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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-21-2022, 03:10 PM
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Looks more seaworthy than my "boat". The 13' 1980 home made pontoon with a 6HP Johnson outboard that came with my lake property. It floats and runs but the lake is small.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-25-2022, 03:10 PM
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You just have to keep reminding me why I want a YO truck.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-02-2022, 04:04 PM
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Not quite a Big Boy but pretty close engine 229. A Yellowstone class engine by Baldwin Locomotive Works. 2-8-8-4 articulated steam engine. 6,000hp and the one that ran on the Duluth Mesabi Iron Range were the biggest of these. They tip the scales at well over 500 tons and were used well into the middle of the century. During WWII the company that made them had them classified as 1-A-1 and given higher priority than things like tanks and other war machines because resource extraction was so necessary. This engines lives up near the waterfront in Two Harbors, MN:
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-01-2022, 09:07 AM
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I didn't get any ore boats but did get some interesting train engines. Like some Yellowstone class engines (very similar to the Big Boys),a civil war era steam engine, and an odd little Mack engine.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-22-2022, 02:28 PM
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Those are the ones I like and have been lucky in that is what my cars have. Finding and operating things by touch alone is wonderful. I should be able to do so in complete darkness. That is how I run cameras at night too.
What new circle of hell is that. I don't want a stupid touch screen flying at my face if the air bag goes off.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-22-2022, 08:42 AM
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That is usually what happens with my vehicles. They are great and then have the car equivalent of a massive heart attack that does them in. My previous car was a '02 BWM 325i. Ran great up until I finally wore through the factory original pressure plate at 341,XXX miles. The part cost was more than the car was worth but before that it was just regular maintenance including things that become regular maintenance like water pumps and blower fans when a car gets that old with that many miles.
I hate those things in the Infotainment system. What I want is a good radio that gets AM, FM, HD, and weather band that also has USB or Aux in that has real physical buttons or knobs. This is actually surprisingly hard to find with lots not getting HD and weather band.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-21-2022, 07:53 AM
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This is why I have a a boring Subaru Impreza wagon as a daily driver. Boring as all get out with the naturally aspirated 2.0L engine but it does have the 5 speed manual which I like since a manual transmission lasts forever if you know how to drive stick and keep reasonably fresh gear oil in it.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-20-2022, 05:36 PM
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That isn't surprising. The E-type is a very popular and good looking cark although I do like the XK series better for looks.
Reminds me of when I lived in Paris an one Sunday morning I hear the rumble of a very big American V8 with a very lumpy cam idling at the stoplight at the intersection of Rue de Riviloi and Rue du Temple at about 6 AM. I peer out my apartment window and saw a late 60s (didn't get a good enough look to really know but it looks almost exactly like a buddies '67) Olds 442 sitting there and when they got the green they laid some rubber. My apartment was on Rue du Temple and I was the south most one on the upper floor of the building just north of BHV.
I believe they still make the old looking ones and the trikes but yes sometime in the early 2000s they did start making some more modern looking vehicles but even those still have the retro styling. The one I always wanted was the Morgan Aero 8. Take a BMW 4.4L V8 and stuff it in a retro styled modern Morgan. Although I wouldn't mind one of their modern trikes as they look like a riot to drive a well. However when you see a Morgan it is very clearly a Morgan. Since those are all out of price range I will stick with eventually finishing my post war Midget and since there really isn't much collector value and it isn't like they are rare having some fun with it isn't ruining something special. It has the square rear wheel arches, the 1275cc motor, but doesn't have the big black bumper so while it has desirable motor, preferred bumpers it has the not well loved square wheel arches. Also it isn't like they didn't make a million of the things.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
06-20-2022, 10:48 AM
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Well the Morgan might be newer than you think. There is probably a lot of jokes that can be made about them all being on that ferry overnight about oil leaks and the lord of dark. British car humor aside I love seeing those old British cars.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-18-2022, 10:38 AM
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That they are. Sometimes just the fact that something exists makes me happy.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-12-2022, 12:16 PM
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Those little trains are always a hit with the kids. I'm reminded of the little train that they have at the Nowthen Historical Power Association grounds and if you have kids (or grand kids) get there early and they give longer rides before the crowds build. That one isn't electric but has a diesel engine powering it. All sorts of stuff to see and experience there. One of my favorites is the 13,000 c.i. 2 stroke 5 cylinder diesel Fairbanks engine that you more feel than hear. There there are the people with the kenmore or maytag gasoline powered washing machines (I forget which but it may be both) with all the attachments like the meat grinder, butter churn, or ice cream churn.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
04-19-2022, 08:53 AM
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I should know this as I have seen one in real life one time up in Minneapolis at the place where I get parts for my Midget (they specialize in little British cars and the owner has an MG F). The one up there was maroon and was a work in progress. They deal with other old European sports cars as well but there are always a lot of LBCs there.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-17-2022, 01:18 PM
