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New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 10:22 pm
by DHort
Just read an article about a new car museum in Tucson called the Rolling Thru Time Auto Museum.

It states it is a collection of 225 classic cars and 48 Model T's.

Perhaps one of our members could check it out and post some pics.

Re: New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2024 12:04 am
by Craig Leach
If that is the Museum out by Davis Monthon Air Force Base, we got a tour in it before they were open to the public. Not all the displays were
finished. It was very nice & has meeting rooms. Some of the T display is set up to look like a assembly line. The displays have every thing that
had a internal combustion engine & wheels or tracks on it. Well worth going.
Craig.

Re: New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2024 9:52 am
by ThreePedalTapDancer

Re: New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2024 11:24 am
by Craig Leach
That’s it.
Craig.

Re: New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2024 12:44 pm
by John Codman
It looks really nice, but sadly, I'm not going to make a special trip to Tucson to see it. If I ever have reason to go to that city, I will definitely stop in.

Re: New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2024 11:52 pm
by OilyBill
I volunteer at that museum. It is a FABULOUS collection. Not only the cars, but there is a fire truck room with dozens of interesting displays, (including the actual ladder truck that was used by firemen to assist the John Dillinger gang members down from the 4th floor of the Hotel Congress, when they were spotted by one of the firemen as members of the Dillinger gang, and subsequently arrested. That was the FIRST and ONLY time Dillinger was actually arrested!) (The other fire truck used in the capture is on display at Fire Station 1 in Tucson, and the guns confiscated from Dillinger and his men are on display at the downtown Tucson Police Station). There is also a bulldozer and farm equipment room, a replica of a 1920's ACE Hardware store, and in the Model T area are a 1903 Model A Ford, a 1906 Model N, a 1908 Model S roadster. They have at least ONE of EVERY YEAR of Model T production, and even have a special row of unrestored original Model T's, preserved exactly as they were. They also have a completely equipped machine shop that volunteers use to repair and restore antique Fords, and it includes all the original K.R. Wilson Ford Tools and machines, all in operating condition and still used for Model T repairs. I was down there just before the holidays, and they had just poured new babbitt bearings for a Ford T engine. There is also huge collections of perfectly restored bicycles through the years, and collections of cameras of all years and types, and a radio collection starting in the earliest days of radio, and running into the 1980's.

This is not the only auto museum in Tucson. There is also a Franklin Automobile Museum, which was started by Thomas Hubbard, who liked Franklin cars so much he wound up buying the company. (Including all the production drawings for Franklin automobiles, which are available to Franklin car owners through the H.H. Franklin club.) and then endowed a museum in Tucson to display them. Several of the cars in the collection were the personal vehicles of Herbert Franklin himself.

In addition, the Pima Air Museum in Tucson is now the 3rd largest in the world, behind only the Smithsonian collection, and the U.S. Air Force Museum collection in Dayton, Ohio.

You could EASILY spend an entire week in Tucson, just visiting all the museums there are here. Also, today, while writing this, it was 75 degrees and sunny. The weather here is gorgeous at this time of year.

Re: New Model T Museum and car in Tucson

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2024 2:42 am
by A Whiteman
You sold me, looks like trip to Tuscon added to the bucket list:-)