Researching the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Race

[Eric Moskowitz]

Hi all,

This is my first post, but I'm an enthusiastic reader/archival-searcher of the forum, as a writer and former newspaper reporter working on a book about the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Race.

I'm wondering if any collectors or Model T historians here might have any photos, materials, or other ephemera related to either the race itself or the No. 2's "victory tour" in the summer and fall after the race.

I first came to the story in 2009 while working for The Boston Globe. At the time, I wrote about the race around the hook of the centennial tour (with 55 Model Ts retracing the route) while revisiting the largely forgotten history of the Boston-based Shawmut Motor Company in the process. Along the way, I interviewed Trent Boggess and visited Lang's Old Car Parts, where I had my first-ever ride in a T (!) and came home with a gas-tank gauge ruler and a 1959 copy of "The Story of the Race," each of which I still have.

The story of the race stayed with me afterward for all kinds of reasons, including that Ford and Shawmut each saw themselves as David taking on Goliath: Ford entering a car at a fraction of the price and weight of the other entries, determined to prove that total horsepower mattered much less than the power-to-weight ratio and that a lightweight, affordable car could durably tackle the continent, and was not just for puttering around town; and Shawmut vying for survival, as a small start-up (if one among many trying to turn out hand-tooled luxury cars) that was just beginning to get good press when the factory burned down, entering the race in a long-shot bid to attract the publicity and capital needed to save the company.

But mainly it's just a great yarn -- filled with intrigue, subterfuge, and compelling characters, and unfolding across a rapidly evolving American landscape at a vivid moment in time.

Wanting to turn the story into a book, I took a research trip to Dearborn in 2018 and spent a week at the BFRC, but I didn't have the bandwidth then to finish the proposal. I finally cleared the decks in early 2021, completed and sold the proposal (to St. Martin's Press), and have been plugging away ever since.

In the course of research, I've gathered up as many 1909 news clips as I could find (from hundreds of local and national newspapers, trade publications, and other sources) and tracked down more than 50 descendants of people involved in the race in one fashion or another, including relatives from all six crews (the two Fords, the Shawmut, the Acme, the Itala ... and the Stearns, which started late and only got as far as Tarrytown, NY) and several of Ford's corporate branch managers, who served as "fixers" in every sense of the word (arranging to have dealers and agents in their territory serve as expert local guides for the Model Ts, publicizing the Ford entries to the local press, and engaging in tactics that the Ford team deemed savvy "generalship," though the ACA officials who ruled in favor of Shawmut's appeal would later take a dimmer view).

I've also tried to track down as many photos as possible from the race, with a substantial set of images housed at The Henry Ford/BFRC, as well in the Detroit Public Library (NAHC) and the University of Washington Libraries. Still, photos from the start and finish of the race in New York and Seattle -- as well as from the pathfinding expedition that preceded the race (involving the same Thomas Flyer that won the 1908 New York to Paris Race) and the No. 2's victory tour afterward -- are much more common than images from the 4,100 miles in between. Scenes of the actual race are rare.

There are some exceptions -- the crisp photos of the two Fords barreling into Cleveland side-by-side, the two Fords on the ferry at the Missouri River, and the half-dozen pictures from mud-caked Goodland, KS, of both Fords as well as the Shawmut. The Goodland images are "real photo" postcards, which makes sense, as this was both the golden age of postcards and a time when Kodak pocket cameras were proliferating, yielding the first real wave of candid snapshots of Main Street America. Seeing those -- and a few other postcard views that pop up once every few years on eBay (from places like Twin Falls, ID, and Cle Elum, WA) makes me think many more were taken all along the route and may exist out there in private collections.

If anyone has any leads, feedback, or other thoughts, I'd welcome hearing from you! Thanks so much for reading this post!

-Eric

P.S. Here are two of those images I mentioned that do survive from the race itself (as opposed to the pathfinder expedition, the start, the finish, or the post-race tour...), from the collections of The Henry Ford.

[DanTreace]

Eric

Wonderful endeavor.

Am sure your visit to Benson Ford was beneficial, there have been other books written on the race, including the Ford company pamphlet at the time Story of the Race. . A very good coverage is in Curt McConnell's, 2000, 'Coast to Coast Auto Races of the Early 1900's ' pub. by SAE, isbn 0-7680-0604-x

Here are some photos I have collected on the web and other places, including my original pennant sold to spectators at the time.

Ocean to Ocean pennant 1909 50 per.jpg (69.88 KiB) Viewed 9305 times

The Thomas that was the pathfinder car run prior to the race.

IMG_9581.JPG (128.55 KiB) Viewed 9305 times

On display after the race was over. Note the Guggenheim trophy, 42" tall, with $2000 worth of Yukon gold nuggets with total cost to build of $3500 (1909) that is over $100,000 today! And the whereabouts of it are unknown.

1e58c418-d60f-4f50-a9b7-8f4fe114f966.png (365.44 KiB) Viewed 9305 times

[Dollisdad]

In 1984 I was part of the 75th anniversary run. In St. Louis, the son of Bert Scott showed up at our hotel with photos his dad had of the race. I got copies of some posted here. You may try to find him if you haven’t already.

[Been Here Before]

See the back issues of the AACA magazine (circa 1950-1960).

See back issues of early automobile/horseless carriage journals and magazines. Easily found on line.

[Been Here Before]

See AACA mag 1959.

[Been Here Before]

Of course the 1909 race was used to sell cars.

A July 1909, newspaper article stated that New York to Seattle race proved that the Model T was a tough car. and to show "you" that it is a though reliable car, here is a list of folks from Philadelphia who are buying the Ford.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Dan, Tom, George -- this is all terrific! Thanks so much for all of this. Where to begin ...


Dan -- what a pennant! Wow. And I agree, the account in Curt McConnell's Coast to Coast Auto Races of the Early 1900s is terrific; he really put in a lot of legwork, particularly studying newspaper microfilm and magazine bound volumes in a time right before the widespread digitization of many historical newspapers. The pictures are terrific, too. Of the ones he attributed to the Detroit Public Library/NAHC, I've been able to find most through their digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org search tool; however, a few don't turn up, despite trying to enter every creative search term I could think of for the terms in the metadata. Unfortunately, the NAHC (housed at the DPL's Skillman Branch) was closed for a burst pipe when I was out at the BFRC in 2018, and it's currently closed again long-term due to a major redevelopment project next door. The special collections staff have tried hard to find those missing photos but haven't been able to track them down yet, alas, either in print or online.

On this photo ...

scott and smith in ford with number crossed out.jpeg (100.25 KiB) Viewed 9111 times

I'm really intrigued by it, and have seen it before, but haven't been able to pin down the details. I'm curious if anyone knows anything specific about it. Scott and Smith (the No. 2 crew) are clearly in everyday clothes, so it's after the race -- well after I think, because during their July-August-September car they were exceedingly careful about maintaining the look of the No. 2, not just with the racing number on the hood but with the dust and mud caked all over, showing the signs of holding up to hard use. (There are some great clips about them stopping well-intentioned locals who tried to hose it off for them on the victory tour.) That the number "2" is obliterated and there are no "New York to Seattle" markings on it makes me think this must be quite a bit later, maybe even the following year or after.


Because the sister car -- the No. 1, which finished third -- still had its racing paint job almost two years after the race! See this image from Ford Times (Vol. 4, I believe; it's one of the volumes that's not digitized online, as I couldn't find it on Google Books or HathiTrust) that I saw at the BFRC. That's Frank Kulick with the No. 1 visiting the Roberts-Toledo Ford dealership in Fremont, Ohio. (Stanley Roberts had been the in-house sales manager at Ford, then left in the winter of '08-09 -- immediately recognizing the potential of the Model T -- to establish first one and then quickly a chain of dealerships in northern Ohio; he had a knack for marketing and made sure the Fords got good coverage in the Toledo press when the race came through.)

A real-photo postcard version of that same photo at the bottom right of the Ford Times page actually popped up on ebay earlier this fall! That's one thing that prompted me to post, wondering if whoever acquired it might have a collection of photos of the race and might be an MTFCA Forum member...

[Eric Moskowitz]

And apologies for all the repeated uses of the word "terrific" above, lol ... I'm a sleep-deprived dad of two young children (my boys are 6 and 3) working on a book often in the late hours when the house is quiet, so sometimes the synapses aren't firing when it comes to synonyms (or anything else) on first pass.

Dan, did you colorize the last image in your post with colorize-it? I'd seen it before as an online thumbnail in black and white but not in detail -- I hope to get out to Seattle for a research trip in the near future -- and had somehow missed the trophy! It really pops in that image. Thank you for that!

And, wow, there is ... certainly a lot to unpack in this photo as a document from history:

Antero inspecting the Shawmut.png (371.85 KiB) Viewed 9097 times

Behind the rope, the man in the loin cloth is Antero, who was the best known of the indigenous Igorot people (an ethnic Austronesian group from the mountains in the northern Philippines) who lived and performed on display in exploitative "human zoo" exhibits at a variety of World's Fairs and expositions in the early 1900s. He'd first become a media darling at the St. Louis World's Fair when he was about 12, in 1904.

The Igorot people have millennia-old expertise with the metal-forging process known as "lost-wax casting." Coincidentally, all of the cars in the race bore a series of wax seals showing the insignia of the Automobile Club of America, which had been applied right before the start to those major components (axles, engines, etc.) that were not allowed to be replaced during the race, only repaired.

