Railway Locomotives, Old Tractors, Old Cars & Trucks, Ships & Planes Etc

As a fan of all things mechanical I felt that I should start a thread about older machines in general, some of which have been preserved and some of which have been lost one way or another. I guess one could include items ranging in size from micro-cars such as the BMW-Isetta up to the preserved original Queen Mary ocean- liner out in Long Island, California ( and any other mechanical devices fitting into this wide range of sizes ). 

As this is the Off-Topic Forum and a wide variety of topics are entered here I felt that I could start off this topic for fans of mechanical devices.

Also for ocean-liner fans I was happy to learn recently that the SS United States has been given to a preservation society to be restored at a future time. This beautiful ship which was designed and built in the USA was in long term storage on the American East Coast and was in danger of being hauled away as scrap which would truly have been a tragedy. This was one of the greatest ocean-liners ever built and could be considered a direct descendant of other luxury-liners such as the Titanic.  

Thanks Very Much for the post and the beautiful photos N2UHC. All I can say is WOW !!! Beautiful paint job on a living piece of history ! I had a long career on a major Railway up here and I have some limited knowledge of the time and effort needed to restore and maintain Steam powered equipment. Thanks again for attatching the photos !

Here's some photos & video of the restoration from my cousin's website:  http://jkkdcomputers.com/rste/

Thanks for the info N2UHC. One place that I like to visit on-line is Youtube because they have a very large number of terrific video clips on a endless variety of machines. 

One thing that younger visitors to this thread may not know is that the 1912 Baker steam tractor shown here ( Thanks again to N2UHC for the great photos ) worked on the same principle as the more commonly seen Steam railway locomotives. Water had to be heated in the boiler to create steam which then powered the driving wheels. One of the main uses of this type of tractor was to provide power to the threshing machines that were used to harvest grain on farms. In the top photo a large belt pulley wheel can be seen just ahead of the rear wheel. A long heavy duty belt was used to connect the tractor to the threshing machine via this belt pulley. At one time threshing crews would travel from farm to farm to harvest grain each fall.

Thinking back on my most recent post here and on Steam power in general I came back to the thought that there are many places in the world where one can find preserved Steam locomotives. Some are only on static display but many others have been restored to running condition and often provide excursion service for lucky passengers. 

Another area of interest for collectors is the field of Military equipment. This area includes Tanks of course but also all manner of transport trucks and specialty vehicles that are being restored and preserved. There is a publication out of England entitled " Military Machines International " that does a very nice job in covering this hobby.

Well I can't say I have anything as old or impressive as a 1912 Baker steam  tractor. I do have a 1953 Ford Jubilee which is still a working tractor, however it doesn't have to work as much since I bought the Kubota last year. I also have a 1930 Model A two door sedan that is a hot rod project. This winter I'll be restoring my dad's 1956 Ford F-100, which is the very first vehicle I ever rode in, both to the hospital to be hatched, and back home from  in 1957. I've owned several early fifty Chevys, both cars and trucks, and once had a collection of VW Beetles and Busses ranging from '55 to '70, now just down to one.

Thanks for the post Catnapper. I live in a small town here in Alberta and one of my neighbours has a house with a couple of acres of land. He has a very nice Ford Jubilee tractor with a six-foot rotary mower that he uses to keep the grass cut. As for your 1956 Ford Truck that should be a very nice item when you get it restored. In regards to collecting old Chevys and old VWs I wouldn't mind a couple of each make but the prices keep climbing higher each year. I spent the first nine years of my life in the Black Forest area of Germany and we didn't have a car at that time. However I do remember that at around five years of age I got several rides in my Uncle Erwin's Messerschmitt Kabinenroller, a fun little car.       

 This is exactly what my great-grandfather used this tractor for.  My cousin has a photo which can be found at the site I mentioned of this tractor pulling a threshing machine.  They used to travel from farm to farm during harvest season.

