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The Official Eleanor Roosevelt (And Anything Else Non-Topical) Thread

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, November 6, 2011 11:59 AM
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, November 6, 2011 11:54 AM

samfp1943

Brace yourselves for some virtual whip-lash!   Off Topic

We're traveling back to 1942; 

And you have to wonder why the Roosevelt Government sat on this one through most of World War II?

http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/americas-first-jet-flight-october-1942_1617.html

See comment on video link for more type information.  Very interesting stuff.

Who would have ever thought that there would be an American jet plane with an open cockpit (passenger seat!   (?) 

Wonder if Larry Bell offered Eleanor a ride? She did ride with one of the Tuskegee Airmen while they were in Pilot training.

That was fascinating Sam. Thanks for sharing!

And then there was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Z8U_IlmIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46T4i0-vAmI

 

 

 

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Posted by samfp1943 on Saturday, November 5, 2011 5:51 PM

Brace yourselves for some virtual whip-lash!   Off Topic

We're traveling back to 1942; 

And you have to wonder why the Roosevelt Government sat on this one through most of World War II?

http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/americas-first-jet-flight-october-1942_1617.html

See comment on video link for more type information.  Very interesting stuff.

Who would have ever thought that there would be an American jet plane with an open cockpit (passenger seat!   (?) 

Wonder if Larry Bell offered Eleanor a ride? She did ride with one of the Tuskegee Airmen while they were in Pilot training.

 

 


 

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 3:35 PM

The rails-to-trails folks are in a dither because TE (transportation enhancement) funds they were expecting may get diverted to fixing highway bridges.

"Nice trail!"

"Yeah, too bad the bridge we have to drive over to get to it was condemned..."

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
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My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Victrola1 on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 10:49 AM

Somewhat unpredictably, however, Lutz believes the government isn't involved enough in repairing the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Even more surprising, Lutz recommends a "graduated, rising" federal tax on gasoline to help give consumers more certainty about gas prices — and encourage them to buy fuel-efficient vehicles -- with the proceeds (wait for it) to go to pay for upgrades of the nation's aging rail system.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/car-guy-bob-lutz-wants-federal-gas-tax-124956424.html

Bob Lutz is a former GM exec. Would Eleanor Roosevelt shift the road use tax to railroads?

 

 

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 9:46 PM

Our Catalina came with the 389 V8 and Hydramatic transmission.........

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Posted by AgentKid on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 6:05 PM

Our '59 Pontiac Strato-Chief had a 261cu. in. six, with a standard transmission. Friends of ours had a '61 Pontiac, by which time the six cylinder option was upgraded to a 292 cu. in. engine. This was discontinued as an option in either '67 or '68.

I mention this, because I read an article once that said the 292 engine turned over so slowly that GM could have continued using it right through the '70's, because it would have met the anti-pollution regulations at the time without further modification. After 1965 they had PCV valves. The slow maximum RPM meant almost total combustion of the fuel in each cylinder, leaving almost no unburned hydrocarbons. They would of had to install a four or five speed transmission (automatic or standard) though, to compete with other models driveability.

That '61 turned into another of our high school cruising cars. I have always thought since, that that engine, with the right transmission, would have really given the competing eights a run for their money, while throwing a scare into the Japanese four cylinder engine makers, in terms of potential fuel economy. Apparently GM had given thought to the idea, but they were afraid it would look like a step backward and would have negatively affected their stock prices. Ah yes, and ohh well.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 5:23 PM

Ah yes...the Strato-Chief....I remember seeing those.

The GM Canada folks put the Pontiac body on a Chevrolet chassis and used the Chevrolet engines and powerglide transmission instead of the hydra-matic.

Still a good realiable car though.

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Posted by AgentKid on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 4:46 PM

Are these the same links you posted over in the Cafe? The one with the dancers and GM's 1955 models was very peculiar. It would be far too suggestive and sexist to be used as a commercial today, yet it doesn't quite rise to the level of porn! You could maybe call it car-porn!

It was neat to see the Buick portion of the film. Back in high school, there was a lot of cruising done in what had been my friend's parents '55 Buick Special. That model, of course, had far fewer options than the one shown in the film, but it still brought back a lot of memories.