Here's a cool shot from the DPL/NAHC collection of one of the stamps being applied to the Stearns (which started late) outside the ACA headquarters in Manhattan:

Anyway, when Shawmut first appealed Ford's victory at AYP Exposition, they lodged a variety of charges, including raising the possibility that Ford had swapped components that were not supposed to be replaced.

Someone got the idea to bring Antero over from his display to inspect the wax insignias on the cars to see if they were original, mainly as a media stunt. Here's one of the stories about it, from the Idaho Republican:

Antero didn't find anything untoward, because Ford never tinkered with the wax insignias themselves. Instead, they got caught (months later) via Oregon Short Line shipping receipts that a Shawmut guide -- who had experience as a railroad special agent -- tracked down. When the No. 2 ran into engine trouble late in the race, Ford ended up swapping out the engine with a replacement so that they could save time and send the car on its way -- and then repaired the original engine and shipped it ahead by freight train to be swapped back in at Weiser, Idaho. That way the original engine was once again in the car when it reached the finish in Seattle, for inspection.

[Craig Leach]

Hi Eric,
Just a thought because the # 2 Ford was eventually disqualified some attention to the # 1 Ford may be of interest also. As it was the real
best performing Ford in the race.
Craig.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Tom, that's amazing that you went on the 75th anniversary run in 1984! Oh, how I wish I could have met Bert/Burt Scott's Jack, let alone Bert/Burt himself! Speaking of ... that nickname spelling is something I'm going to have to reconcile eventually. Scott's given name was Bernard William Scott. Aside from the stories that referred to him as B.W., virtually every newspaper account I've come across, even his 1940 obituaries, as well as the Ford Times coverage in 1909, referred to him as Bert with an e. But when Jack pieced wrote a book about his father -- The Big Race -- shortly after the 1984 run, he referred to him as "Burt."

Jack had been just 20 years old when his dad died, and he did yeoman's work later to try to piece together his father's story and the story of the race, from scrapbooks and photos at home and materials at The Henry Ford. (He also has a son today who goes by Burt with a u.) So I'm not sure if it's the case that the original B.W. used the two nickname spellings interchangeably or if he simply never corrected the printed record or if Jack later adopted in his writing more than 40 years after his dad died. I'm sorry to report that Jack, who linked up with the tour in 1984, passed away in 2008 at the age of 89. I've been in touch with his daughters, who have been really helpful.

And I love the photos you shared are so great! The top one (showing the streetcar stop on the right) is taken on the approach to Cleveland, either just before or just after the one I included in the first post with the two cars side by side. I wonder if the person in the long white or khaki coat might possibly be the photographer (and if that protected him from photo chemicals?), or if that was just a practical motoring "duster" or some other style choice (more likely, as I think about it now).

In any event, that same person in the white coat can also be seen in this picture taken right after the Ford then arrived in downtown Cleveland, in front of the Hollenden Hotel:

The other three photos are part of a larger set that Burt/Bert himself took on the return tour, which they have at the BFRC. That Burt/Bert Scott was behind the camera is why he's often absent from the pictures showing the harsh environment out West on the return trip, as they usually show either C.J. Smith alone with the car or the car empty. Many of the pictures Scott took ran in the Ford Times in the months that followed.

[Eric Moskowitz]

See AACA mag 1959.
Scan1909race1.jpg
Scan1909race2.jpg

George -- Thanks so much for sharing this! I had not come across it before, and it's great to see. I really appreciate it.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Hi Eric,
Just a thought because the # 2 Ford was eventually disqualified some attention to the # 1 Ford may be of interest also. As it was the real
best performing Ford in the race.
Craig.

Craig, that's a great thought. Ford very much wanted the two cars to finish 1-2, with the specific expectation -- I think -- that the No. 1 would come in first, between conferring it the first of the two assigned numbers, giving the wheel to Frank Kulick (the one who had by far the best racing pedigree of any in-house employee), and putting H.B. Harper (the advertising manager and editor of Ford Times) in that car with Kulick as "mechanic" so that he could document the journey every step of the way!

After the Shawmut suffered its first real break down near Bancroft, Idaho, the Ford No. 1 was able to build a pretty substantial lead -- 9 to 12 hours, depending on the account -- by the time it reached American Falls, ID, and it very well might have stayed in first place the rest of the way had Kulick and Harper not been so far ahead that they arrived there in advance of the Ford-selected guide who was supposed to pilot them for the next stretch. They got antsy and decided to leave early with a supposed expert that they met there in town, but he turned out to be such a hack that they got severely lost -- and then ran out of gas in the process, several miles from civilization -- and were never a threat to overtake the No. 2 or the Shawmut and regain their lead after that.

And the No. 1's accident in Snoqualmie Pass is an intriguing wrinkle. Snoqualmie seems to have been an almost unimaginable minefield -- a seasonal logging trail with deep pockets of snow in June, hidden boulders, mud, rotting corduroy timbers, and in many places impenetrable walls of towering pines on either side of the "road," making going around any obstacles there impossible. When the No. 1 struck a boulder near the summit, damaging the axle and the transmission case, Kulick spent seven hours working on the car. He ended up replacing the axle in the end, even as they knew it would be disqualifying, though by then they had already lost out on the coveted first and second but were way ahead still of the fourth-place Acme. (Earlier in the race, before the finish was a given, multiple cars had visited local blacksmiths for axle repairs -- instead of replacement -- including the No. 2 in Rawlins, Wyoming.)

It wasn't planned to have the No. 1 get disqualified, but being transparent about it -- owning it when they arrived in Seattle -- ended up giving Ford some cover for the allegations that would soon come against the winning No. 2. In interviews (and even in later ad copy), Henry Ford as well as Charles Hendy claimed that Shawmut's appeal was just sour grapes -- that Ford had complied with every rule, and that the only disqualifying act they had committed was changing the axle on the third-place No. 1, which they'd been open about the whole time.

Interesting stuff. I'm trying to picture a mountaintop axle replacement. I imagine they must have sent up the replacement part via "The Milwaukee Road," which had just finished a temporary surface rail link over the pass as part of a rapid effort to bring the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad all the way to Seattle in time for the World's Fair. (A more permanent tunnel under the pass would follow a few years later.) All the construction actually affected the race, as normally there was a road around Lake Keechelus, the body of water at the base of Snoqualmie on the eastern approach. Because it was blocked off, the only route was the as-needed ferry ... which the Shawmut crew complained was nowhere to be found when they reached the lake a few hours behind the No. 1.

[Craig Leach]

Eric,
My fondness for the # 1 Ford comes from having the opportunity to get a very nice and pretty correct replica of the # 1 Ford running,
driving & taking it across the auction block of the Barrett-Jackson in 2015 in Scottsdale Az. I was impressed with the performance
of the replica. Those short exhaust pipes where real loud.
Craig.

[Rob]

Eric,
I've been interested in the O2O race for some time, in addition to being a great story in Ford history, but also because of my interest in Ford Model K and Frank Kulick.

Below are several photos and articles from a group of file I've collected.

A Ford 6-40, Model K Roadster was selected to Pilot the racers from the start in New York to St. Louis. When I first learned of this, I was immediately curious as to why the Model K, by the spring of 1909 a year of year model, was chosen to lead the cars. As with the famous Thomas car selected as the pathfinder, it would appear many spectacular cars might have been chosen for the honor. When looking into the matter further, it turns out the driver of the Model K, F. W. Teves, was a Ford agent who had been involved with the sale of Fords, and in particular Model K, since the model was introduced in 1906. Below, Teves is mentioned regarding Ford, and the newly introduced Model K, in May, 1906:

I know your research may not necessarily be interested in this one small part of the story. However, that's not stopped me in the past.........


Ford 6-40 at the start:

[Rob]

We knew that the Model K led the procession as far as Chicago, reaching Chicago on June 5th, 1909:

However, until a year or so ago, I didn't know if the Model K (or another) continued on to St. Louis as the pilot. As it turns out, a K did lead the racers on to St. Louis. Confirmation of that fact came from this news clip reporting the racers passing through Mexico, Mo. Mexico is along the way between St. Louis and Kansas City MO:

Turns out a Model K (I don't know if this is the same roadster that began the trip in New York, or another picked up at the Ford Chicago branch) did pilot the racers on to St. Louis, and was continuing with the Ford racers (controls were off after St. Louis), until laying up in Mexico MO for repairs. A couple do days later, the Model K begins the journey back to St. Louis. As for the Ford racers, the rest is history.....

Eric,
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your project, and ultimately reading your book.
All my best,
Rob

[DHort]

Rob,
,
That brings up another point. How far was the Model K suppose to pilot the cars? Was it going to go on to Kansas City or Denver, if it went as far as Mexico? Was the repair in Mexico just enough to get the car able to limp back to St Louis?

I have always wondered why they took a southern route when they could have gone through Nebraska or all the way up to Minneapolis. Was the population density, and availability of gasoline an issue in 1909?

[Rob]

Dave,
The announced plan was for the pilot car and race master (Gerrrie, A.A.A representative) to act as control to St. Louis. The reason the other sanctioning body (name escapes, maybe Eric or others will fill in the info) lifted their sanction was because it was a “road race.” The plan was to observe speed limits and time limits until St. Louis, and from then on a “free for all.”

I have another article that reports Sorensen and Henry Ford were at St Louis (I believe HF was at Chicago too), and also went on west. It appears HF shadowed the race throughout. It would be interesting to follow his travels and schedule during this event.

