got a little warm yesterday in Beatrice....
I was up in an attic for a (very) few minutes, took my pocket thermometer up with me, it was 145 in there... much nicer today, only 90. Kyle was like "Geez, I thought it was supposed to be 20 degrees cooler today, it was 90 outside", I was like, "Yes, son, it was 110 yesterday...." It is supposed to be only 80 tomorrow, and possibly 75 Saturday... that would feel like fall.....
yet more pics from Camp Creek....
very nice Model T pickup, complete with Moto-meter radiator cap that has a thermometer in the cap, and the running board mounted spare. These are true wire wheels, which of course is what they had before they invented solid steel ones, quite the step up from wood spokes....
This is a Whippet, which was a base-line car offered in the 20's. Very inexpensive, but cheaply built; the engine had babbit bearings in the rods and mains, babbit wore quickly and when too worn, the engine had to be dismantled and bearings rebuilt. And they weren't inserts. You had to heat the babbit into a liquid state, and re-pour it into the rod and main castings, then machine it to fit the crankshaft. Tremendous amount of work. Also it had mechanical brakes, not hydraulic. Meaning there was linkage rods that ran from the pedal to the rear wheels (rear wheel brakes only) and every few hundred miles you had to stop and adjust the brake linkage, or you would have no brakes. Very crude. Fun to see a few of them still around, tho...
this was a massive stationary engine, single cylinder, 40 hp oil field engine. it is a hit and miss, which means it fires about every third of fourth revolution....when it fires it rocks the entire engine and sled back and forth...it is water cooled, with a sort of primitive radiator on the rear...these engines had to be tended to constantly, as they had mechanical grease cups, which had to be tightened every hour or so to feed grease to the bearings...they would often have these "powerhouses" in an oil processing plant, and run long shafts and belts to the various machines from the engine....
the steam railroad crane was operating, it was 103 outside by that time, and the rear of the crane you can see the boiler, it is about 6' diameter and 8' tall, originally coal fired, now they use propane for convenience....can you imagine how hot it was in that cab....
this was another massive stationary oil well engine, also rated 40 hp, hit and miss. The exhaust stack was 6" in diameter, and when it fired it sounded like the commercial fireworks displays at 4th of July where they launch the aerial bombs...like a mortar...they were running this one on propane, it would originally use waste gas from the oil wells; they simply ran a tube from the top of the well head where the gas collected, piped it over to the engine and used that. This one is so huge they mounted it on 4 aluminum semi truck rims and tires...flywheels are over 6' diameter....pretty neat stuff...
the miniature steam trains were running, although there wasn't much interest because of the heat...still fun to watch tho...
this truck is a USA, they were manufactured in Detroit, along with the Patriot. It is a 5 ton, and originally had hard rubber tires. It is in the process of being restored. The small building it is in houses about a dozen stationary engines as well...
the axle is so massive it is hard to see. The truck dates from about 1916 or 18, it was pretty advanced for its time, it used a driveshaft and closed differential, not a chain drive...
this is a pretty cool tractor, it is a factory demonstrator that had sections cut away so people could see how it was constructed...they would bring it around to dealerships for promotions, county fairs, etc. They had chromed all the internal parts, for looks and to protect against rust...
this tractor is diesel, and you can see the fuel injection tubes, etc. If you look closely you can see the lifters, pushrods, rocker arms, camshaft, etc...
you can see transmission gears, brake bands, hydraulic lift parts, etc. Quite the engineering feat when you think about it....
There were several hundred tractors out there, a testament to those who participated, expecially given the heat. I hope before too many more years I can bring the Diamond T or the AC out and play "show and tell"....although Deer Creek Sodbusters may be more my size....
laters.....
a few more pictures from Camp Creek Threshers....
neat little tricycle tractor, single front wheel....
This Avery had an unusual front steering arrangement, tie rods for steering are on top the hood. Allowed the front wheels to have much greater clearance...
Neat little bulldog emblem on the front, reminds you of a Mack...
This old Model T truck still runs, was converted years ago into a portable sawmill. The neat thing is, it uses a single cylinder stationary engine to run the sawmill, one very similar in size to mine...
kind of a neat way to mount/use an engine like this. Crude but efficient.
An early Minneapolis steam traction engine. Most people don't realize these were originally designed to be a stationary engine, they simply added the steering and drive mechanism to allow them to transport themselves to the fields. When they got there, they sat stationary and ran threshers and other equipment the farmers would bring out with teams. They would gather the corn or wheat or whatever, and bring it to the engine location....
two more medium sized engines in operation. Neat to see them restored and operational. Amazing they can still pass a boiler inspection even after 100 years.....a testament to the materials used to make them, and if you think of the relatively crude manufacturing equipment they had to work with....
