Monthly Calendar Report for February, 2009

(No footnotes. If anyone is reading this at all, they probably don’t need footnotes.)

1964 289 AC Cobra roadster.

The February 2009 entry of my Oxman legendary sportscar calendar is one of the greatest sportscars of all time, a 1964 289 AC Cobra.
In 1964 I was in my sophomore year of college, and the new AC Cobra was perceived as revolutionary and inspired — a melding of fabulous Detroit V8 engine technology with the lightweight British sportscar.
My memory was that unfortunately it wasn’t the fabulous Chevrolet Small-Block, but it was Ford’s interpretation thereof, the new V8 that replaced the Y-block of the 1954 model-year, first at 221 cubic-inches. Compared to the Small-Block, the Y-block was a boat-anchor.
My neighbor Bruce Stewart had one, a 1963 Fairlane two-door sedan with a 221 V8 with floorshift.
Ford also began installing its new Small-Block in its Falcon, the “Futura” model.
It was a great idea.
Extraordinary V8 performance in a small, lightweight package.
Ford went on to market its fabulous Mustang, and also enlarged its Small-Block to 289 cubic inches — later 302 cubic inches.
California racer Carroll Shelby conceived marketing the latest Detroit V8 technology in a British sportscar, and convinced tiny British sportscar manufacturer AC to give up on the heavy Bristol six-inline engine, and install Ford’s Small-Block V8 instead. (Although by then AC was gonna give up on the prewar Bristol engine anyway.)
(I think the first AC Cobras were 260 cubic-inches, but this car is 289.)
It was an inspired idea, and AC added to it by improving the styling. —An AC Bristol looks turgid by comparison.
Racers found even the 289 wasn’t that fast, so the 427 cubic-inch NASCAR engine was wrenched in.
The chassis was reengineered to be civil even with the 427.
The 427-Cobra is still an icon.
45 years have passed since the first AC Cobras, and still the 427-Cobra is perceived as the ultimate macho sportscar.
A guy nearby has one. He shows it at car-shows.
He drives in in it; an epiphany of thundering and earth-shaking racket.
The idea of wrenching a Detroit V8 into a British sportscar has appeal.
I’ve seen Austin Healeys and MGAs with Small-Block Chevy V8s.
But Old Shell’s AC-Cobra was the best-looking and best interpretation.
Plus it ain’t a cobble job.
It was an actual car.

Northbound freight-train on the Norfolk & Western Abingdon Branch near Tuckerdale, N. Carolina, October 1956. (Photo by O. Winston Link.)

I look at this O. Winston Link “Steam and Steel” calendar, and it looks like I’ll be flying every pik.
Some are classics (e.g. the Ieager Drive-in pik I flew at the top of my O. Winston Link show blog), and others are even more marginal than this one (above), which despite its marginality is still a classic.
O. Winston Link is not that great a photographer, but his mastery of his craft, and his ability to chronicle history, is beyond dispute.
Aside from the fact the engine is a wheezing teakettle, probably barely able to generate the tractive effort needed to keep the train moving.....
—1) The bicyclist, 15-year-old Joe Dollar, is riding an “English” bicycle, not an incredibly heavy balloon-tire behemoth as popular at that time.
Link couldn’t control everything. The bicycle is not the classic bloated heavyweight of that time.
I never had an “English” bicycle as a child.
“English” bicycles cost more than the average balloon-tire heavyweight; so I didn’t get one until my senior year at college with my own money.
“English” had the advantage of being lighter in weight, plus they had a three-speed Sturmey-Archer rear hub.
That Sturmey-Archer hub could gear down for hills, or up for speed.
Plus, “English” being lighter, ya weren’t dragging around all that excess avoirdupois.
You could go like the wind.
—2) Visible to the right in front of the engine (so tiny it’s probably lost in the ‘pyooter pik) is a new GMC truck (‘55 or ‘56).
The middle to late ‘50s Chevy and GMC trucks were an extensive restyle of the Advance-Design trucks that debuted in the 1947 model-year.
From ‘55 on had a wraparound windshield, and a front-end modified to swallow the new Chevy Small-Block V8 (or Pontiac V8). They also were heavily styled, and moved to four headlights.
I thought the world of the new GMC; even drew one in sixth or seventh grade — in 1956 I was in sixth grade.
(The fact I drew anything signified how much I liked it — in college I drew ‘55 Chevys galore.)
But it’s still the same old chassis underneath; ancient beam-axle design up front, and a torque-tube rear — same layout used in 1947.
The General didn’t update its trucks until the 1960 model-year.
A better truck would have been the old Advance-Design series; perhaps 1950.
As noted earlier, Link couldn’t control everything.
At least that glitzmobile is almost invisible. Seconds after the shot, that truck was waiting at that railroad-crossing, although the train woulda blocked it.
It’s also worth noting Link is set up on the highway bridge over the overgrown creekbed the railroad probably followed.
At least it’s not in the creekbed.
I rode the Arcade & Attica tourist line once, and the railroad was in the creekbed.
This Abingdon Branch looks similar — little to justify its existence.
I wonder if it still exists; still in my most recent railroad atlas (1967, surely outta date) — but appears shortened.