The clip of all of the new 1960 Fords brought back memories. Another friend had inherited his mothers early sixties Falcon. He took me out for a ride in it one day. I don't remember if those original ones had fours or sixes. This one though had an automatic transmission. He would step on it as hard as he could, but the acceleration was so appallingly bad we were just killing ourselves laughing. And it seemed to be working exactly as it should, there were no untoward or unexpected noises at all. That was just the way it was.

And our '59 Pontiac was a Strato-Chief, the Canadian base model.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 3:27 PM
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 3:22 PM
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 2:08 PM
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 2:06 PM
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 11:54 AM
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 11:51 AM
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 11:48 AM

And now....an all time classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_K1Vju0r6Q

 

 

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 11:48 AM

And now the entire short:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wB6c38yvVo

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 23, 2011 11:47 AM

And now for somethign completely different:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztA0AJxHqQ8

 

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Posted by Lyon_Wonder on Thursday, July 7, 2011 3:04 PM

A historic Mississippi River St Louis riverboat, the SS Admiral has been sold for scrap and is currently being stripped and gutted. The SS Admiral, constructed between 1938-1940 on the hull from a pre-existing boat, was an excursion/tourist riverboat that cruised the Mississippi River, and later turned into a stationary casino at St Louis, MO in the 1990s.  My mom has memories of her and my grandparents taking a tourist trip on the SS Admiral when she was a child.

Here's a news article on the SS Admiral from the Belleville News Democrat.

http://www.bnd.com/2011/06/30/1768931/ss-admiral-finds-new-life-as-scrap.html

And here's another article with historical pics of this riverboat.

http://maritimematters.com/2011/04/the-admiral-nearing-final-journey-to-scrapyard/

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY STEVE NAGY - News-Democrat

Workers are stripping down the SS Admiral, reducing and recycling what was once the world's largest inland entertainment vessel.

They are on the second of the top two levels. A crew of about six workers with Gateway Marine Services is removing the level that formerly held the boat's galley, buffet and poker room when it was the President Casino.

"The boat's being recycled," said Gateway Marine Services spokesman Bill Kline.

He said the job must be done carefully.

"Old boats tend to be like an archeological dig. ... The materials are in layers, so you have to be very conscious of flammable material. So, you can't just break out the torches and go at it."

Workers are using saws and other tools to pick the Admiral apart, in addition to using cutting torches, Kline said.

The work beneath the Martin Luther King Bridge will take about a month. Then the boat will be ready to go to Alton or Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis for completion of the salvage work.

"Alton is preferable, since the access is a little better and the river conditions don't change as much because of the proximity to the Alton Locks and Dam," Kline said.

River conditions might dictate which location is feasible. "When the river gets down below flood stage, we'll be able to move the boat," Kline said.

The hull of the boat was built in 1907 for use as a railroad ferry to shuttle rail cars across the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Miss. It was first named the Albatross.

It was later converted and put into passenger service in 1940 by the Streckfus family in St. Louis. It was used for Mississippi River excursions until 1979. Its propulsion system was removed and the boat was moored because of deterioration of the boat's hull.

The Admiral was put back in service in 1987 and was used as a floating entertainment venue by Six Flags, but didn't sail. That venture later failed, but in 1994 President Casinos bought the vessel and converted it into a riverboat casino. It was permanently moored just north of the Gateway Arch, but the casino closed for good in 2010 was sold for scrap.

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, July 4, 2011 9:00 PM

....Beautiful stuff Murray..!

I wouldn't need to go any further than that completely, frame off, restored 57 Corvette...Bright red...with the modern Corvette engine, and revised suspension....etc.

If money was no item....and maybe if I was a bit younger....I'd be serious about that red charmer....Just from what the fellow mentioned on the youtube video and what I see....I could take it, without driving it to check it out.

I have purchased a half dozen cars like that...Study what they are...evaluate the situation of the vehicle....and if it satisfies....grab it.