Bottom line, Ford was “all in.” Ford had left track racing at the end of 1907, in large part due to Kulick’s wreck with the six cylinder racer, and except for one race in 1908, had abstained from racing. The O2O race came at the perfect time for Ford to demonstrate the capabilities of the new Model T, as well as utilize what by this time was the largest nationwide dealer/service network in the country.

I still find it remarkable that Ford chose the Model K to lead the racers. It’s almost a “passing the baton” from the big fast six, to the nimble, economical and yet durable Model T.

I wonder too why the south route was chosen. Maybe the troubles the NY to Paris racers experienced the year before influenced the decision not to go through Nebraska and Wyoming?

All my opinions. Again, looking forward to reading more about this project.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Eric,
My fondness for the # 1 Ford comes from having the opportunity to get a very nice and pretty correct replica of the # 1 Ford running,
driving & taking it across the auction block of the Barrett-Jackson in 2015 in Scottsdale Az. I was impressed with the performance
of the replica. Those short exhaust pipes where real loud.
Craig.

Craig, thanks for sharing that! May I ask, how would you describe the sound, the smell, the feel, the overall sensory experience of operating or riding in the replica No. 1 (with its lack of muffler and exhaust coming straight out of the hood) to a stock Model T?

In reading narrative nonfiction that conjures the past, one of the things that always strikes me as distinguishing the work of the masters of the from -- like Erik Larson -- is how immersive and observed it feels, hitting all the senses, and with scenes that read like either a novel or like something that the writer witnessed firsthand, even as they're constructed from hard-earned details buried deep in time.

And speaking of what it's like to ride in a Model T -- the No. 1, the No. 2, or a stock model -- do any of you have favorite descriptive passages? I really like this from E.B. White in The New Yorker in 1936 ("Farewell, My Lovely!"):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936 ... -my-lovely

[DHort]

Eric,

You need to have a ride in a Model T just to see what they are like. I know you received a ride, but was it long enough to be called a ride, or just a tease. This will be easy for you to do come spring. Most Model T's have been put away for the winter out by you. Then you need a ride in a Speedster. Nothing like riding in a Model T, although the car is a Model T. I do not think there is any other way to describe it. They are the same car, but they are not the same.

Then you might need to get a ride in a Model K touring, and a Model K 6-40. Similar, but not the same.

If you have the time, you can be taught how to drive one in less than 30 minutes. I am sure there is someone out East who would be willing to do that.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Eric,
I've been interested in the O2O race for some time, in addition to being a great story in Ford history, but also because of my interest in Ford Model K and Frank Kulick.

Rob, I'm so glad to hear from you! I had actually gone back through the search and read all of your Kulick posts a few months back, and then read the two-part article, which was excellent. I'm so impressed with the depth of your research on Kulick, and I agree that his story is a compelling one. I'm also interested in your research on the Model K.

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement on the project, and for saying you're looking forward to the book -- that means a lot.

I'm really intrigued by the picture you have of the Model K pace car with Gerrie and Teves. I've seen versions of it before but never with the hand-written caption ("Pilot Car to Seattle ...") at the bottom. May I ask, where did you come across it?

And Dave -- you asked an excellent question about how far the Model K was supposed to go (and how far it actually went, for that matter). I've had the same question, and the answer that emerges from the newspaper coverage is not a tidy one, if I remember -- though I don't want to guess on this, as I'm not entirely through the processing part of the work, having gathered a ton of material but still trying to wrap my arms around it.

But I believe that Teves and Gerrie drove together through New York State, and then Teves turned back and Gerrie rode the remaining stages to St. Louis as a passenger in one of the larger competing cars in the contest. St. Louis is where the speed controls and the night restrictions fell away and it became a true race to Seattle.

The 11/1/1909 Ford Times indicates as much about Teves in this caption, accompanying a photo of Scott and Smith and the No. 2 after they'd returned to New York on the cross-country tour in time for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in late September 1909 (a full three months and an additional 6,000 miles after they'd reached the finish line in Seattle):

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage from the evening of 6/7/1909 had Gerrie riding part of the way on the Chicago-St. Louis leg with the Acme (No. 4), then hopping off and jumping on a train so he could be the first one -- and remain the pacesetter, enforcing the rules and carrying the flag for the race's sanctioning body, the ACA -- to reach St. Louis that morning, when it was clear the Fords were going to arrive hours ahead of the rest.

I've connected with a couple of Gerrie's great-grandchildren as well as with Teves's granddaughter. Both were interesting characters -- which I'm finding is true of so many who were drawn to the automobile industry in its infancy.

Gerrie was originally a sports writer/editor in Toronto who came to the US in 1897 as the lead bicycle man for the New York Herald, at a time when the country was in the grips of the bicycle craze as both a spectator sport and a cultural phenomenon, for exercise, recreation, and transportation. But he was ahead of the curve and recognized the coming automobile age, and by the dawn of the century had become the first regular automobile columnist and first full-time auto editor in the daily-newspaper world. He was nearly killed in the fall of 1901 in a car driven by famed racer Henri Fournier when it was struck at high speed at a grade crossing by an LIRR locomotive and hurled into the air. (Fournier had taken a group of five journalists and "automobile men" out to explore a stretch of Long Island road being considered for a speed trial; they were coming back from meeting with Willie K. Vanderbilt, who had warned them about the treacherous crossing near Westbury.)

Anyway, in those days, a couple of decades before most newspapers would adopt a code of ethics separating the news staff from the advertising side, and striving for dispassionate distance between the journalists and the subjects they cover, automotive journalists routinely and openly held official positions with automobile shows or salons and automobile clubs and were involved in races and tours. That's how he ended up as the pacemaker, representing the race-sanctioning Automobile Club of America.

Teves, the driver, was an accomplished sculler and sailor -- in 1930, he would win the fabled Bacardi Cup -- who started selling in autos in Brooklyn with his brother-in-law in his early 20s, around 1903, as Teves & Hendricks. Like many Ford dealers (as opposed to corporate branches) then, they appeared to carry multiple makes (I found one classified ad from 1905 advertising a Centaur electric car), at least in the early going. They certainly had the Ford agency for Brooklyn by 1906, with some later indications that they had it even earlier. In any event, they certainly were established Ford salesmen by the 1909 OTO. I believe that means as an agency they would have answered to the Manhattan factory branch, managed by Gaston Plantiff. Ford had 10 corporate-owned branch stores in the US at the time, and the race route was divvied up among the branch managers in each region the race passed through (NYC, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, KC, Seattle -- leaving Philly, Detroit, and Boston off the hook), with those managers in turn responsible for lining up the relay network of "pilots" who would guide the No. 1 and No. 2 across unfamiliar terrain (anywhere from 25 to 100 miles at a time, give or take; they were often Ford agents, dealers, or sub-dealers who lived and worked on or near the route) and generating publicity for the Ford entries in the local press. I suspect then that Plantiff would have been the one who drafted Teves to serve as the initial pacemaker driver in the glorified parade through Manhattan and the early part of the race through New York State, and probably was the one who seized the opportunity to put up a Model K as the initial pace car, too.

More to come!

[Rob]

Eric,
I've found it a bit confusing as to when, and who, was in the pacemaker/pilot car at times. That's why a few key articles have been helpful as far as "tracking" when the K roadster (or a K model, as in the Chicago to St. Louis portion, still not sure if the roadster was still the K pilot, but we do know a K was running with the Fords, that were in the lead and battling wet muddy conditions on the way to St. Louis (if memory serves, which it often does not). The driver mentioned in the K to St. Louis, H. C. Apgar, was a Ford Detroit rep at this point, and would later become the Dallas branch manager, eventually opening a Ford dealership in California).

This "Inter-Ocean" article brings Teves, Gerrie and the Model K into Chicago, just behind the two Fords. It's possible Gerrie may, or may not have been physically in the K at this time, but the report seems pretty concise. Regardless, I take it the K was still with the two lead Fords, with Teves at the wheel. My hope has been to find a photo of the three entering Chicago, but as yet I"ve not found one. I do have a newspaper photo of the K at another location, but still trying to put my hands on it, in my "well organized (not)" file system......

[Aussie16]

This is a fantastic post. A wonderful read of many knowledgeable contributors. I cant wait to read the book. I am particulalry impressed by the pictures shared by Tom Rootlieb which were pictures I had never seen. Very much looking forward to reading more of this posty.

[Rob]

Eric,
I intended to mention, I don't know where the two photos (same pic, different sources) are from, with one mentioning the "Pilot" on it. Possibly from the Detroit Public LIbrary, however I'm not sure.

A few more "tidbits." I wish I had a better copy of the photos in this French article:

This "Chicago Tribune" article reports Chicago Ford Branch Manager Tom Hay met the racers in his own six cylinder Ford, escorting them into the city:

Into Buffalo N.Y., and mention in the Ford Times regarding Gerrie comments about the Ford racers near Syracuse N.Y.:

[Been Here Before]

Too, I you haven't maybe try Library of Congress for photographs?
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q= ... omobile%20

[TRDxB2]

Google'd 1909 Ocean to Ocean race https://www.google.com/search?q=1909+Oc ... 0&dpr=1.33
List some images

--
--
But the real find is this account of the race pictures below are from the PDF

1909 ocean to ocean race diary.pdf

(8.03 MiB) Downloaded 62 times

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References from the book
University of Washington - When the World Came to Campus
http://content.lib.washington.edu/exhib ... /race.html

[Rob]

Frank and George, good links, thank you.