Thanks for leaving another post here N2UHC. I'm sure that some of the visitors will find the info quite helpful. Recently I was going thru my little collection of " Stuff " here and I came across a older issue of a magazine called " Live Steam ". A large part of this magazine covers the hobby of building and operating small Live Steam railway locomotives, many of which run on a track gauge of less than one foot in width. This magazine does cover a wide variety of subjects for hobbyists and the issue that I have ( Sept/2001 ) also covers part of the restoration of a Steam tractor. In this case it is a 40-120 hp Avery tractor. Also of interest is info on another magazine that happens to cover the old tractor and threshing machine hobby entitled " The Iron Men Album Magazine ".  

As I mentioned in an earler post here, I've got a couple issues of MMI ( Military Machines International, slight error on the first listing ) in my collection of " stuff ". This is a very good magazine that covers this hobby quite well including the shows for vehicle collectors, articles on specific models and a classified ad section as well. Also presented is news on recent developments in this field.  

In a early post in this thread I mentioned the happy news that the SS United States has been slated for preservation. A helpful magazine to keep track of happenings in the world of international shipping is " Ships Monthly " which is published in the UK. This fine publication includes sections on Ferry Boats, Cruise Ships, Warships, Ships that are being preserved, etc etc. One can never have too much info when it comes to an enjoyable topic such as Ships.   

Here's some photos of a ship that unfortunately is NOT slated for preservation.

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/new-zealand-oil-spill-1318344074-slideshow/wednesday-nov-2-2011-photo-provided-maritime-zealand-photo-233106073.html

Thanks for the info Catnapper. Yes that disaster near New Zealand is quite sad. Both the loss of a ship plus the pollution being caused there are very sad to see. In a earlier post I mentioned " Ships Monthly ", and by odd coincidence I was just looking at the September 2007 issue of that magazine. On the cover of that isssue is a photo of the vessel MSC Napoli which was damaged by bad weather in the English Channel and then beached nearby. They managed to contain most of the oil that the ship had on board but the vessel itself had to be scrapped. Mind you in these maritime disasters the best that one can often hope for is that the crew gets off safely.  

Certainly you are more of an authority on the subject, so permit me to ask a question. That ship has been stranded on the reef for nearly a month now. Why aren't they trying to get the cargo off it? Seems to me anchoring another ship nearby and then using a helicopter to lift and shuttle the containers off would lighten it up and save the cargo. If it goes down with the ship you have even more debris on the ocean floor than if just the ship goes down. Another question, don't they have the technology to put some air bags around the ship to keep it afloat, perhaps even float it off the reef? Well, obviously not, otherwise they would be doing that. Pity there isn't anything they can do other than just watch.

Thanks for posting again Catnapper. I can only repeat the same question that you are asking, why are salvage operations not under way at that accident site near New Zealand ? Referring again to that September 2007 issue of " Ships Monthly " the proper procedure as was used for the MSC Napoli involved a large crane barge that was able to unload containers and transfer them to another ship. The MSC Napoli was a large container vessel being over 800 feet in length, 110 feet in width and rated at 53,409gt ( gross tonnage ). I mentioned the size because it took 120 days to take off all of the containers that were on that ship. As for refloating a ship that can also be done. The largest project of that type was done several years after World War One. After that war was over the Germans were ordered to sail nearly their entire Fleet Of Warships to the British Royal Navy's Anchorage at Scapa Flow. The Germans later scuttled these ships there and of course that created hazards in the Anchorage and so the ships were refloated. I've seen some of the old black and white footage from that project and it's quite a sight to see a ship pop back to the surface from underwater. In the end tho the Government of New Zealand would need to make the proper decisions. Slavage companies are ready to do the work but I guess someone needs to hire them for the task.      

Thanks for your answer cabadenwurt. I knew they could bring vessels up, although I've never seen it, do you have any links to that footage? As for the vessel in NZ, one would think that the shipping company or at the least the insurance carrier would be undertaking salvage operations. I suppose it is economics, the cost of salvage may be more than what the load is worth. The governement of NZ should be at the least prodding them with threats of fines, which are no doubt forthcoming. Which again is likely dictated by economics, the cost of salvage may be more than the fines. Which is a good subject for the human values thread I suppose.

Anyway, enjoying the thread, looking forward to more.

Cheers