Progress is fine, but it's gone on for too long.: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

GT750 line drawings

From the 1972 Suzuki water buffalo manual. That is one wide motor and they ignored that fact in the dimensioning. Locating the center of the mirror, whew... critical!

Pouring hot metal in shop class

Albert A. Owens & Ben F. Slingluff; How to Read Blueprints (Chicago: John C. Winston Co., 1938, 1942)

Back when safety glasses and welding gloves were for sissies! Also, remember the simulated people in the early computer games? Apparently, people used to actually look like that! I'm also not sure how the boy on the left gets his right hand to hold the tongs like that.

'Mother' or Mk I Tank

Brian Williams. The Great Book of Battles. Ray Rourke Publishing Co., Inc., 1981.

Kids' books often have terrific illustrations. Unfortunately, as in this case, they don't always credit the illustrator.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Narrow Gauge Switcher, Portland Me.

http://www.mainenarrowgauge.org/

TTC PCC Car #4227

Twenty or so years ago the TTC still had PCC street cars running in regular service. I seem to remember a story that they had renovated the old cars at a cost of $450k a piece (cheaper than the $1.25 million for the new models) in the late 1980s. They seemed to disappear from the streets pretty quick after that. I figured this was one of those disposed cars. A quick search revealed the true (somewhat convoluted) story. I would guess that this location was an abandoned plan for a farm stand.
To see PCC cars running- or ride on one, the TTC has retained two units (#4500 and 4549) that appear occasionally on the Harbourfront route and the Halton County Radial Railway museum also has a number of them.

Kaiefing Motorcycle Team, Expo 1986

The Expo Celebration. The Official Retrospective Book. The 1986 World Exposition, Vancouver, May 2-October 13, 1986.

The team represented the People's Republic of China at the Kodak Pacific Bowl. Photographs by Jürgen Vogt. This kind of stunt riding is generally referred to as the "Globe of Death."

The folly of rocket travel

Portrait of Mr. Golightly riding a Steam Riding Rocket

Roy MacGregor-Hastie, (Ed.). Flying Machines. Four Square (New English Library), 1965.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Pontiac Bonneville Special

Jan Norbye Jim Dunne, Pontiac, The Postwar Years, Motorbooks International 1979.

One of Pontiac's showcars from 1954, the Bonneville Special was a two seat sport car powered by a straight 8 engine fed by four 2 barrel carbs. It was Pontiac's answer to the Corvette, but was never put into production. Too bad.

The effect of A-bombs on motorcycles

Not good, apparently.

Stanley Hex-a-Matic

The Stanley Hex-a-Matic. Everybody was trying to cash in on "a-matic" in the Sixties.

Note the nested collets, intended to grip different sizes of nuts or bolt heads:

It was clearly designed to compete with other similar tools like the Ideal Sock-o-Matic wrench featured in a previous blog entry. Here's how Stanley advertised it back in the day:

I've had this tool for ages, and I don't think I've ever used it. It's simply too ungainly, especially for smaller fastener sizes. I usually just grab the standard nut-drivers, even though it means messing around to find the correct one. (See Mister G's previous post on Spintite.)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Great hunting in Northern Ontario!

Dale Wilson, Algoma Eastern Railway. Nickel Belt Rails 1977

The Algoma Eastern Railway served the nickel mining industry in and around Sudbury. Along with the ore trade, they apparently they also rented out cabooses to hunters. The picture was taken about 1920 when a license was $2.00 and allowed the taking of two deer. These cabooses (vans in Canada) were homebuilt from boxcars.

Prefab Igloo, Baffin Island

Reader's Digest Association (Canada) Ltd., In Search of Canada. (Montreal, 1971)

Personally, I'm just not that Inuit.

Drixton 500cc Racer

The famous modified Honda 450 Racer prepared and offered by Othmar "Marly" Drixl. I wonder how many copies of this frame have been made in recent years for the legions of 350 and 450 Honda vintage racers.
http://curtisracingframes.com/road-racing.html

A reader points out that there appears to be at least two different frame designs from Marly Drixl and this is not one typically seen today. I've updated the post with the complete article in the August 1970 issue of Cycle World and added an image of the more common frame below.

http://motoringworld.in/features/true-original/

The accordion: simple to play and oh so cool!

The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1971.

Serious airplane modelers in 1938

Published out of New York City.

Interesting dedication for an American publication. The Viscount founded the Wakefield Oil Company in 1899, later changing its name to Castrol. I've no idea who Donald S. Bird (with the Maltese Cross) was.

One example of the many aircraft plans included in the book.

Members could even build their own wind tunnels to test their model aircraft!

Among the associated groups, the now-defunct Model Aircraft League of Canada!


The problems of over-worked volunteer newsletter editors goes as far back as this organization! It's sobering to reflect that this was published in 1938, and a year later Britain was at war. How many of these Canadian and overseas enthusiasts would have soon found themselves in uniform, possibly not to survive the conflict? In fact, members of The Model Aircraft League of Edmonton were instrumental in forming the 12 Edmonton Squadron of Air Cadets in 1941.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Senor F.X. Bulto having fun

Francisco "Paco" Bultó was a director at Montesa Motorcycles when the decision was made to quit racing. In protest he left, and some others who felt the same way urged him to start his own company. So Bultaco was born and in March 1959, the first model was introduced. Here he is in 1973, playing with what was to become one of his favorite models, the Alpina. I could work for a boss like that!

Philadelphia and Reading Locomotive 1859

Interesting transitional-stage coal-burning locomotive. The Hiawatha features the well-tracking and soon to be common 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. The engineer sits in his round cab atop the boiler, while the fireman is out on the footplate feeding the firebox without weather protection. The smoke stack still shows wood-burning roots. No brakes on the locomotive yet but it appears the tender does.

Mutant hitchhiker

From Canada Gigantic! Photographs by Henri Robideau/Text by Peter Day. (Toronto: Summerhill Press, 1988).

It's still there. See Big Things in Ontario and Buckys and Bridge. No wonder. Would you stop to pick it up?

Aviation Mechanics for Mechanics 1942

Below, from Assen Jordanoff, The Man Behind the Flight. A Ground Course for Aviation Mechanics and Airmen. (Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1942). Jordanoff was an amazing man!

Nothing like simple line drawings to get a point across!