As with the crystal punch bowl trophy (requested by Alexander Winton) Henry Ford won with his first racer, the trophy is probably lost to history. Sure be a heckuva score on a garage sale…..

[TRDxB2]

I should have noted that the account of the 1909 Ocean to Ocean race in the PDF above reads like a diary written from the perspective of the race itself as if it were a person. It is an incredible account of the race with many pictures as well. I doubt if there is anything else that could have been added to account for the day to day activities Some pages below

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oorace6.png (111.12 KiB) Viewed 8575 times

[Eric Moskowitz]

Just digging out now after a full weekend. So many great posts here! I'm really grateful, and going to go through one by one.

First, Dave, this one came in late Friday (early Saturday morning EST) just as I was writing my last post. I couldn't agree more! I definitely hope to take a renewed ride with fresh eyes this spring and couldn't imagine finishing the book without doing so. Is there anyone on the forum who lives in driving distance of Boston and would be open to a demonstration? (I'd make sure to acknowledge it in the book and also give you a signed copy when the time comes, of course!)

I was already thinking about reaching out again to Lang's -- I haven't been in touch since I wrote that story for the Globe in 2009, but I still have the gas-gauge stick and the (1959 reprint/collector's edition) copy of "The Story of the Race" booklet that they gave me. They were so welcoming last time! They're about 75 minutes northwest of me, so that would be an easy day trip...

Eric,

You need to have a ride in a Model T just to see what they are like. I know you received a ride, but was it long enough to be called a ride, or just a tease. This will be easy for you to do come spring. Most Model T's have been put away for the winter out by you. Then you need a ride in a Speedster. Nothing like riding in a Model T, although the car is a Model T. I do not think there is any other way to describe it. They are the same car, but they are not the same.

Then you might need to get a ride in a Model K touring, and a Model K 6-40. Similar, but not the same.

If you have the time, you can be taught how to drive one in less than 30 minutes. I am sure there is someone out East who would be willing to do that.

[Eric Moskowitz]

This is a fantastic post. A wonderful read of many knowledgeable contributors. I cant wait to read the book. I am particulalry impressed by the pictures shared by Tom Rootlieb which were pictures I had never seen. Very much looking forward to reading more of this posty.

Thanks so much, Warwick! I can't tell you how much the enthusiastic responses here in this group mean to me -- a shot in the arm, as writing a book is such a long (and often solitary) journey.

Coming from Australia, you might enjoy this photo, which I found at the Benson Ford Research Center (Acc. 1854, Binder 15, a collection of a few dozen photos and Ford Times page reprints related to the OTO):

The handwritten notes on the verso left a question about the location (looks like someone wrote "In Detroit? docks. / Capitalizing on race publicity"), but if you look closely at the crate it says:

The Car in this case is a duplicate of the
FORD MOTOR CAR 20 H.P.
which won the GREAT 4100 Miles
OCEAN TO OCEAN RACE
NEW YORK TO SEATTLE
Ford Motor Garage 25?? Elizabeth

Trying to figure out the location by searching for "Ford Motor" and "Elizabeth" in that era, I then found this ad on newspapers.com from June 26, 1909 -- just two days after the #2 crossed the finish line, accounting for the international date line -- from The Sydney Morning Herald, advertising the victory, with a confirming Elizabeth Street address for the local Ford agency:

[Eric Moskowitz]

Rob, may I ask where you found this? It's so cool to see!

MTFCA - French article on race.jpeg (100.08 KiB) Viewed 8475 times

I've searched for the race (articles and images) in as many online and brick-and-mortar places as I can think of or have access to, including newspapers.com, Genealogy Bank, ProQuest, NewspaperArchive, NewsBank/Readex, the Library of Congress (and Chronicling America), individual-state historical newspaper sites (some states with papers digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program don't overlap with the LOC and maintain their own databases), local library sites (some counties and municipalities have digitized their own archival newspapers), Google Books, HathiTrust, as well as Google and Google Image searches. Between that and the photo collections of BFRC, DPL, and a couple of other institutions, I've been able to amass a few thousand clips and a few hundred photos.

Still, I hadn't thought to search foreign-language sources! This is one of the many reasons turning to expert crowd-sourcing and drawing on the collective MTFCA Forum expertise is such a boon!

Rob, I'd never seen that French clipping. What's especially fascinating to me is that the photo location of the two images in your clip above -- the one at lower right showing the Model K pace car, the one at lower left showing the #1 leading the pack -- appears to match this image of the Shawmut from the DPL:

This makes me immediately wonder two things:

-- Where was this taken?
-- Do any other images of the cars in the race taken from this same vantage exist?

The Shawmut photo at the DPL can be found online here: https://digitalcollections.detroitpubli ... a%3A199363. The caption and metadata don't mention the Shawmut but describe at as "three men posing in car during unidentified cross-country tour," with "Boston, New York, Seattle" painted on the side storage trunk in view and "Tours -- New York to Seattle" handwritten on the print's verso. (That's how I found it, searching the DPL Digital Collections for anything tagged "Seattle.")

The clean condition of the cars makes me think it's the first day of the race. (Before, seeing only the Shawmut, I wondered if it might either be a picture on their way to the starting line in NYC from Boston or on a test run over that Memorial Day Weekend between when they'd arrived and when the race actually started; but now it's clear from the clip you found, Rob, that it must be early in the race.)

The forested setting would argue against Manhattan, except that there are pockets of Upper Manhattan even today where you might see only trees by the road (along Riverside Drive, and near Fort Tryon Park and Inwood Hill Park) if you had a close-cropped photo, and that would have been even more rustic/arboreal-looking in 1909. But it also could have been taken anywhere between the starting line and Poughkeepsie (where several striking photos were taken -- the last good photos I've seen until the Midwest; more on this TK in the next post).

My understanding of the route is that they left City Hall and took Broadway the entire way for 7 1/2 miles until they reached 116th Street (Columbia University), then turned left toward Riverside Park/Riverside Drive, hugging the Hudson River for about a mile (passing Grant's Tomb) and then banking back to Broadway the rest of the way through Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood, before crossing over into the Bronx and then Westchester County. If you're also a baseball fan, you may be interested to know that at 165th and Broadway they would have passed hard by the 16,000-seat Hilltop Park -- home to the American League ball club known then as both the Highlanders and the Yankees -- though the team was on the road in DC that day. (The Yankees would stay there through 1912, then move to the Polo Grounds for a decade until Yankee Stadium opened.

But I digress. If anyone has any more intel on this photo location -- or has ever seen any other photos from the race taken here, I'd be elated to hear about it!

[Eric Moskowitz]

Now as to the Poughkeepsie photos I mentioned above ...

Some of my favorite photos of the race were taken at the end of the first day in Poughkeepsie -- where the front desk of the Nelson House Hotel served as the first of 30 checkpoints in the race, and which also served as the first of six overnight control stations (Poughkeepsie, Syracuse, Buffalo, Toledo, Chicago, St. Louis) where crews were required to rest for the night, before the night-driving bans and speed controls fell away in the West.

I first saw these two in person at the BFRC, in the Ocean to Ocean collections:

That's the No. 2 Ford and the No. 6 Itala. I especially love the Itala photo; some of the newspaper clips from the first day describe how Itala crew member F.B. Whittemore (Franceso Bianchi Whittemore Jr., a recent Yale grad and member of the Demarest coach-building family -- his mother was a Demarest -- that had imported this Itala and built the body) had garnered enthusiastic notice among the crowds lining the sidewalk in Manhattan as he was wearing a corduroy suit, side-lace-up boots, and a hat with a feather ... standing out in contrast to most of the others in the various crews who were wearing khaki ducksuits, driving caps, and goggles. At least on the print (if not here as an attachment) you can clearly see all that attire on Whittemore in the passenger seat at near right.


Anyway, I then found this photo below online at the DPL, clearly taken on the same street at the same point in time. Curiously, the DPL caption and metadata identifies it as "Men and boys posing with 1909 Shawmut automobile, 1909 New York to Seattle Race" -- it's definitely from the race, but that's not the Shawmut. With no racing number on the hood and no dusty crew inside, my guess is this car belongs to a local auto dealer or enthusiast who joined the approaching racers on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie and followed the caravan into town. (Unfortunately, this is the only picture tagged as the Shawmut in the DPL's online database.)

An incredibly helpful BFRC library/archives staff member then tracked this image down for me in Acc. 1660 (the automobile racing addendum, box 4), which shows the Ford No. 1 in the same place:

In this photo of the No. 1, you can make out the bottom half of the "6" painted on the radiator grille of the Itala behind it, partly visible (as a circle) under the crooked elbow of the young man in the suit and newsboy hat immediately behind the Ford.

The back of the photos shows that these were taken by Spooner & Wells, one of the leading NYC photo outfits at the time specializing in automotive pictures. In 1925 they sold their studio and images (half a million negatives) to Nathan Lazarnick, who incidentally had also taken starting line photos in 1909. I found this brief in Motor West (which was published by F. Ed Spooner), noting the sale and explaining that Spooner and Charles S. Wells had been partners from 1905 until 1924, when, tragically, Wells was killed while trying to prevent Spooner's car from rolling down hill in Summit, NJ: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mo ... frontcover


Back to 1909 and Poughkeepsie: I consulted a fire insurance map of the city from the era to get the lay of the street. The Collingwood Opera House (light-up "Opera House" sign seen in 3 of the 4 photos above) -- today known as the Bardavon, the oldest continuously operated theater in New York State -- had its marquee and lobby entrance on Market directly across from the Nelson House Hotel, but with the theater itself set back behind a five-story brick office/retail block. Of the four above, only the picture of the No. 2 doesn't show the Opera House sign; it's pictured in front of 37 Market Street, which was immediately to the west of the theater entrance.

