rear steel pilot railroad wheels attached to a conventional type of bus or truck. The pilot wheels are raised for operation over highways but can be let down when the vehicle reaches the tracks. The vehicle runs on its own tires over the rails with the pilot wheels guiding it along the track.

Found on http://www.shorpy.com/node/17521

Evans Products was founded by John Steptoe Evans, whose grandson John D. Evans was a co-founder of C-Span.

Evans Products started out building wood products; first, a wooden block that allowed easy loading of autos on railcars, then cedar separators for the plates in a car battery. John S. Evans set a record in 1928 by flying around the world in 28 days.

A proud looking group with a chassis of an Opel

The guy in the center is holding a crank shaft.

From the words on the wall and on the chassis, this was a school piece for mechanics to learn about the mechanical parts, without all the body and interior being a constant delay in getting to the transmission and rear axle

Found on https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.bracquemond.7?fref=nf of course!

Well, here is proof that Packard made trucks... this is the first one I've seen though

Found on Shorpy.com

an unusual Jeep model that I've never heard of or seen before or since, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 65

It causes me to wonder how many strange single year model trim packages that there have been that we never noticed, and were so blah that we just don't care?