The “California Kid.”

Behold (in my Oxman hot-rod calendar), one of the greatest hot-rods of all time, “California Kid,” a chopped 1934 Ford three-window coupe.
It’s not the ‘32, which I prefer, but it is the three-window coupe (as opposed to five-window, which doesn’t look as good).
This car is significant because it’s a throwback, built in 1972. —A throwback to old-style 1950s hot-rod appearance, particularly the flames.
Usually I don’t like flames, but on this car they look righteous.
The car eventually starred in a TV movie, starring Martin Sheen and Nick Nolte. That was in 1974, and the film was named “The California Kid,” which is how the car got its name.
No mention is made in the calendar of what motor this has, but research indicates it’s a 302 cubic-inch Small-Block Ford; pretty stock — and good because it’s therefore drivable.
Many hot-rods are just trailer-queens; impossible motors that look very butch, but could never operate on the street.
“California Kid” could be driven around like a normal car, but it’s clearly a hot-rod.
Of interest is the front “nerf-bar” bumpers; short pieces of chromed tubing that replace the bumpers. They don’t offer much protection, but are the bumpers usually found on race-cars.
Of additional interest is the use of full stock fenders. Such a car could be driven in the rain — without throwing rooster-tails of water off the tires onto other cars.

Hawker “Hurricane.” (Photo by Philip Makanna©.)

The February 2009 entry of my Ghosts WWII warbirds calendar is a Hawker “Hurricane” Mk. XII, actually manufactured by Canadian Car and Foundry.
My friend Tim Belknap tells me this is the airplane that won the Battle of Britain, not the fabulous SuperMarine Spitfire.
The Spit came later, and didn’t agree with British standards of airworthiness and fighter-plane performance at first.
But the Spit was so sensational, the standards were rewritten.
The Spit was a fabulous fighter-plane, but not the workhorse the Hurricane was.
This Hurricane (pictured) has the fabulous Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, although an earlier 1,280 horsepower iteration.
The Spit has a 1,478 horsepower iteration, and the P51 Mustang 1,695 horsepower.
Unfortunately the Hurricane wasn’t as graceful and gorgeous as the Spit or the Mustang.
That looks like fabric covering on the fuselage behind the cockpit. That fabric meant ordinance could pass right through without exploding.
The fact the Hurricane was not attractive was irrelevant to attacking German bombers.
Hurricanes would scramble and take on the German bombers.
Apparently they were successful, although the German bombers wreaked havoc.
Successful enough the Germans had to switch to unmanned V1 and V2 rockets to bomb the English.
But of course that rocketry was secondary to Hitler’s Luftwaffe — which the Hurricanes could cripple.
Apparently it was the Hurricanes that turned the tide against the Germans attacking the British; although the Germans made the mistake of switching to bombing English cities, which gave the Brits breathing room.

The “Tuxedo” F-units. (Photo by Walt Tylicki.)

The February 2009 entry of my Norfolk Southern Employees calendar is the Tuxedo F-units, the classic railroad locomotives used on Norfolk Southern’s executive business-train.
Conrail had classic E-class passenger units it used on its executive business-train, but I think they were sold to a private individual who still operates them in excursion service, although they were repainted into the Pennsylvania Railroad’s tuscan-red scheme.
When Norfolk Southern purchased half of Conrail, it became a major player in east-coast railroading, and saw a need for an executive business-train.
An executive business-train is used to transport prospective shippers around the railroad in high style — the railroad equivalent of an executive jet.
Passenger-cars are from the classic era, when Pullman Company and the railroads provided elegant accommodations to those willing to pay.
Although in this case the railroad is trying to impress prospective customers.
Bedroom sleeping compartments are provided, along with lounges and a dining-car — the classic railroad accommodations of old.
Needed were classic locomotives to pull the train. The typical freight locomotive looked out of place.
Norfolk Southern obtained old F-units, a design that goes clear back to 1939.
The units are F9As from RailCruise America, based in St. Louis, but were originally built as F7As in 1952 for Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
The B-units are F7s, originally Chicago Great Western, also from RailCruise America.
The locomotives were rebuilt and repainted at Norfolk Southern’s massive Juniata Shops north of Altoona, PA.
Rebuilding a diesel railroad locomotive is fairly simple, and Juniata is a heavy maintenance facility anyway.
I bet the motor was replaced, or at least overhauled.
New traction-motors mighta been needed, as well as a new generator.
New wiring and state-of-the-art electronics were probably installed — essentially a new locomotive in an old body.
#4270 looks like it also has a separate generator installed to provide head-end power; note muffler atop cab-roof.
Railfans nicknamed the new two-tone black and creme scheme pictured above the “tuxedo” scheme.
F-units hauled freight in the early years of railroad dieselization.
Most have long since been retired — I doubt Norfolk Southern has any others besides these.
A diesel railroad locomotive might last 15-20 years. It was like a bus. Beyond 20 years it wasn’t worth maintaining.
The old steam-locomotives might last 30 or more years.
Santa Fe used F-units to pull its passenger-trains. EMD even began building “FP” units, a four-foot longer F-unit that could accommodate a steam-heat boiler.
Plus an F-unit could be geared for passenger speeds; not the greyhound E-units, but fast enough.
These Tuxedo Fs might see 90 mph, but probably rarely.
I saw the Tuxedo Fs last summer.
The executive business-train is based in Altoona, PA, and it was coming west.
I was with Phil Faudi (“FAW-dee”), an Altoona based railfan tour-guide, and he was excited.
The executive business-train was out on The Hill — he got it on his rail-scanner.
The executive business-train is aimed west, so climbs The Hill to get turned around to head east — it can loop atop The Hill; and can’t get turned around anywhere but there.
So who knows: westbound or eastbound. We may see it, but maybe not.
All-of-a-sudden, there it is, westbound on Track Three through Lilly, PA — I got a picture (it’s in my Faudi blog).
So here’s Walt Tylicki, K-9 Specialist with the Norfolk Southern railroad police, coming to work at Bellevue (“BELL-view”) Yard in Ohio, and there are the Tuxedo Fs idling in the dawn.
He poses his dog “Max” in front of the Tuxedo Fs, and takes a picture.
He wasn’t intending to enter the Norfolk Southern Employee Calendar contest, but his supervisors tell him he should enter the picture.