If Spooner & Wells took photos of cars No. 1, 2, and 6 on this street -- plus a photo of a mystery car -- it stands to reason that they also captured the Acme (No. 4) and Shawmut (No. 5) here. (The Stearns never made it this far.)

Has anyone ever encountered those photos, to complete this set? (They're probably long gone, but it doesn't hurt to ask!)

Thanks!
Eric

[Rob]

Eric,
You've found quite a lot. When we speak at a point, I have a few ideas and suggestions regarding DPL.

It's good to find another researcher(s) looking at similar, yet dissimilar areas. What one person may not be looking for may be important for another researcher. My primary interest (although, what's not interesting about O2O?) was the fact a Ford Co. owned one year out of date Model K was selected for the high profile position of piloting the cars from New York to Chicago, St. Louis, or wherever the "official" duties of the "K" and Teves ended. My take has been that Henry Ford was "all in" for the race, and felt the combination of his dealer network and quality of his light, powerful (horsepower to weight ratio) car was perfectly suited to this contest. My unfounded suspicion is, when the many other manufacturers pulled out of the race, he was more than happy to offer up the Model K. Ford was still actively advertising, and selling the remaining Model K, primarily Roadsters, and this (in my opinion) created the perfect juxtaposition of the big, racy K roadster "passing the torch" to the quick, svelte, versatile and reasonably inexpensive ($850 was still nothing to sneeze at, the equivalent of about $26,000 today).

As seen by the selection of the famous New York to Paris winning Thomas Flyer for pathfinder, Guggenheim and the planners of this contest were going big, and it was expected this would create a big media "splash." Up until a short time before the start, as many as 13 cars were still on board for the run.

Below is the complete page from "La revue de l'automobile," as well as a front page with date. I believe I found the page through "Galicca-BnF digital library:"

https://www.bnf.fr/en/gallica-bnf-digital-library

Cheers,
Rob

[TRDxB2]

From Eric's Photo's & map I Google'd to find Today's location. Note the posts in front of the theater

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The Nelson House across the street from the Opera House was a 50 room Hotel. There is a small park there with a Historical Marker about the Nelson House but does not appear to mention the O2O

[Eric Moskowitz]

From Eric's Photo's & map I Google'd to find Today's location. Note the posts in front of the theater
O2O pny2.png
O2O pNY1.png
O2O pny4.png
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The Nelson House across the street from the Opera House was a 50 room Hotel. There is a small park there with a Historical Marker about the Nelson House but does not appear to mention the O2O
O2O pny5.png

Frank, this is great! I can't get enough of then/now photo comparisons. Thanks for putting these together. And in historical-marker news, though the Nelson House tablet might not mention the race, I just learned that the Historical Commission in Stoneham, Mass., (the town where the Shawmut was built) recently installed a marker at the park where the Shawmut factory burned to the ground in the early morning hours of November 13, 1908.

I'll be out that way again in a few weeks and will photograph the marker.

In the meantime, here's the fire coverage from that day's PM Globe (11/13/08):

Quite coincidentally, that would be the same day (a few hours later) that Charles E. Fay and the Boston Ford branch would receive its first batch of Model Ts and show them off to the local press (this, from the Sunday Globe, 11/15/08):

[KeithG]

Eric, I enjoy all this fact sourcing leading up to your book about the 02O race. However, with all due respect, I must mention that the date used in your post just above referring to 1909 appears to be in error and should be 1908.
Cheers,
Keith

[Eric Moskowitz]

Keith, you're absolutely right! Thanks for catching that! I've been defaulting to 1909 so often while thinking of the race that I accidentally typed it instead of '08 in the dates above. The fire and the debut of the Model T in Boston both occurred on Nov. 13, 19*08*, not 1909. I'm a bit foggy, getting over the latest daycare winter headcold that's cascaded through my household, but I still should have caught it. Glad you spotted it, since I can't go back and edit the post above.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Wouldn't you know I just discovered that you *can* edit posts after the fact, thanks to the pencil icon. Keith, I just went back and fixed the dates. Really appreciate the attentive read.

Gratefully,
Eric

[mbowen]

From the article reporting the first Model T’s at the Fay Agency:

The lower half of the crankcase is extended to the lower half of the housing for fly- wheel and transmission, thereby inclosing all working parts in one seamless pressed steel casing that is absolutely oil tight.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Hi everyone, long time! Almost two years, to be exact. I wasn't sure whether to revive this thread or start a new one, but I went with the former. It's been quite a journey, and life hasn't always cooperated, but I'm happy to report that I'm nearly done with the first draft of my book on the 1909 OTO. I have a few lingering questions and am hoping some of you might be willing to weigh in, given the substantial collective expertise you have, and given my own minimal technical savvy:

-----> 1) Roughly how long do you think it would have taken a skilled mechanic to either swap out and replace a broken connecting rod *or* to swap out and replace an entire engine block on a 1909 Model T, particularly if they were working in a makeshift location and not a proper garage? Would the mechanic have needed special tools? How many steps would either of these jobs have entailed?

I’ve sat for many hours with Bruce McCalley’s remarkable “Model T Ford: The Car That Changed The World,” trying to soak up, sift, or otherwise interpret details about the Model T. On page 34, he noted that none of the crankcases used in 1909 or 1910 had inspection covers to allow connecting rod adjustment. How might that have figured into the complexity of trying to replace a broken connecting rod in 1909? Would the motor have needed to be removed to replace a connecting rod?


-----> 2) I’m curious about the price of a connecting rod in 1909. I’ve seen two sets of parts lists and am not sure which is the right one for that moment in time, in June 1909. In one, the rod is listed as order no. 3024/factory no. 587B, aka “Connecting rod (no bushing in upper end)” for $2.50 (with the telegram code word “Tubdodder”). In the other, it is listed as part/item no. 487, aka “Connecting rod only” for $2, with the telegram code word “Tubdbolous.” Does anyone know which one would have applied in June 1909? And in either case, would you have needed to order any additional parts with it if you broke a connecting rod while driving, or just the rod itself?


-----> 3) How would you describe the sound of an unmuffled Model T, stripped down for racing — both the nature of the sound and how loud it would have been? I was fortunate to have the opportunity recently to revisit Lang’s Old Car Parts and go for a ride with Steve Lang in a 1911 Model T touring car, look under the hood, examine some of the parts, and get a walk-through (explained slowly and clearly for a novice) on the basics of starting and operating a Model T. It was nice to be back, as the only other time I’d ridden in a T was in 2009, back when I was a Boston Globe reporter working on a story about the OTO, and Steve’s dad Don gave me a ride at the time. This recent ride with Steve gave me a fresh baseline for the sound of a standard, muffled T. How different might it have sounded if it had no muffler and was simply exhausting through a cut-out in the hood? Please don’t hesitate to make descriptive comparisons or reach for metaphors or analogies — the more colorful the better!

Craig Leach, I like that you mentioned that your No. 1 replica with the short exhaust pipes was quite loud. For lack of a better analogy, I can't help but consider that 1909 was not too long after the invention of the first fully automatic machine guns, like the M1895 Colt-Browning used in the Spanish-American War, firing 400 or 500 shots a minute, and wonder if the percussive sound might have been roughly similar to the T engine firing.


-----> 4) Would these stripped-down Model Ts in the race have produced more exhaust than a standard T with a muffler? I’m thinking in particular of the photo showing the No. 2 in Cleveland (also posted earlier in this thread), and wondering if this cloud here might have been typical or atypical. Also, in the photos showing the Scott & Smith crew with so much grime or soot caking their faces, how much of that do you think is road dust from driving in an open car without a windshield vs. exhaust from the engine?

[image]

[/image]

[image]

[/image]


-----> 5) News reports referred to the Model T racers “being overhauled” or receiving “a thorough overhauling” at various stops, typically places where Ford dealers/garages had been established (e.g., Ellis, Kan.; Denver; Cheyenne; and Rock Springs, Wy., among others). Beyond changing the oil and checking the tires, what would an overhaul likely have entailed, in terms of lubricating or cleaning parts and checking or changing anything that needed repair?

In trying to fumble toward an understanding, I've been reading the sections on operations and maintenance of automobiles in general in the six-volume 1909 The American Cyclopedia of the Automobile or, Motor Cars and Motoring Self-Taught, available on Google Books, and in images of an undated Instruction Book for Ford Model T Cars that I photographed when I visited the Simeone Foundation reference library in Philadelphia. (I see that various editions of that guide exist online; this one seems to be from 1910, as it shows a Model T touring car for $950 f.o.b. on page 2). This was really useful for me as a person who has never worked on a car, between the step-by-step instructions for operations/maintenance and this oiling diagram below from page 6:

[image]

[/image]

Some of the guidance there and on the ensuing pages is given on a per-mile basis (e.g., fill the universal joint’s grease cup every 300 miles) but much of it is given on a time basis (oil the front spring hanger weekly, oil the commutator weekly, rotate the fan hub’s grease cup daily, etc.) based on some unstated standard for mileage and driving conditions, presumably figuring on much lower daily mileage and less strenuous conditions than the cars (and crews) were forced to endure in the race. Any guesses on what that standard was, or how often these “weekly” oilings would have been needed if you were driving 4,000 miles in 23 days? How often would they have needed to do things like scrape carbon out of the cylinders?