Quentin

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 4, 2011 4:05 PM

Quentin...Here is a '71 Corvette...Looks similar to my friends:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElMRtEKriy0

 

 

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, July 4, 2011 2:15 PM

......Beautiful web site....will get into it later.  Tricky too....Thanks for posting.

Quentin

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 4, 2011 12:56 PM

1959 Corvette Test Drive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpVgmbD7D-c

 

 

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 4, 2011 11:32 AM

Happy 4th of July (The 235th Anniversary of our Revolution) from the Eleanor Roosevelt Forum!!!!!

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, June 20, 2011 9:21 PM

Murray

 tree68:
The problem was that the car had been used for "cold start" tests.  In order to simulate what would happen to an engine if the owner only drove it short distances all the time, they would start it up and drive it until the "Cold" light (remember them?) went out.  It would then be parked for a period of time and the same thing done over.

Larry...I remember the green "Cold" LIght in the Pontiacs we had in the family.

Ford also had a blue "Cold" light...from '65 until (I think) '67.

 

I had one car with a cold light--the first car I bought new, a '62 Chevrolet Biscayne. The next car I bought was a '67 Biscayne, which I ordered with full instruments. I bought the '62 two days after my '50 fastback Chevy burned a bearing out and then threw a rod on a Saturday (I was towed into Cuba, Ala., sold the car there on Monday and was given enough to pay the registration fee, property tax, and road and bridge tax on the new car).

Johnny

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 20, 2011 9:14 PM

AgentKid

Thanks Murray, that was a great trip down memory lane. I see they were still calling them Ambassador's in '69. That '69 4-door certainly had a nicer roofline than the one they stuck with from '70 until the end. But I think they reached back into the parts shed to put that '69 roof on that '77 Matador.

You read the histories of Nash and later AMC, those companies never let anything go to waste.

Why talk of cars on a Railway related forum? I always thought of my interests in terms of a quote by the famous CPR builder William C. Van Horne. During a lunch in 1883, in his Private Car with Father Lacombe, an important person in the opening of western Canada, Van Horne said roughly; that there are things that have his attention, his immediate attention, and his undivided attention. At the time, he said his attention was on building the CPR, you Sir (Father Lacombe) have my immediate attention, and my undivided attention is on those God *** mountains (Rocky Mountains), they're in MY WAY!

My version is; politics have always had my attention, cars have my immediate attention, and railroading has always had my undivided attention. Over the years, radio and computers have joined politics for my attention.

Bruce

 

Bruce, I am glad to have been able to see how both CP and CN did things (both passenger and freight) in my many trips to Montreal.

I still kind of yearn for the CP Canadian and the CN Super Continental racing west out of Dorval.....

Wish they had the original train service to the Maritimes as well.

 

 

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Posted by AgentKid on Monday, June 20, 2011 8:56 PM

Thanks Murray, that was a great trip down memory lane. I see they were still calling them Ambassador's in '69. That '69 4-door certainly had a nicer roofline than the one they stuck with from '70 until the end. But I think they reached back into the parts shed to put that '69 roof on that '77 Matador.

You read the histories of Nash and later AMC, those companies never let anything go to waste.

Why talk of cars on a Railway related forum? I always thought of my interests in terms of a quote by the famous CPR builder William C. Van Horne. During a lunch in 1883, in his Private Car with Father Lacombe, an important person in the opening of western Canada, Van Horne said roughly; that there are things that have his attention, his immediate attention, and his undivided attention. At the time, he said his attention was on building the CPR, you Sir (Father Lacombe) have my immediate attention, and my undivided attention is on those God *** mountains (Rocky Mountains), they're in MY WAY!

My version is; politics have always had my attention, cars have my immediate attention, and railroading has always had my undivided attention. Over the years, radio and computers have joined politics for my attention.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 20, 2011 8:10 PM

AgentKid

Murray,

That one '68 that was highlighted was a Rambler "American", the lower priced model to the Ambassador. I don't know what AMC did with that "American" model name and body.

Bruce

 

Ooops...  Sorry, my mistake...  just showing what eBay had to offer under the Rambler name.

Her is an listing of AMC cars:

http://tinyurl.com/64dz8c4

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