This years feature tractor was Massey Ferguson and Massey Harris, and a good part of them were manufactured in Canada. They also made smaller garden tractors and mowers, and here is a lineup of Garden tractors, 7,8,10,12,14, and 16 HP. If you look closely you can see the HP number on the side of the hood....
the next few shots are of license plates...this guy is from Wahoo, and has a plate for each year in Nebraska. This display board starts at 1915, but he had the leather plates inside back to '06, really neat display.
these plates are from 1940, the capitol is raised on the plates, and this year they did not use numbers for counties,rather they did an alphabetical thing, using AA, AB, AC, etc. If you look closely to the right of the Capitol you can see them. They did the same thing in 1951, using letters instead of numbers... he has all but three counties, and has never tried E-Bay....go figure....
this was all the different types of plates, some I didn't even know about...the fourth up on the left is R-123, this was a "Repossessed" plate they issued one year...some of the small ones on the right were motorcycle, motorcycle dealer, motorcycle trailer...neat stuff. Although that year they were colorless monotone drab plates....
this was a bit unusual, in that he tried to get as many "6" plates as he could. He is from 6 county, so anything after the letters is only 6's...this was the year they did the "sunrise" plates, these didn't go over well, sinc they looked like the Japanese flag...a lot of WW2 survivors raised quite a fuss about it...
Saw this in the flea market area, obviously built to be a guitar, but out of a bedpan? Looks like a prop from "MASH".....
They has some neat cars out there too, including this Chrysler 1938 airflow. There were only about 850 made, and they think less than 100 in existence today... this one is unrestored, and had some ridiculous mag wheels on it, but otherwise was in good condition...from the side you can mistake it for an early VW or Renault...behind it was a 4 door Dodge pickup similar to one I used to have...
more later......
Went out to Camp Creek Threshers today, of course about the hottest day of the year.....took this about 10 am....
and that was in the shade....
a "mini" Minneapolis Moline with a factory cab...this is about the size of a 8N Ford, except narrow front....
how about a Porsche? yep...
these were sold in Germany....
this is part of a REALLY BIG ENGINE awaiting reassembly...they have to build a building just to hold it, this is only 1/2 the crankshaft....when completed it will be over 40 ' wide, and over 60' long, single cylinder, it was run on steam, and is a power plant engine, used in Hastings until about 25 years ago, and donated to the group instead of being scrapped out. It will be interesting to see it be reassembled in the coming years....
many people bring a tractor or a stationery engine to a show like this, but how about bringing your dragline...yep, an operational diesel dragline....
or you could bring your motor grader.. this one was sitting, idling, waiting to smooth out the craters dug by this....
an old time Cat, with the blade adjusted by cables that run the length of the arms, to drums and spools on rear of machine, and controlled by levers that come up behind the operator. this one probably dates from the late 20's...
I can understand restoring a tractor or a plow or disc, or even a cornpicker or old time combine...but a manure spreader? Yet there was a whole row of them - only one unrestored but in very good condition...go figure...
pretty little 39' Chevy pickup...
and a '48 Chevy 3 window, nicely done...
a really nice 66 Ford 1/2 ton 4WD with the short stepside box. These trucks always looked like they had a "bob-tail" since the box was so much smaller than the cab...
this is a '50 Ford F-1, mostly unrestored except being primered..
and a '35 Ford model TT, named because of the dual rear wheels, they were considered a 2 ton...
This one is not working, but is a stationary display in front of one of the buildings. The really huge coal burner was not out and about, but several other Steam Engines were.... most of the horse drawn equipment was idle and the draft horses were in the shade due to extreme heat, by 2:30 pm the air temp was 105, heat index was 113. Pretty steamy. More later...
Interesting combination of stripes and flames....uhh......
pretty neat bank of clouds after round one this afternoon....
pretty neat roll cloud......
this front was moving northwest to southeast, 20 mins later we had pea to marble size hail, and a downpour.... then a massive buildup began to the west, so dark it blocked the sunset except to the north....
pretty awesome shot.....
a bit dark, but neat....
Kyle spotted a gathering of antique cars, and called me, so I swung past and took photos. These were really antique, one's you don't often see even in museums, let alone out being driven. I guess it is a tour across America, 50 year anniversary of this group. There were a few cars I had heard of and never seen, and a couple I had never even heard of. Pretty awesome...
A '57 pink Cadillac....
a '40 Ford, which my Volvo is styled after (chrome strips, body shape essentially the same)
1907 Buick...
1911 Maxwell, right hand steering...
a 1903 curved dash Oldsmobile, with a steering "tiller" instead of a wheel...amazing to think it is over 100 years old and operational, and in this kind of condition...except for paint, it is not restored, but original...
a '27 Studebaker with suicide doors...
a '38 Chevy Master Deluxe tudor, notice the stainless steel grille....