-----> 6) That instruction manual noted that before starting a new Model T, the car required two quarts of oil poured directly into the transmission (i.e., a half-gallon) and another half-gallon poured through the breather pipe in the engine. This is probably obvious, but does that mean that one gallon was the proper amount of oil (i.e., filled between the two petcocks) for the enclosed/sealed housing containing the engine and transmission?


-----> 7) In the muddiest stretch of the race, in eastern Colorado, Bert Scott reported using “six gallons of lubricating oil [in a single day] to keep the machine in running order, the mud having penetrated to every portion of the engine.” Do you think he meant six gallons of oil poured through the breather tube/pipe over the course of the day, or six gallons counting oil used at the various oil and grease cups as well?


-----> 8) H.B. Harper (the Ford Times editor and company advertising manager who rode along with Kulick, and who wrote the copy for "The Story of the Race" booklet) described the slog across eastern Colorado like this: "We recall vividly the swollen streams with beds of quicksand. There were many of these streams that would permit of fording until the center was attained, then in the yielding sand the wheels would spin and the car sink sometimes until the body resting on the sand prevented a further sinking into the treacherous stuff. Then our light weight stood us in favor. Hunting up wooden planks to serve as supports you could have seen Kulick and his mechanic (ye editor) lift the car out of the sand onto an improvised bed of plank there to travel to the bank, either on its own power, or as happened when the car had sunk below the point where carburetor was higher than stream, by man power."

I know the Model T was light (less than 1,000 pounds here stripped down), but could two average-sized people have really lifted it on their own out of quicksand? Do you think this is hyperbole, or an accurate depiction, or somewhere in between?


-----> 9) Re the line there about the carburetor and deep water: mercifully, I've never in my life driven through anything deeper than a puddle. As a non-technical person, what would be the problem(s) with driving a Model T or other car through deep water? Which components might cease to work and would need to dry out before the car could be operated again?


-----> 10) I've seen some debate in earlier threads about whether the Ts in the race had been modified to be wide-tracks. Has anyone ever been able to determine conclusively? I tried to count the floorboards in between the wheels in the photos of the No. 2 and the Shawmut on display at the AYPE's Mines Building after the race. The No. 2 clearly has 16 floor boards in between the front tires, not counting the boards on which the tires are resting. It was harder to tell on the Shawmut, but I believe the number is the same, also 16. That would indicate an equal width. The Boston papers had reported before the race that the Shawmut had been modified to enlarge the wheels for the race to a 40" diameter, from 34" in the front and 36" in the back, but said nothing about widening the "wheel tread" between the two tires, which was a standard 56" on the Shawmut chassis. Is there reason to think the Fords here were a wider 60" as opposed to the same/standard 56"?

[image]

[/image]

[image]

[/image]


-----> 11) This one's related, if a bit more open-ended: Ford advertised that these were stock cars, but they were obviously modified to a certain extent, given that they'd been stripped down. I'm wondering what modifications you've noticed visually or from other research that I might be missing looking at them as a novice. I did see the Motor Field clip noting that the lights had been swapped from brass to Solar-made aluminum to save 11 pounds. Both cars had the headlights. The No. 2 had a complete set with side and tail lamps. It looks like the No. 1 ran without side lamps. The cars also lacked windshields and fenders, though in certain photos in the Midwest they have fabric flaps (would you call them mud flaps? mud guards? were they likely canvas?) over the front wheels. And I can see that there is no rumble seat, just the platform in back, covered by the tarp. What else might I be missing?

The rear-view photo taken on the approach to Cleveland shows that the tarp frame had a different shape on the back of the two cars. (I can't attach it here; I think I've maxed out the number of photos it accepts per post!) The No. 1 at left was more rounded and appeared to have one or two screw caps poking out of the top. The No. 2 was squared off. I presume the gas tank for the No. 2 was under the seat, but the tank on the No. 1 appeared to have been mounted on the rear.

C.J. Smith, in his 1951 Owen Bombard interview, said that the "racer that Kulick had was souped up." That line is ambiguous, because it comes at the end of a long section about the 1909 OTO and the beginning of a shorter section about track racing. Because Bombard's questions are not included, it's not clear if Smith was talking about Kulick's No. 1 racer in the OTO or about a different racer Kulick used on tracks subsequently. Do you think the engine on the No. 1 was modified or souped up in some way?


OK, I've gone ... all the way to 11! I'll stop there. Thank you for wading through all of these, and for any help and insight you can add to any of the questions — I’m so grateful and will be sure to acknowledge the sourcing in the book!

—Eric

[Steve Jelf]

Mexico is along the way between St. Louis and Kansas City MO...

Home town of MMM.

[DanTreace]

Eric

#10. Yes. Racers were wide track 60”. The axle yoke to spring perch hole is wider on the 60” track.


This is 60” wide track, same as racers.

[Mark Gregush]

Can't add much to what has been posted except, Ford did publish a small (approx. 3-1/2 X 6") booklet that covers the race with a fold out map at the end. "The Story of the Race". Mine is a reprint by Polyprints, Inc. No printed date when it first came out, but the reprint is old enough that the address is San Francisco 19, Calif.

[DHort]

A friend of mine and his son both have speedsters. They do not have mufflers on their cars, but just run a straight pipe. My car has a muffler, but you can see right thru it. None of these cars are very loud. However, on these OTO cars there is no exhaust pipe. Similar to Rob Heyen's race car. If you are going down a straightaway in his car, it is difficult to talk to the person next to you, but it can be done.

Here is Rob's car on the dyno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZoSzzyo3DY

You can replace an engine in a couple of hours if one is available. Depends on the number of people you have. I think the record for putting a car together at a show is less than 8-10 minutes.

Using up 6 quarts of oil in one day would make sense back in 1909. They did not have RTV to seal the gaskets. I think they just used grease. If you are in a rough area the twisting and turning of the car could loosen up some of the bolts and a leak would develop. I am guessing the 6 quarts all came from the pan and did not include other lubrication.

That is my 2 cents.

[BubbaSmithTinLizzy]

Eric, I found this old postcard on eBay and it says Ocean to Ocean 1909. I don't recognize the names of the people, but the flag on the car seems to say New York.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for these replies, and please don't hesitate to continue to weigh in.

Dan, thanks for confirming the wide track. Is that based on the visual appearance and proportions from the photos, comparing the axle yoke to spring perch hole on these versus standard Ts?

Mark, I agree that the booklet is great; the Langs gave me a copy of the 1959 back in 2009, and I picked up an original from 1909 later on via ebay.

Dave, thanks for weighing in on the oil and sharing the link to Rob's race car. That is loud! Another analogy I guess would be that it sounds kind of like a chainsaw, not that many would have been familiar with that sound in 1909. (The SF-built "Endless Chain Saw" — a massive contraption — had just begun making the rounds at Western fairs, and had been featured in the previous month's Popular Mechanics, though the handheld chainsaw was still another decade off...)

Steve, I'll sheepishly admit I wasn't previously familiar with Mary Margaret McBride, so thanks for cluing me in! Looks like she was actually from Paris, Mo., but did a pre-radio stint out of college at the Mexico Ledger, in Mexico, Mo. (The Ledger gave the race good coverage when it came through!)

Tony, thanks for spotting that postcard. Alas, that one's a tease that I've become familiar with. The auto company Premier (1902-1925, based in Indianapolis) mounted a cross-country promotional tour in 1911 from Atlantic City to LA that they called the "Premier Ocean to Ocean Run." They published a series of postcards about the trip, which sometimes show up on eBay, pinging my "Ocean to Ocean" saved search — sometimes properly ID'd and sometimes understandably but incorrectly tagged as depicting the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Race.

Over the last few years, I've tracked down or identified a little over 100 photos showing the cars (Nos. 1 through 6) actively engaged in the race or paused at stops along the way in June 1909, not counting the numerous photos that exist of the Thomas Flyer "Pathfinder" that blazed the route beforehand and the many excellent photos of Scott and Smith in the No. 2 on their zigzagging victory during the ensuing summer and fall of 1909 — through the Benson Ford holdings, from 1909 media clippings, from scattered local museums along the route (I found a great photo from Rock Springs, Wyo., this way!), from family scrapbooks, and from a couple of generous photo/postcard collectors I connected with after losing out on a couple of eBay auctions for photos from the race that came up from Idaho. But I'm always on the look out for more! Studying the details in the photos really helps to bring the experience to life when I'm trying to imagine it...

Eric

[DanTreace]

Eric


“Dan, thanks for confirming the wide track. Is that based on the visual appearance and proportions from the photos, comparing the axle yoke to spring perch hole on these versus standard Ts?”

Again, the racers used wide track axles, best to utilize unknown pathways across America. Not only visible which is very obvious, but research prior by others in literature source given earlier from SAE author Curt McConnell of very good documented pub.

[Eric Moskowitz]

"Again, the racers used wide track axles, best to utilize unknown pathways across America. Not only visible which is very obvious, but research prior by others in literature source given earlier from SAE author Curt McConnell of very good documented pub."

Dan, thanks for the explanation and the pic collage. I'm fully open about not being a technical expert on the T (visual analysis or otherwise), which is why I'm asking for guidance here, among those of you who are. I do have a copy of Curt's excellent book, and I've been in touch with him additionally. Unless I'm mistaken, he did not write about the wide-track question. (His book has since been digitized at the Internet Archive, and the passages where he addresses the specs are on pages 154-157.) I have also not seen it mentioned in anything I've come across yet from 1909.

