1958 F.W.D.

I used to tell folks wanting info or parts on old lights and sirens to call John Dorgan in Phoenix, Arizona but he passed away and his kid has run the business into the toilet....So whatever you do., do NOT call John Dorgan Jr or "The Sirenman" in Phoenix.

I just went to look him up on Bookface and he is gone.

The weekend of Sept 7/8/9 I went to the wedding of a very close friend (in fact it was Ross Gabrick, the son of Robert Gabrick, many of you know to have written multiple books about transportation and trucks of various makes....) up in Duluth, Minnesota. I flew into Minneapolis and rented a car and drove up to Duluth. I was never in that part of the country before, let alone ever having seen any of the Great Lakes. My favorite part of the drive was northbound on I35 and going up that hill just south of Duluth, then when you crest the hill you look down into Duluth and the lake is all you see on the horizon. Beautiful. The wedding was something else, too. The headquarters for the wedding was at Larsmont, a resort right on the north shore of the lake in Two Harbors. Because Ross is a huge Bus nut, we took antique buses from the resort to the church on the other side of the famous lift bridge in Duluth. Then the buses from the church over to the reception at Deluth Union Depot, the old train station. It has been fixed up into it's heydey of train travel. Dinner was in the main lobby/waiting area. Then we had free roam of the train museum downstairs on the track level. The best part of all however was the private chartered train ride from Duluth to Two Harbors and back. Originally we were supposed to be pulled by tea kettle, however it suffered a fractured drive tire and had to be sidelined. So, F7 power it was. Yes, overgrown Detroit power. Oh well. One of the two buses, this one is the 1948 GMC, its entire life was Greyhound. The other bus was a 1960 GMC/Greyhound. I don't know why I didn't get a pic of it. I saw a freighter out on the Lake. This was taken from the harbor entrance, so I was told it was probably swinging on the hook until Monday morning when it would steam into Duluth or Superior, Mi. to unload. On Sunday I went to the Great Lakes Maritime Visitors Center, which is in the US Army Corps of Engineers building right there at the lift bridge. It is an excellent little museum (and free.) If you are into this kind of stuff, and are ever up that way, I highly recommend it. This is a model of how the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald looks. I saw a girl in a train car. I saw a 1938 Kahlenberg Diesel engine. I saw a two cylinder steam engine from a tugboat. I saw a world-famous lift bridge. They say it raises 5000+ times in a year. I believe it because in the three hours I spent in the area, it went up 4 or 5 times. I even took a video with a vessel and the bridge saluting one another with one long and two short air horn blasts. This is a tradition. I'd like to have the bridge air horn on my pickup truck. I saw a Pterodactyl. I saw another lake freighter, this was at the resort. At the time I pulled it up on shipfinder, but I don't remember the name, but it is one of the "Thousand Footers." I saw a pair of F-7's pulling the private wedding train I saw Duluth Missabe and Iron Range #229, a Baldwin "Yellowstone" 4-8-8-4, a smaller version of the UP Big Boy. This one is at the train station in Two Harbors. There is another one in the museum in Duluth where I got to go inside the cab. I saw the William A. Irvin, a retired Lake Freighter which is now a museum. I was pissed because I could not go aboard, they had the pier closed for renovations.

Ten Five Oh, who is this? I may or may not be a life member at Eleven Hundred........

Seafood McDonalds? No thanks!

This.

I think they should erect a monument. I would visit it, and take flowers to lay in memory of the 4500 lobsters that I cannot now eat.

Gearheadgrlllllllll how have you been?

Never mind, I was able to get an appointment with my Doctor, had to do that. Tired of this constant cough.

Hmmmmmmm maybe I can come out and bring Large. If we do, can we get into the pit area to meet up??

If a shorter stick doesn't bother you, cut it down and cut some new threads on it

The Mack Museum may have copies on hand, submit a request through the museum drop-down on the corporate web site. A suitable donation is appreciated. For a Waterous Fire Pump manual, call Waterous directly (have the pump SN with you) and they will send you SN specific manuals for the pump and the x-fer case.

