vandalism back in model a days

I guess our timing is perfect then, as yesterday May 26th in 1927, Model T production ceased.
 
MikeK said:
When A's were new the railroad was the transportation king and lines were wealthy beyond belief. They all had their own watchmen, police, and general strong-arm thugs who both rode with and guarded stopped freight trains. The RR's are all in financial distress now and cargo security is largely based on enclosed and locked transport.

The entire justice system mentality was different too. Back then stealing off a train could get your brains bashed in on the spot by a club wielding RR employee. Instant and cheap justice. Today you can't club a thief, they have personal rights! The lengthy and expensive arrest/ charge/ prosecute/ litigate process for most thefts would cost the RR more than the loss itself.
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http://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0362

"Today, the U.S. freight rail network is widely considered one of the most dynamic freight systems in the world. The $60 billion industry consists of 140,000 rail miles "

In my neck of the woods I have seem more train traffic than at anytime in my 51 years.. The number of new oil tank cars is just amazing.
 
MikeK said:
When A's were new the railroad was the transportation king and lines were wealthy beyond belief. They all had their own watchmen, police, and general strong-arm thugs who both rode with and guarded stopped freight trains. The RR's are all in financial distress now and cargo security is largely based on enclosed and locked transport.

The entire justice system mentality was different too. Back then stealing off a train could get your brains bashed in on the spot by a club wielding RR employee. Instant and cheap justice. Today you can't club a thief, they have personal rights! The lengthy and expensive arrest/ charge/ prosecute/ litigate process for most thefts would cost the RR more than the loss itself.
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You hit it right on the head Mike. I grew up back then and had relatives that were RR special agents. Anyone caught stealing from a rail car or rail property just seemed to disappear. If for some unknown reason the body was found it was always mangled beyond identification.
I like that kind of justice.
 
I remember a guy who worked for the company that transported GM cars by truck and trailer. One guy clipped the top of the car on an underpass and damaged it. When it was fixed, he bought the car.

When I worked one summer at a GM plant, the cars damaged during assembly were set aside and redone later, even if the car caught on fire, which some did. I always wondered whether those cars went to dealers as new cars, even if they had been damaged or burned and later fixed?
 
burner31 said:
No fluids?
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The Vega was designed with all the minimum fluids to be contained during shipping. The battery (Delco) had the cap to the rear for these cars as oem. Oil pan and gas tank had a baffle, windshield washer tank had rear opening. I don't remember what they did to the brake master cylinder, transmission or rearend. Lot of shipping engineering for a car that turned to crap on a salted road or a hot day. But GM was always big on style and not substance.
 
1927reocpe said:
As a guy in my late 50's now... I can remember when personal pride and respect for others property was a manly thing when I was growing up, and now it seems that gangsters are idolized too much and rebels... a handshake was a thing you could rely on not now, with greedy lawyers and people not taking responsibility for their own actions, trying to blame someone else for everything... Not everyone mind you, but way too many... just saying my P.O.V.
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WELL STATED. I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this today and you and I are about the same age.

When I worked for Deere we would build combines (Pluck you'll like this;)) here and ship them to the Ukraine in the former USSR. They traveled by train to Savannah, Georgia and were loaded on boats. They arrived in the Ukraine in perfect condition THEN the locals would start stealing everything off of them. It got so bad that their Govt. had to post armed guards on the docks AND send a soldier along w/ the combine until it got to final destination. We were told that more than one of the locals were 'dropped' by AK fire and tossed along the road. Vandalism stopped REAL fast:eek:
 
Brent said:
There have ALWAYS been thieves and folks looking for an easy buck, always. Since spraypaint wasn't available there were other forms of vandalism. Kids threw rocks at windows, scrawled names, etc., into wood and so on.
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Never understood how they make money from breaking windows and putting illegible names on things but it happens all too often.
 