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You forgot the mileage charge which is probably $0.49 a mile now on that van, it was like $0.19 when I worked at one. So it will be back in service once delivered back to the store. Those trucks and vans are beaten like stolen mules, and the stuff customers do to them is sometimes rather amazing. Always when returned the statement is it was like that when they got it. I worked at one when in college and saw and heard a lot, the worst was a call from the Minneapolis police when trying to track down a late truck on the last weekend of a month when basically all the trucks were rented.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-01-2022, 09:48 AM
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I actually knew that. A lot were "lost" in various accidents while digging with landslides taking out the highest number from what I remember. With them being so big and heavy (105 tons built from a 40' box car with boom and coal hopper extensions) they got left behind when done and then scrapped or repurposed. Some did come back to the US while others never left, like the one up in MN, but from what I have been able to find out only 2 of the ones that cam backed survived WWII without being scraped. As big as they were in their day they are tiny toys by today's standards. The one up in MN has a 2.5 cubic yard bucket on it down from the 5 it was originally equipped with since the iron ore weighs so much more per unit volume. The big shovels now will dump like 80 tons of material per shovel load and then you have the big drag lines for removing overburden that will move well over 100 cubic yards at a time (I think the biggest managed 220 cubic yards) and those are still small compared to something like the Bagger 293.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-28-2022, 10:45 AM
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Actually no. I am vaguely familiar with the image but not with the history of that shovel. Of all the ones that worked the canal the only one thought to survive is the one in up state New York which is one of 2 of that type to survive. Of the others that returned my understanding is that they were recycled during WWII for the war effort. The only reason that the one in MN survived is that it was actively being used for mining iron ore at the time.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-25-2022, 09:20 AM
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I know that but it is always striking how things have changed over time so that comment was more tongue in cheek. When you see that stuff in operation you understand why old factory and farm work was so dangerous and why the loss of fingers, hands, and arms was so common. However I do think those who run the equipment at the shows probably push things a bit. Running a sawmill off of a steam tractor with a 4' sawblade or everything run off of that Fairbanks engine that you more feel than hear. Although those old threshing shows are in general good clean fun especially with small boys. The big local one is the NHPA (Nowthen Historical Power Association) and they do some good work. I kind of wish they would partner up some with the Minnesota Museum of Mining and restore the prototype steam shovel of the type that was used for the Panama Canal as it is the largest steam shovel ever built with the actual ones used being slightly smaller and it is 1 of only 2 surviving examples of that type. The other one is in upstate new york and is is in much worse condition.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-24-2022, 08:37 PM
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It's farm equipment and doesn't have a boiler so I don't think there are any standards for safety. I've been to a number of threshing shows and the amount of stuff they will run connected with gigantiac leather belts to the accessory fly wheel from any tractor, especially a 110HP case steam tractor, is kind of scary. Or the 13,000 c.i. 2 stroke 5 cylinder Fairbanks engine for that matter.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-21-2022, 11:48 AM
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They type of modern car I lust after.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-14-2022, 09:46 AM
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And now I miss my favorite daily driver car I ever owned except it wasn't red. I loved that little Trunk Impaired BMW.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-08-2022, 10:54 AM
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Given what I have seen running out on the roads up in northern MN that would probably be street legal enough that no one would care. There are people who "drive" their riding lawn mowers to the bar up there.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-08-2022, 10:54 AM
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Given what I have seen running out on the roads up in northern MN that would probably be street legal enough that no one would care. There are people who "drive" their riding lawn mowers to the bar up there.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-24-2021, 07:57 AM
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But a 455ci engine sounds so much better, especially if you got one of the Hurst edition ones with the Hurst shifter, louvered hood with chain tie downs and a few other modifications. I know this only because a buddy has a '67 Hurst edition 442 that was the find of a lifetime. I'm one of the few people who he has let drive that car and they are fun as all get out, we were out he got drunk and since I can't drink I baby sat his car for the night and played taxi service the next day. The kids in the neighborhood asked what that piece of crap was the next morning as it hadn't been restored and still had the many layers of cracked garbage paint on it that last one of which was baby blue that looked like it was put on with a roller.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-23-2021, 01:06 PM
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First thought when seeing the car was that looks like one I would expect some high level SS officer to come riding up to the office in before planning some new level of atrocity. Then it turns out it is.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-29-2021, 02:44 PM
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Look at that massive bloated car. Not all Americans want big cars give me a Peel P50, or if you want some spacious comfort a Messerschmitt KR200. For a project car I ended up getting a '68 MG Midget and sold the concept to the wife as I told her it was about twice as big as the original car I wanted as a project, BMW Isetta 300. I keep looking for a HMV Freeway locally that hasn't been rolled as there is some local history with those since they were made in the next town over.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-27-2021, 01:38 PM
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I've always wanted a YO truck. They just never seem to die, especially the early SR5s.
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