You think you've been in a traffic jam? Not as bad as this 1897 rush hour in Philly... no AC and surrounded by horses and smelly people w/o deoderant

Found on the HAMB

1933, 5:54pm, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Long Beach. Imagine what the result of that catastrophe would be today in LA rush hour?

for a photo gallery, or to read about it: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-longbeach_1933earthquake-pg,0,3546233.photogallery

Streetcars, were good for more than just public transportation... did you know they were used to plow snow along their route?

read about plowing snow with street cars: http://cincystreetcar.wordpress.com/2009/01/

I like that many were made into little diners. See the inside of one at the Henry Ford museum https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnTfj4UdCAYe8OzhSx4x9KMAE48iIiPk9kTJ3T3ahXCSbgLmcbheVViCZKvnk1YdoB7DbKBSN41txh0iAQtk6mtkkcWXtdC-QLwoeJrFRH3cXv7bu-_jVFRnslnBEixDMnnDCnLnsDFho/s1600/Henry%2520Ford%2520Diner%5B1%5D.jpg it is the nicest I've seen, most are far more simple and less ornamental

Some were made into houses: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/09/street-cars-getting-second-life-as-home.html

And in San Diego I found one diner street car, and two homes made from street cars http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/06/survivors-of-era-i-doubt-anyone-else.html

photos from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=925

National City Train Depot's retired electric train from the Boston Elevated Railway

Wouldn't city transportation be more appealing with the original streetcars?

Above image via: http://hooniverse.com

but the shortsighted greedy bastards sold out to gross polluting diesel bussses, and trashed all the cool looking and electric streetcars. Morons. I was reading recently about all the cities that went to electric streetcars as a pollution reducing measure, and to increase the effective public transit systems. Here in San Diego when huge events like major league ballgames, national football league games, or an event like Comic-Con happen, the go to device for getting there and back is usually the trolley system. Nothing as aesthetic as the old street cars, but serviceable

I found the portfolio of an incredible photographer, James Haefner, here are a couple to entice you with, go to his website for his portfolio

See all of his incredible work (about 40 superb photos in the Automotive Vintage section)
and more in the other sections if you also like automotive advertising, architectural, and etcetera
1930 Duesenburg detail

Bucciali doorhandle detail

Panhard Levassor

The factory 1967 test GTX that is famous for the great lengths that Chrylser Research and Development engineers went through to make the Silver Bullet (a name coined by Ro McGonegal and the Car Craft story specifically) nothing less than a factory-backed car purpose-built for STREET RACERING on Woodward Avenue; running 10.60s at 132 mph

http://www.silverbulletgtx.com/history/bullet.html

or read Car Craft's write up (good one!) and full gallery http://www.carcraft.com/featuredvehicles/906_1967_plymouth_belvedere_gtx/index.html

The street car converted into a diner at the Henry Ford Museum

All of these photos courtesy and permission of James Haefner PhotographyPortfolio: http://www.haefnerphoto.com/

Copywrite of James Haefner

1960 Thunderbird

Troy, Michigan 48084

ph: 248 362 6850

800 670 7035

fax: 248 362 6858

cool things found at Greyhandgang.com

What do you think, an airport runway snow melter?

Buckminster Fuller and a Dymaxion

Cuban taxi's.... aren't they awesome! Looks like a 55 Ford and a 53 Chev. I'd take a ride in these over a modern taxi, damn right I would

I'm not sure, but it looks like the trans-arctic vehicle

A street car used to build artificial reefs

The Vereycken Diwheel 1947 and you can read more about it http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/diwheel/diwheel.htm

The Munsters coach it looks like, it is on Santa Monica Blvd, and it's 1964

An Autogyro over New York

a photo of the Blitzen Benz I haven't seen before

looks like El Mirage

What an Americana moment, the purple car is a Studebaker Commander I think

via: http://www.greyhandgang.com/

Automotive pictures from Shorpy

Vanderbilt's Belmont Park four-in-hand passing the Holland House Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York 1905

1917 Detroit

Traffic congestion at a 1918 war bond drive in Washington DC

This Winton was wrecked by Congressman never-heard-of-him-before, in 1920

1920 Washington DC

1924 photo of Lincoln hearse

1926 paint booth

1926 service station

1928 Takoma Park Maryland

This is a Cunningham automobile, and was used as a private ambulance by a coroner

1927 four wheel drive auto company dumptruck

1927 four wheel drive auto company Via: http://www.shorpy.com/ If you like this type of old car photos, look through the best vehicle photos from Shorpy that I've come across: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Shorpy

Street cars getting a second life as a home, very cool

Via: http://www.shorpy.com/

and if you also find this cool, take a look at the ones that Randy showed me here in San Diego http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/06/survivors-of-era-i-doubt-anyone-else.html

The "Track" in Road and Track was street car railroad tracks... evidenced by exhibit A...... Click on each page for the full size version

April 1962 "Road and Track" magazine