calendar-entries

Two of my April 2007 calendar-entries are worthy of note:

One is a mid-engine 1969 Bizzarrini Manta Giugiaro GT supercar (“supper-car?”) — pictured — in the 2007 Oxman sportscar calendar.

This is a car?

My first reaction on seeing it was “This is a car? Looks like a giant doorstop!”
Giorgetto Giugiaro splashed onto the industrial-design scene with this car as the head of Italdesign.
Italdesign was also responsible for the earliest Volkswagen Rabbits, which looked pretty fair, and the late ‘70s-early ‘80s iteration of the Ducati badge.
They also did styling for Ducati, though very angular (it was called the “folded-paper” style).
They essentially ruined the beautiful Ducati V-twin motor by giving it angular cases.
My Ducati, gorgeous as it was, was that way.
The bodywork and faring lacked the angular Italdesign touch.
What ever became of Italdesign I don’t know. But the 1969 Bizzarrini Manta Giugiaro GT was forgettable; so much so I forgot about it.

The other is 460 (also pictured), the famous Pennsylvania Railroad Lindbergh E6 Atlantic (4-4-2) steam-engine, still in use in 1954 when the picture was taken.

Photo by Fred Kern.

Pennsylvania Railroad E6 Atlantic (4-4-2) #460 at Red Bank, New Jersey.

It was in my all-Pennsy color calendar.
460 is a special engine. It’s the last Pennsy E6 Atlantic built, and was assigned to head the “Lindbergh-Special,” a special train chartered by International News Reel Company to rush film to New York City of Lindy’s triumphant return to Washington D.C. after crossing the Atlantic Ocean alone in the Spirit of St. Louis to Paris.
There was an angle: film was to be developed en route in a baggage-car 460 was pulling.
Other news organizations had chartered airplanes, but their film would still have to be developed before it could be shown in theaters. One news organization even parachuted its film into Central Park.
But International News Reel won; as did 460. The fact their film could be developed en route meant it could be shown first. So 460 beat the airplanes.
At that time the so-called “Corridor” was not yet fully electrified — this is 1927. In fact, the Pennsylvania Railroad operated steam the entire route; Washington D.C. to Manhattan-Transfer, just north of Newark, where the railroad swapped out their steam-engines for electrics for the Hudson Tubes.
460’s sprint up the Corridor stood as long as the railroad operated steam on the route. Pennsy gave it the railroad, and it boomed-and-zoomed at over 100 mph.
460 is still around — it was never scrapped. The Pennsylvania Railroad had the foresight to save it. It’s at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, inoperable, at Strasburg, Pa.
I’m sure I saw 460 run; it had a very distinct whistle-sound, and I remember it.
The E6s were much prettier than the K4s. By the time I was around the K4s had been given the front-end “beauty-treatment:” relocating the headlight atop the smokebox right in front of the stack, and relocating the generator on the smokebox-front; and mounting a platform low on the smokebox-front to work on the generator.
The whole arrangement was butt-ugly, although the K4s still had the gorgeous red keystone number-plate.
Thankfully, the E6s never got the beauty-treatment, plus they never got the cast pilot that ended up on all the K4s. The headlight on an E6 was still high in front of the smokebox, and it still had that gorgeous slatted-pilot.

My brother-in-Boston noisily insists “super” is spelled “supper:” e.g. “Supper-Bowl.” (Or is it “Supper-Bowel,” since he also insists “bowel” is spelled “bowl.”)

“Ducati” is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer.

The Pennsylvania Railroad’s K4 Pacific (4-6-2) was their standard steam passenger-engine for many years. A couple are left — #1361 in Altoona, Pa. is being restored to be operable. It was built in Altoona, and once was on display at Horseshoe Curve.