I did see that this question came up previously on the MTCFA forums, in 2008, in 2010, and in 2014. In those cases it seemed like there was at least some outstanding debate among forum members examining the original photos of the racers (as opposed to later replicas). I'm not trying to inadvertently reopen anything thorny, and I apologize for not being able to see it readily as a novice; mainly I was wondering if any other crowdsourced evidence had surfaced, and also hoping that someone might do what you did and add arrows to illustrate this for an untrained eye like mine, so that the answer might be definitive.

I've been trying to compare the photos of the racers against pictures of all manner of Ts in, for example, Floyd Clymer's book as well as the Bruce McCalley reference. It speaks to my untechnical brain that sometimes the racers clearly look wider and sometimes they don't, which makes me wonder if it's just the absence of fenders playing a visual trick in my head. So the arrows you applied are very helpful. Still, the comparison you gave in the collage was between the No. 2 racer and a sample photo of a wide track. If you're willing, would you mind adding arrows to a third photo showing how it compares to an ordinary 56"-wide T? I truly appreciate it. I'm not trying to be persnickety or picayune; I'm genuinely trying to make sure I understand it.

Thanks!
Eric

[DanTreace]

Eric

Here's a better look at the Ford std. 56" track axle and the Wide-track 60" axle. These photos are with fenders and you can perhaps see the difference. The wide track axle is 2" longer on each end, yoke to perch, so takes some trained eye to view at distance or from photos. While in person inspection, one can measure and observe the difference. Note the photo of a wide track with a tape measure to help view the 60" wide tire track.

Wide track axle

wide track 60 inch.jpg (42.13 KiB) Viewed 4056 times

Std axle

Std track 56 inch.jpeg (43.19 KiB) Viewed 4056 times

Here is view of measure.

A-Y-P New York to Seattle Ford Racer

Ford racer wide axle.jpeg (83.78 KiB) Viewed 4056 times

Bill Barth accurate replica made for Recreation of that race several decades ago, he correctly used a wide track front axle

Bill Barth replica.jpeg (57.27 KiB) Viewed 4056 times

[DanTreace]

Eric

This photo from the forum shows the difference in length of these axles.

[DanTreace]

Eric

Thought you may like to view two items from my collection of A-Y-P New York to Seattle Race

Below is photo used for newspapers of the day, by Culver Services, NY. the date this original is in pencil, hard to see 0n the reverse with the the photo service stamps, is "1st Race N.Y. 6-2-1909". This is of the big 6 Cyl Model K Ford that was the Pace car for the beginning legs of the race.

RLI 2024 2 1.jpeg (30.29 KiB) Viewed 3908 times

And a bronze medallion, sold to visitors of the Alaska-Yukon- Pacific Expo, that was the reason of the Ocean to Ocean Race from NY to Seattle, to celebrate the opening of the Expo.

RLI 2024 2 3.jpeg (49.8 KiB) Viewed 3908 times

RLI 2024 2 4.jpeg (40.38 KiB) Viewed 3908 times

[Eric Moskowitz]

Dan, that was really helpful — thank you! Especially the annotated photo in your second-to-last post. (Without that, believe it or not, I didn't quite realize the first time you posted it that I was looking at two parts of different widths, as opposed to the same parts angled differently.)

And amazing that you have a press photo of the pace car out of New York, and a medallion from the AYPE. How cool!

Back to the list of original questions ...

I have a particular interest in trying to unpack questions 1 and 2 around the connecting rod, given the surreptitious engine swap that ended up costing the No. 2 Ford the official victory four months after the race.

Back then, the Automobile Club of America sifted a mountain of evidence in a series of legal-style hearings in New York in the summer and fall of 1909 before ruling against Ford and awarding the title to the (effectively defunct by then) Shawmut team. The smoking gun was apparently an express receipt that showed the original engine being shipped between two points on the Oregon Short Line. All of that original evidence is long gone. The summary findings of the ACA's Contest Committee were printed in their Club Journal newsletter at the time, but it was thin on detail, noting only that the No. 2 "traveled a part of the distance between New York and Seattle" with a substitute engine, not the original that had been marked with a stamping hammer in NYC, for inspection at the finish. It did not specify where the engine got swapped in and back out.

The news accounts paint a somewhat circumstantial picture — during the race, of course, Ford was keeping the engine swap under wraps — but the clearest evidence points to the original engine coming out at Cokeville, Wyo., and going back in at Weiser, Idaho.

The two Fords generally traveled together except when the unexpected intervened. They arrived at Cokeville, a small town of a few hundred people (with no automobile garage and no newspaper), around the same time in the early afternoon of Thursday, June 17, 1909. The No. 1 quickly proceeded 30 miles northwest to the city of Montpelier, Idaho, the 24th of 30 checkpoints in the race, making the trip in under two hours.

One Idaho paper reported that the No. 2 was "broken down" at Cokeville, another that it was simply "delayed." A telegram from the Shawmut crew (which passed the No. 2 at Cokeville) that night reported that the reason for the No. 2 Ford's delay was a "broken piston."

Ford's promotional accounts of the victory in the summer of 1909 glossed over Cokeville. Denver branch manager Charlie Hendy, who rode herd over the Mountain West stages of the race for the company, wrote a detailed account in July for one of the Denver papers but skipped Cokeville, except to say that Scott "drove like a demon" to make up for the lost time after the No. 1 and No. 2 had to separate. Ford advertising manager/Ford Times editor H.B. Harper (the "mechanic" accompanying Kulick in the No. 1), writing about it in the FT and then in "The Story of the Race" booklet, mentioned Cokeville only as the site of an unspecified "accident" to the No. 2 that caused the No. 1 to proceed without it.

That appears to have been the extent of surviving/printed detail about Cokeville until early 1959, when Ford archivist Henry Edmunds and his team tried to amass as much research material as they could about the race (working on deadline, and without the internet, of course) to inform the marketing campaign and the rolling museum exhibit for a cross-country caravan and attendant PR push around the coinciding 50th anniversary of the race and the production of the 50 millionth Ford. In writing mainly to newspapers on the route, they learned from the Montpelier (Idaho) News-Examiner that a venerable citizen named Fred Cruikshank was still alive and well at 88.

Back in 1896, Cruikshank — incredibly — had been a young general store clerk, part-time deputy sheriff, and freelance bicycle salesman when Butch Cassidy and two associates robbed the Bank of Montpelier, then raced off on horseback. (Cruikshank attempted to chase them on a bicycle, before grabbing a horse and riding out with an unsuccessful posse.)

By 1909, he was a 38-year-old pillar of Montpelier, a city that had grown to nearly 2,000. On June 14, he took receipt of Montpelier's very first Model T, from the local branch of Consolidated Wagon & Machine, a Salt Lake City firm with a handful of stores around Utah and Idaho. (It was either the 10th or 11th automobile in Montpelier of any make or model.)

Three days later, the No. 1 came through, with the No. 2 stuck back in Cokeville. Cruikshank wasn't the pilot — a Cokeville man named William Bourne, normally an engineer on a steam plow, guided Kulick & Harper toward Montpelier — but Cruikshank drove his brand-new Model T a few miles out in the country to watch for them, his first trip in the car other than taking it around the block in Montpelier. He witnessed them blow by at a tremendous clip, and then kept a remarkable pace behind them into town around 4 pm on the 17th. (The No. 2 left Cokeville the next morning at 5 a.m. and reached Montpelier with less fanfare at 7 a.m., guided by a local insurance agent named Bill Ridd.)

That's according to the Montpelier news account from the time. In 1959, Cruikshank wrote a remarkable letter to Edmunds, recalling details about the race coming through and his enduring connection to Ford. He was so charmed by his Model T that he ended up becoming the local dealer for several years in the 1910s, stopping only because of the war. (Consolidated Wagon only sold Fords for a short time, circa 1909-1910.) He conflated some details — quite understandable when working from memory after 50 years; I can barely remember what I wore yesterday, or who scored the goals in youth soccer games I coached last week — and thought he had gone out to greet the No. 2, not the No. 1, while also mixing up their pilots. But he did recall that the No. 2 was waylaid by "engine trouble" at Cokeville. In his memory, "repair parts" were sent from Montpelier to Cokeville to get the car on its way again, though that doesn't specify whether it was a specific part/parts or an entire engine block.

In May of 1959, Edmunds's team prepared an internal 30-page narrative about the race (“Chronological Story of the New York-to-Seattle Transcontinental Endurance Race, June 1 - June 23, 1909”) to inform the coming marketing/PR campaign and caravan exhibit. It doesn't have a byline or any sourcing notes, but it included the specific detail that a broken connecting rod was the problem that delayed the No. 2: "From Kemmerer the cars went through Fossil and Sage into Cokeville, near the Wyoming-Idaho border. Ford No. 2 reached Cokeville with a broken connecting rod and went into a Ford dealer garage for repairs..."

That's been repeated in other histories of the race since, and it appears to be the first place it was introduced in writing. I wish I knew where they got that from! Perhaps it was some internal passed-down detail, or noted in some document or clipping that doesn't survive today in the BFRC file. But the broken connecting rod seems to be consistent with the Shawmut telegram about the Ford's having a broken "piston" and with Cruikshank's memory of unspecified engine trouble.

