I gotta admit that I like the lady coyote waving "Bye Bye" to the pack mules. The ""Bell Mare" is a nice touch.

Well, that was a... Snarky remark!

Maybe perhaps I should work on my punctuation?

Riffing on the 'Bell Mare' -- it made me think of the Bellman in Lewis Carrol's The Hunting of the Snark.

OhHhHhohhhh…! I had never read that. Now I have an excuse to.

Not one of his best-known works, and depressingly few folks have read it. I believe his only published work I haven't read is the Sylvie and Bruno books (there are two volumes). They are loaded with logic puzzles, so I should attack them when I have lots of time and patience to spare.

Sylvie and Bruno
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

(There are other formats available: ePub and Kindle, both available with and without illustrations; and Plaintext)

Incidentally, I had never heard of a Bell Mare before -- so I Googled it and started my day with some edification. Always a good thing!

Yeah. I enjoy learning new things on a daily basis, although recently I've been questioning the validity of some of the videos on YouTube.

Uh, huh!

I dunno, though; it's on the Interwebz, it must be true...

The coyote gal snuck on board when Ned Wreck and his dog weren't looking. They don't know she's there, stealing a ride.

Sneaky coyote gal. Every time I see this image I get to building a 3-D model of Ned Wreck's model T in my head.

Wow, how many folks even remember Vice President Potatoe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnHjiq_Aleo

I do. Bush's Assassination insurance.

Well, mebbe if the mules had looked more like that.

I know, right? If not packing, there'd certainly be OTHER work they could succeed at.

Eeeeyup!

They could try to get prestigious jobs pulling beer wagons, but the Clydesdales have that all sewn up, and they don't like competition, though some of the mules would be related to them.

I bet they are just biding their time. Waiting for (perhaps manufacturing?) an end to oil.

Soon, the Mules will rise!

Interesting fact; while motor vehicles are more or less ubiquitous now, I remember once taking a donkey trek over the Valley of the Kings. I actually felt safer than I might have if I'd been walking normally. Beasts of burden are not to be sniffed at...

True.

If you sniff a mule once, you'll never do it again.

Sniff a mule? Isn't that a rather desperate way to get high?

Why do you think they call it "mule"?

Very droll.

I petted a mule's head once. Not as pleasant as I thought it would be. It felt like a really thin velvet cloth stretched over granite. Literal bonehead.

Cool vehicle :)

It's a Model T Ford, a Tin Lizzy, a fliver, the car for the common man, the dependable, eccentric, inexpensive automobile that anyone could afford, the democratic vehicle that put America on the road and, interestingly enough, inspired Hitler to create the Volkswagen. Hitler never leaned how to drive, by the way.

"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."--Henry Ford

He actually never said that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plCaDXE7_NQ
But as another famous statement goes, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." ;D

He actually DID say that, and even documented it in his Autobiography:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Ford
http://oplaunch.com/blog/2015/04/30.....s-it-is-black/

Please have a reference a little more reliable than a game show clip on YouTube when you 'correct' me.

And here I thought QI got their info straight. Stephen Fry, you let me down :C

Actually, in the beginning of the Model T production run you could buy them in different colors. It was only after the demand for them that kept the assembly lines practically running 24/7 that they were nothing but black, and that's because black paint dried faster than the other colors. With a almost insanely growing demand, you didn't want production held up waiting for paint to dry. Later, in the last years before the Model A replaced it on the market, T's came in different colors.

All true. I did a lot of research on the history of the Model A (I'm kind of an authority on the Hubley Model A kits) and you can't read up one without the other.

We hear a lot about 'brass cars' in reference to the early Model T and its peers. The era seems to have started with the earliest production automobiles between 1900 and 1905. The brass car era had faded by 1915, but I can't find any clear documentation why. I know it had a lot to do with the replacement of many brass radiator parts with steel. I can guess it also had to do with the migration from brass headlights to steel. This all occurred as World War I was heating up overseas. I think a lot of materials were need by our European trading partners and future allies, and brass was used for shells for small and heavy arms.

I suspect the switch from acetylene headlamps to electric had a lot to do with the decline, too.

Huh! My grandma worked at Hubley for quite a while.

I've been collecting and buying them for over fifty years. I love when a vendor on... the internet auction site... tells me I don't know what I'm talking about.

I specialize in the metal models; there's still one I don't have.