If you are in Bridgeton NJ give Joe Bertino over at Vineland Auto Electric a call. They specialize in antique truck and firetruck electrical systems, especially firetrucks. Joe owns several antique Macks. I am sure he can help and if not, point in the right direction.

I wound up working the part time job. Way too much money to give up.

Whoopsie....... http://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/coastal/news/2018/07/30/tractor-trailer-partially-falls-off-barge But in all seriousness this guy made out better than the guy who went over the southbound side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at the 12 yardstick last week.

No, I opted for a "12 South" decal instead about 2 years ago. In fact I think Slpwlkr may have gotten it for me.

We have often vacationed on Hattaras Island (Outer Banks, NC) but we have not been down in about 6 years. After we went to Disney 2 years in a row, I put my foot down and told SWMBO that "Summer of 2018 we are going to Avon (the town we always stay in) and she agreed without a fight. Well, we should have gone to Disney again because it has done nothing but effing rain BUCKETS here from the moment we got here last Sunday to the very moment that I am writing this as we speak, it is POURING. There have been moments here and there where we were able to slip out to the beach for an hour or two, and Thursday was beautiful for most of the day, but for the most part this trip has been nothing but a wash out. In fact a record rainfall for July has been recorded (14" +) busting the old record of July 1949. Anyways, here are some pictures. Here is the house we rented- "Bonatide Dream" through VRBO and Hattaras Realty. It was a very easy process, if anyone ever wants to rent a house down there I cannot recommend them more. "Small" Says "HELLO GOOD BMT PEOPLE!" The Cape Hattaras Lighthouse, the tallest (205') Brick lighthouse in North America. It was the subject of one of the greatest civil engineering feats in history when they picked it up and moved it 1200' NNW to get it away from the Ocean. The Cape Hattaras Lighthouse off in the distance (about 5 miles) seen from the Haulover Day Use Area (also known as "The Canadian Hole") which is a small sound side beach just south of the town of Avon. On Friday morning, it was a little nicer so myself, Large and our friend Matt went out on a fishing charter into the sound. We were off Ocracoke Island. I saw a girl on a ferry boat. I saw another girl on another fishing charter boat. We saw a 42" Cobia and Large decided to hook him. Since he was using a line set up for small blues (10lb line with a 30lb leader) and baited with a chunk of squid, all three of us had to be very careful fighting him and it took 70 minutes from the time he hooked to the time we got him into the boat. The guys on the charter said that they never would have thought a Cobia would bite on a chunk of squid, they usually go for live bait. They were ecstatic that we got him in. We named him "Ralph." Ralph gave us about 20lbs of meat when dressed. Here is some of it battered and frying for dinner last night. It was some of the best tasting fish I have ever had. Large and I got up this morning and went out on the beach. The GPS kept saying "You dumbass Swift Driver, make a RIGHT!" This is a screenshot of the RadarScope app on my phone, which is pretty much representative of the weather the entire trip. Avon is inside the blue bulls-eye looking thing. And that storm is moving 100% northbound over us.

Did you get some scrapple while there?

Fairless as in Bucks County, near Philly?

Someone told me once that cherry juice blended with Siberian anti-freeze is pretty good for the gout.

Two words: Bethlehem Steel A few more words: Union greed mixed with conspiring with management cost thousands of people their entire pensions. Many of my elderly neighbors........... The site that was once the flagship of the Bethlehem Steel Empire.....where every US Cannon was cast during the civil war.......is now a fu*king casino and shopping center. Thats all I have to say about that.

Absolutely, however the graphics he has on there are **FAR** from period correct (not only in style and font but wording as well.) I am confident that it was the "Bureau of Fire" at the time and the maltese cross is not correct.

One would think that with the amount of money he dumped into the restoration he could have the correct gold leaf graphics applied.

MACK TRUCKS "TRUCKTOBERFEST 2018" For those of you who have been asking: Due to some planning conflicts, there will be no Trucktoberfest 2018. It has also been decided to switch to an every other year format. Look for the next Trucktoberfest in Fall of 2019. Please spread the word.