Unfortunately the idea that they went into a "Ford dealer garage for repairs" part of it seems to be an anachronistic detail.

The dealer registers at the Benson Ford Research Center (Acc. 387) show that Cokeville had no local Ford dealer and was part of the wider sales territory for Consolidated Wagon & Machine (which was based in Salt Lake and had its nearest outpost, of course, in Montpelier), nested under the authority of Charlie Hendy's Denver corporate branch. State directories and a Cokeville history indicate that Cokeville didn't have an auto garage of any kind until the mid-1910s. So whatever repair work was done on the No. 2 at Cokeville presumably happened in a more makeshift setting.

That's a long way of getting at my interest in wondering how complicated and how time-consuming it would have been to change an entire engine block or to extricate a broken connecting rod and replace it with a new rod.

If they didn't have the part in hand, the engine swap can be read as a matter of urgency, just getting the car on the road without having to wait for a rod to be shipped from a well-stocked dealership, rules or no rules. If they *did* have the part, it makes less sense to risk a rule violation unless there was substantial time to be gained over swapping the whole engine instead of the connecting rod, or unless they ran into trouble with the complexity of the rod replacement.

Among unanswerable questions, I do wonder how likely it was that a new, small, part-time Ford dealer like the one in Montpelier (which had just received its first Model T a few days earlier!) would have had an array of replacement parts on hand in June 1909. The branch managers may have scattered parts along the route specifically for the racers (not the kind of thing that got abundant coverage, but a paper in Salina, Kan., noted that the local dealer — guided by the nearest branch manager, in KC — had received a shipment of potentially needed parts to hold for the approaching racers, including several acetylene tanks, though the parts ultimately went largely unused), but otherwise they would have had to rely on the existing network. For Ford in 1909, that network would have far more extensive than for any other carmaker, though it was still nascent in terms of what I imagine would have been available for the Model T at this early stage of production and distribution. The nearest substantial Ford dealer to Cokeville was 120 miles southeast in Rock Springs, Wyo., and the nearest actual corporate branch house was off in Denver.

And if they didn't have a spare rod within quick shipping distance, then I also wonder if extracting one from another Model T to plug it into the No. 2 might be even more time consuming than extracting that engine and reinstalling that whole engine in the No. 2.

Anyway, wondering what you make of it — whether you think they had the connecting rod in hand but decided to just swap the whole engine anyway, and how long either operation might have taken. Thanks!

[DanTreace]

Eric

That’s some detail I assume you have from primary research now that many small town newspaper from that period can be read online from the scans done of file print copies. Did similar and even found my relative in a newspaper account in 1938 where she was caught up in a proported ‘kidnap’!

As for connecting rod change, bit time consuming on early cars with one piece crankcase pan. Later T’s have a removable cover (ie two piece crankcase) to expose rod lower caps, so removing a rod cap, from below, removing the cylinder head that exposes all 4 pistons, a single piston and rod can be lifted out and replaced in small time.

The early would need the entire block and trans lifted out of the crankcase which could remain in the chassis, albeit the driveshaft with rear axle would be loosen from the rear spring to move back to pull ujoint out of transmission. Then piston and rod work could be performed.

Removing the entire powerplant as Ford called it could also be done to remove entire engine from the chassis and then work on it doing similar, the block has to also come out of that early one piece crankcase pan.

Time for both ways with several guys IMO, could be done in 2 -3 hrs or so with replacement parts on hand. Time minimal as bare bones racer body and chassis that exposes all mechanical stuff

[Eric Moskowitz]

Dan, this is super helpful! Just want to make sure I understand ... since the early Ts did not have the removable cover on the crankcase that would allow you to remove the rod cap from below, replacing the connecting rod would have required taking out the one-piece/connected engine and transmission first. If that's the case, wouldn't it follow that removing/replacing a connecting rod on an early T was more time consuming than removing/replacing the entire engine (if that would have been an inherently required step in replacing a connecting rod in a 1909 T, anyway)?

It's interesting that they ended up modifying the crankcase after 1910 to allow easier connecting rod adjustment/replacement. I wonder if the race figured into that. In Smith's "Reminiscences" interview, he says that Ford modified the rear axle after the race to feature roller bearings instead of babbitt bearings because of all the trouble it gave them amid the pounding of the race. I wonder if the crankcase modification might also have been influenced by the experience of the race, beyond general testing and feedback.

And yes, Dan, digitization has been such a blessing to a project like this! (Though it's ever easier to get swamped...) Fascinating about the kidnap. You never know what you're going to find!

[Drkbp]

Eric,
In your Dec. 8, 2022, post, I believe the racer shown is the 1-Car with Frank Kulick at the wheel.
Also, the fellow in the "mechanic seat" may be another Ford race driver of the day, William Gruener.
Frank Kulick's 1-Car had the Gas/Oil tank mounted longitudinal behind the driver. Unusual for Ford
racers as you have noted. Kulick may have had it that way in order to pump oil to the engine, I don't
know. I believe you mentioned Harper was a reporter. Scott seemed to have had the fuel tank transverse
mounted in the photos I have.

I noticed several photos that were head-on, and such, where it is hard to tell which car is which. A little
trait Frank Kulick had is he didn't use a crank holder (picture on the ferry is the 1-Car). Scott uses one
almost all the time. Couple of photos I have where Scott didn't use the crank holder but the 2 shows.

Below are two pictures I believe are the 1-Car. The first is Frank Kulick at the wheel with Joe Galamb in
the "mechanic" seat. This seems to be same car in the same neighborhood as the photo you showed
in your post of two years ago. The 1-Car tires are mounted with the butterfly clamps in Kulick racing form.
The second below is probably Kulick's 1-Car as well.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Kenneth, these are great insights! Thank you for taking such a close look and going back to the start of the thread, too.

Yes, Harper was an advertising copywriter. He had come from S.F. Bowser in Fort Wayne, though long before Bowser invented the automobile fuel pump. He got hired by Ford in the winter of 1907-08 to handle advertising after LeRoy Pelletier left, though he wasn't the same kind of Barnumesque figure Pelletier was (few were, besides Barnum himself). My impression is that Harper was a reliable pro, but that Norval Hawkins as sales manager had a lot of influence and effectively oversaw Harper's advertising work (and created Ford Times in early 1908, which became part of Harper's portfolio). In any event, Harper had an engaging, self-deprecating writing style and fully owned that he had no business being the "mechanic" in Kulick's crew except to ride along and document the journey. He ended up getting promoted to London in 1910 to replace R.M. Lockwood as head of foreign business, but didn't last long. He did stay in the auto world, and spent time with Willys and Studebaker as well.

You're right, that picture you shared with Kulick and Joe Galamb (I was wondering who that was; thank you!) is a complementary photo to the one I had shared way back on Dec. 8, 2022 (and that Dan first shared). I was mistaken then in thinking that that photo showed the No. 2 *after* the race and realize that what I thought was the number scratched out with a black bar is actually the horizontal cut-out for the exhaust from the engine, and is just hard to make out with the contrast. A closer inspection shows the car/cars to be in much better shape than they were during the race, so these clearly show them on a late-spring test drive before being shipped to NYC to get their numbers painted on. Already though the distinctions are there, with the car that would become the No. 2 carrying a side lamp and the No. 1 without them, and also the No. 1 with the rear-mounted tank. The men in the unpainted No. 2 are definitely C.J. Smith (mechanic) and B.W. Scott (driver).

No. 1:
[image]

[/image]

No. 2:
[image]

scott and smith in ford with number crossed out.jpeg (100.25 KiB) Viewed 3633 times

[/image]

The very last image (with the guy identified in the background in blue ink) comes from Ellensburg, Wash. I believe it's the No. 2, even though the number seems to be obliterated on the hood, because some of the details match up with photos of the No. 2 from other points, like the shape of the bar on the back of the platform with the tarp removed, and also that circular or semi-circular bag of some sort (a waterskin? any idea what that bag might be?) that's hanging over the acetylene tank:

[image]

[/image]

(There's a clearer view of that hanging bag here where the car was displayed at the finish, after the No. 2 had been reapplied or touched up to the right side of the hood):

[image][/image]

[Drkbp]

Eric,
I believe it's a canvas bucket. There is another one opened up under
the car to catch oil that was running out on the floor. Hence the gas
and oil tanks. Lotsa oil at this stage of the automobile!

Do you have any dates on the neighborhood street photos?

[Eric Moskowitz]

"Do you have any dates on the neighborhood street photos?"

Alas, I don't. I wish I knew more about those two photos. A long shot, but does anyone recognize the neighborhood?

The earliest clip I've found of Ford signaling his intent to enter the race was the 4/10/1909 Detroit (Evening) Times, with similar stories following nationally over the ensuing few days. A week later he announced the crews, Kulick & Harper and Scott & Smith. In early May he started goading other automakers over their reluctance to come forward and enter the race. On May 8 he formally mailed the entry blank and check to cover the entry fee, at the same time announcing he would make things interesting by offering to wager with anyone who didn't think the Fords would win, automaker or otherwise. And then all the cars in the race were due in NYC by the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, so that they could be stamped at the Automobile Club of America with a unique pin-stamping pattern on all the parts and components that could not be replaced, only repaired, along the way. So I figure it was some time between mid-April and late May.

[Drkbp]

It could be the neighborhood around the 140 Edison Street Ford home.
It's only 1-3/4 miles down Woodward Avenue to Edison Street from the
Highland Park plant.