From what I understood, the switch from acetylene to electric headlights had to do with safety. Acetylene produced bright light, but if mishandled, could explode. Electric headlights where much safer, though the problem there was since they were powered by a magneto, they would dim if the T's engine idled. Later T's had batteries along with the magnetos to stop that problem. Interestingly enough, up into the 1920s, Model T running lights were oil lamps. But then, oil doesn't usually explode if you're not careful.

Yep, that was John D. Rockefeller's primary claim about his Standard Oil for use as illuminating fuel -- it was much safer than electricity. Although Edison's electric lights probably wouldn't burn your house down if the cat knocked it over (cat and careful aren't in the same hemisphere).

Magnetos generate high-voltage pulses that are timed to the crank position, which would not be useful for headlights. It's more likely the first electric headlights were run from a small fixed-magnet generator, but the headlights would definitely be dependent on engine speed without a voltage regulator. You also couldn't charge a battery without a regulator, because sustained higher engine speed would cook the battery, and low speeds would fail to charge it.

The mechanical points regulator was very likely the invention that enabled putting batteries in cars and having electric headlights (and battery charging) that did not depend on engine speed. Probably changed over with the advent of electric starters. Electric lights would be so much more convenient, not having to clean out the carbide generator (it smells TERRIBLE) or remember to bring enough water along to keep the headlights going.

interesting where I stumble over info...
found my first hubley model A at an old toy shop next village for like, 30$. alas, steering wheel is broken and one of the side lights is missing. found a nice one at ebay from an US seller, and thought to slaughter the first one for the taillights... in the end I kept both.

you don't happen to know where I can grab a steering wheel and taillights?


btw, there is a zamak model kit of a model A (or maybe an AA) flatbed, done by a company named Gabriel. it looks similar to hubley at first glance... are they maybe related?

Just keep checking eBay. People do buy kits and parts them out. I hate to see it, but sometimes it's the only way you can obtain the parts you need.

The Model A Roadster (convertible) pickup is an A; the AA was on the longer, beefier frame. They did the same thing with the earlier Model TT and the later BB.

Gabriel bought out Hubley in 1969 and they started changing the name on the box in late 1970. Gabriel eventually added some interesting Model T metal models (yes, I have them all). Gabriel sold the company to CBS (yeah, that CBS) and Quaker Oats. A few years later the new owners sold the dies to Scale Models and Ertl. Production ended by 2000 or so.

or maybe I'm lucky and finally find someone who can do a 3D scan of existing parts. everybody can print it, but making a file out of it is the fun part... I could start producing spare parts sets, then.
or I make tin die casts, who knows.

the kit I have seems to have a relatively long bed, with ornamental side panels. but I guess it's still an A.

interesting info, thanks for that. :)
I'm planning to do a kind of online museum for everything around ford-related model cars, so info about the makers long gone might come in handy. like for example, a japanese tin model car company named Haji, showed up early 60, vanished again without a trace after 63. and apparently Bandai bought some if not all tools and produced some of the models later under their "Fractura B" logo. found that out by accident, when I grabbed a model from ebay which looked too much like Haji while beign labeled Bandai.

I didn't think I had ever heard of Haji before, so I checked on eBay. Very expensive -- in the €75+ range. Some of what I saw reminded me of the Marx line of 'tin' toys from the early 1960s. I wonder if Marx imported Haji under their own mark?

I'd like to see the truck you described when you get that museum online.

I stumbled over Haji on a german fleamarket years ago. found a model of a 63 Thunderbird hardtop there, with detailed interior and openign doors, very elaborate. especially for 1:25 scale.
I'd have to look up Marx' tin toys. here in germany you can find only their various penny toy cars. but yes, it might be possible.

I'm workign on it. have to work out photographical kinks as well as where to host all that stuff. I'm afraid to count, but I suspect way over 4000 different models. XD

Mules will never go out of style.
https://www.harrisonmuledays.com

Had to look up Skunk Wagon, never heard it before... nice :)

It was an old cowboy term for the first automobiles. Their exhaust really was foul, hence "skunk wagon".

Early gasoline refining was hit 'n miss. (no pun intended).

It inspired the term 'Skunk Train' for the tourist (formerly lumber industry) railroad that runs between Ft. Bragg and Willits in northern California. The actual gas-powered locomotive that inspired the term doesn't run on the line, though..., they use steam or diesel electric locomotives, which don't smell as bad.

Adding a coyote makes any picture great!

That is one happy doggo in that car.

Great pic

Reminds one of that old comic strip "They'll Do It Every Time".

Maybe a better title would be "They'll Mule It Every Time".

snerk! Quayle Joke...