'39 Plymouth. Hard to see the greyhound hood ornament... suicide doors...
a '50 Chevy convertible...
a '50 Plymouth Belvedere...
a '39 Dodge, hard to see the Ram hood ornament...
a '34 Ford with suicide doors... flat head V-8
a '55 Hudson Hornet V-8....
'64 Ford Falcon Futura convertible...wire wheel covers are a bit cheesy, as was his personalized plate...
a '58 Oldsmobile Special 88....
'26 Ford Model T...
a '22 Dodge, with a "moto-meter" radiator cap, which had a thermometer built-in, and "clincher" style rims...
a 1911 International "bus", 6 passenger, chain drive, hard rubber tires, one "headlamp", a coachlamp, and bulb horn...
the rear of this car has an "open" differential, and a chain drive in the center, mechanical brakes....
a '30 Durant, notice the knockout for the engine crank in front...although they were equipped with the new "electric" starter, they always carried a hand crank as well...
a '58 or '59 Ford Fairlane 500 hardtop...
a '56 Thunderbird convertible...
a 1914 Chandler....at one point there were over 300 car manufacturers in the United States....now there are the big three, and most of them are made at least partially overseas...
sadly my camera misbehaved...1919 Lafayette, notice the wing windows, no door handles, suicide doors, and engine crank hub...
a 1911 Maxwell, gas. They made these in steam, also.
1907 Buick, right hand drive, wood spoke wheels..
a 1917 Lexington, one I had never heard of...
check out the tread on the tires..."nonskid"...
'29 Ford Cabriolet...
a 1917 Liberty, one I had heard of but never seen...
1911 Maxwell, 4 seater...
1908 Maxwell, notice right hand drive, engine crank, headlamps and coachlamps...
1913 Ford Model T...pretty awesome....think of the time and $$ spent restoring that...they didn't have a fuel pump, it was gravity feed from the tank in front of the "trunk". If you went up a steep hill with a low tank it would run out of gas; you had to get it started and back up the hills...
a '30 Chevrolet, unrestored... imagine finding a 75+ year old car in this kind of condition...windshield visor, suicide doors...
a 1911 "HRC", another one I had never heard of...toolbox on running boards, spotlights, clincher rims, external door hinges, hand crank on engine...
and of course what car show could be complete without the '66 Mustang convertible....
Sorry for the long post, but it was worth it....
Sadly, the second coat of paint did not work out so well. Between dust, which is inevitable out here; cats, which try to help...well, let's just say we get to do round three. Actually the worst was one portion where the paint got too thick and lifted the layers below. So, time to sand and reseal, and shoot a small area. Might get a touch up gun to handle this, actually an airbursh would be just the ticket. Hate to buy one no more often than I'd use it, but...Flag ceremony went fairly well last night, except the Officer's didn't know what they were doing, looked ridiculous up there. They definitely need to practice saying their parts a few times, and figure out what role they are playing. Virgil, bless his heart, was trying to stand where my place is at, and when it came time to read his part, just stood there looking around. So Jeff had to ad-lib real quick. Not impressive. Sam apparently wasn't impressed with the whole thing either, had one sentence to read, held his script up for everyone to see, stumbled through one sentence and shook his head, then sat down while the rest of us remained standing. Tough part of this ceremony is, there is a lot of sitting and standing, and I know that is hard for the elderly. Lots of people turned out, but what else is there to do in a retirement home. I only saw one Elk that wasn't a part of the ceremony there, certainly not an impressive turnout from our membership. The boys did great, as did Dawn, staging them when to go forward and all. Worked out well on their part for winging it. Time to head to Lincoln, set out another Radon test. I have to get a cable adapter at Radio Shack, got home to download the information yesterday and found I didn't have the right adapter, so wound up losing the readings on the machine...at least I was able to get the current and averaged readings recorded before turning it off....oh well....laters.....
Well, got the new weatherstripping on the Mustang, and repainted the front bumper, but the paint didn't match, so here we go again....
here she is getting taped off, ready for her nose job....shame the paint didn't match, went on great. Hope the second coat goes on as well.... got the oil change done, and new weatherstripping on the trunk.... and will polish the paint out this weekend, maybe even clean the tires and rims...not that it will last long out here....
Allen has his High School Graduation this weekend, he looked nice in his cap and gown...
caught him walking across the stage...
some other pics of him and his friends....
him and his friend Greg...
His Mom had a nice cake made for him, and a nice reception at her house for family and close friends...
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