1927reocpe said:
As a guy in my late 50's now... I can remember when personal pride and respect for others property was a manly thing when I was growing up, and now it seems that gangsters are idolized too much and rebels... a handshake was a thing you could rely on not now, with greedy lawyers and people not taking responsibility for their own actions, trying to blame someone else for everything... Not everyone mind you, but way too many... just saying my P.O.V.
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There seems to be a total lack of Moral Fiber in our current society. When I was a kid in the fifties, I worried what would happen if my mother ever found out that I did something bad. I never worried so much about my Dad finding out 'cause if it ever got to him, I was Dead.... As a result, neither myself, my brothers or sister got in trouble, that's just the way is was.... As it turned out all of our kids have conducted themselves in the same manner...
 
I think some of this nostalgia for earlier, happier times might be misplaced. The Teapot Dome Scandal was corruption at a high level. Prohibition fostered criminal syndicates all across the country. Henry Ford himself decried the debasement of society by popular music, while he was not demonizing Jewish people. All of this during the Model "A" era.
 
"He climbed to the split porch and looked into the kitchen. The windows were broken out, and throwing rocks lay on the floor, and the floor and walls sagged steeply away from the door, and the sifted dust was on the boards. Joad pointed to the broken glass and the rocks. 'Kids,' he said. 'They'll go twenty miles to bust a window. I done it myself.'"

-The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, 1939


Accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you, too, will get old
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
-Mary Schmich

-Tim
 
The T shown in the crate photo was for over seas shipping, Canadian production more then likely as it''s right hand drive. All photos that I have seen the cars are semi assembled and shipped by rail not in crates for US market. The cars were loaded in box cars at an angle against the wall, would look like an "X" if you looked from the end.
 
FWIW:

In my humble opinion, from 1930 to 2015, numbers of "locked" & "enclosed" railroad cars are proportional to numbers of "locked" & "enclosed" houses and businesses.

If anybody wants an education, just try to sift through 1930 photos of houses and businesses and look for steel bars on windows for comparison of what one sees today with our 2015 Great Society Lockdown.

Now couple all of this "observed" photographic information with the "unobserved" information such as comparing 1930 with 2015 like:

A. Numbers of security alarms in houses and business buildings.
B. Security guards in libraries, schools, department stores, grocery stores, parking garages, Federal and State Buildings etc., etc..
C. Increased numbers of deputies in rural areas; increased numbers of policemen in urban areas.
D. Increased numbers of overcrowded jail and prison cells where criminals are set free because of no vacancy.
E. Numbers of young felons accepted in today's military because of so few honest young guys.

Also, welfare checks amounts are just not enough to provide illegal drugs for our welfare recipients' drug addiction, so the money to buy drugs has to come from another source like looting and murdering.

To resolve this looting & murdering problem, do we need to increase the amounts of welfare checks to decrease looting?

Our current Press Hypnosis and our lack of moral Education appears to be very powerful in altering our common sense thinking and helps to make us forget what our old time grandparents taught us.
 
In the '60's, Chrysler Imperials were shipped from Detroit to Calif. by TRAIN! ALL the front wheel & rear axle bearings were DESTROYED, by the constant THUNKA-THUNKA- THUNKA! "They" even tried blocking them up--DIDN'T HELP!
Wonder if Ford lost bearings on LONG distance shipments???
While wondering, wonder if Henry ever said, "Now, fellows, DON'T ever HOT ROD these cars, that's SACRELIGIOUS"!! ! !
Bill W.
 
BILL WILLIAMSON said:
In the '60's, Chrysler Imperials were shipped from Detroit to Calif. by TRAIN! ALL the front wheel & rear axle bearings were DESTROYED, by the constant THUNKA-THUNKA- THUNKA!
Bill W.
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Rail travel is relatively smooth in comparison to road/truck travel.

Just Imperials? What about other makes? Sounds interesting. I would like to read up on this. If these Imperials could not stand up to rail shipment, how well did these bearings hold up when the car was in actual use on roads of varying condition?

Autos have been transported by rail for over 100 years now.
 
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