1969 Dodge Hemi® Coronet R/T convertible.

“Hemi” (“HEM-eee”), a word that commands awe and respect in automotive circles.
My Muscle-Car calendar has a car with a Hemi engine.
Although it’s the second iteration, the so-called “Elephant Motor;” nicknamed “Hemi” because of the hemispherical combustion-chambers it featured.
It was a great idea. Turn the valves 90° relative to the crankshaft, so the intake-valves pointed toward the carburetor, and the exhaust-valves toward the exhaust headers.
Normally the cylinder valves of an overhead-valve engine all line up in a row parallel to the crankshaft.
This requires tortured routing of intake and exhaust ports in the cylinder-head, limiting flow.
By turning the valves 90°, you could straighten porting, and improve flow.
Valves were still operated by pushrods, but those pushrods operated rockers in opposite directions; one row for intakes, and one for exhausts.
The system also allowed centralized spark-plug location in the combustion chamber, which promoted even charge burning.
But all this was done at great expense.
Hemi heads required two rocker-shafts; one for intake valves, and one for exhaust.
Such a system was costly to produce, and weighed a lot.
We’re talking about a massively wide cast-iron cylinder-head castings of immense size and weight, able to support two rocker-shafts.
The Hemi V8 debuted at Chrysler in the 1951 model-year at 331 cubic inches, and lasted through the 1958 model-year at 392 cubic inches.
Chrysler decided the Hemi was too costly to produce, so started fielding large versions of its simpler “Wedge” B-motor, initially 383 cubic inches and 413.
It wasn’t a Hemi, but could be made fairly strong.
But the Hemi was a free-breather, so the Daytona-racers began agitating for Hemi heads on the Wedge motor, which is the second iteration (this car).
A third iteration is now available, cashing in on the Hemi reputation.
I suppose it’s technically a Hemi, but it ain’t the “Elephant Motor.”
The Elephant Motor was also big; 426 cubic inches.
And the car pictured has two 550 cubic-feet-per-minute four-barrel carburetors. That’s 1,100 cubic-feet-per-minute; a lotta carburetor.
My brother’s 454 cubic-inch SS Chevelle has a single 750, and that’s pretty big.
The basic principles of Hemi design are still being used to maximize engine performance, although mainly in motorcycle engines.
Cylinder valving is still turned 90° from crankshaft length, so porting can be direct.
But two valves per cylinder (the Hemi) have become four, since four flow better.
And combustion chambers have gotten much less hemispherical.
The original Hemi had an angle of 58° between valves.
Recent valve angles on motorcycle engines are much narrower — in the 30s.
And now the camshafts that operate the valves are directly over the valves; i.e. now in the cylinder-head instead of down in the engine block — which requires pushrods.
That’s Overhead-Camshaft. One for intakes and a second for exhausts is Double-Overhead-Camshafts (“DOHC”).
Auto manufacturers took advantage of ball-stud rocker technology introduced on the Small-Block Chevy in the 1955 model-year (actually a Pontiac innovation) — no rocker-shafts.
Cylinder valves could be splayed toward the carburetors and exhaust header.
Chevrolet did this on its Big-Block motor, and Ford on its “Cleveland” V8.
Which is why Bruce McLaren used the “Big-Block” in his fabulous Can-Am racecars. The “Hemi” was too heavy.

I’m not flying the February 2009 entry of my Audio-Visual Designs B&W All-Pennsy Calendar because it’s too moribund — only three F-units pulling a westbound freight approaching Rockville Bridge on the Susquehanna River, north of Harrisburg.
The train is out of Enola Yard, across from Harrisburg, toward Altoona.
It’s hardly anything — not very photogenic — just a paean to the EMD F3 unit, the diesel-locomotive that retired steam locomotion on Pennsy.