AHa

To my knowledge, people brought all kinds of things home after the wars. My uncle brought several guns back and wooden boxes full of ammunition. I have known people who brought back guns and knives and swords from ww2. I lot of people bought decommissioned jeeps, some with guns still on them. That a general would own a car commissioned for the war after the war was over does not sound strange to me. The car would see hard service in war time and would simply be a used car afterward and many were sold off by the war department. Personal experience aside, I could be wrong and often are.

Changing the subject just a little, I don't get the three different styles of front axles used. The OP's car appears to have a straight axle, the number 8 car above has a small dip in the axle, and the number 11 car immediately above has the deep dish axle. Here is another 1908 Mercedes with the deep dished axle. Supposedly, Mercedes cast and machined their own axles, so why so many styles? 1908 French Grand Prix winner

The fabric fenders were used on the early race cars, usually just on the right side. Images can be found of Old 16 with a fabric fender very much like this. This car very much resembles the Locomobile race car. It also resembles a Mercedes but lacks the deep dished front axle of both makes. I believe the radiator neck will identify the make. I have seen it before but can't recall what it was on. Though the car very much resembles a race car, it also apparently is presently configured for street driving. Notice the lack of numbering and the very large muffler hanging low under the rear. Race cars didn't have mufflers but they were added to keep the noise down on city streets.

This is what I was referring to. A belt drive is a relatively easy conversion. All three of these tractors used a Wisconsin motor but the OP's tractor is direct drive, which means a splined sleeve was cut to mate the output shaft of the motor to the input shaft of the transmission, then a bell housing was cast and machined to tie the motor and transmission together. Most farmers don't have access to this type of engineering/fabricating. Nor is it time worthy unless the end product can be sold for a profit. The scale steam train was most likely a kit, meaning that somebody cast the parts and sold them as a kit for hobby machinist to finish and assemble.

This one was just posted on the "What is it" thread by the great grandson of the man behind the wheel. If anybody recognizes the make, they would very much like to hear from you. It looks very much like a Mercedes and the radiator cap looks very much like one that ran in the Vanderbilt Cup Series. Can anybody put a name to this one? This car has been identified as a Mercedes.

Whatever this is, its not a home made tractor. I have seen a fair number of the cobbled together short dog tractors made by farmers over the years and this ain't one of them. This is a factory made conversion. Perhaps the OPs grandfather had a large enough machine shop to turn out one of these or perhaps he made several for his farm and the neighbors. It's just my opinion of course.

It looks like it would be relatively easy to make. I'm guessing it attaches to the front cross member and tapers down where it rounds on the bottom and tapers back up to the side rails and is open on the aft. The question would be does it attach to the crankcase and is open or is there a door in the bottom to access the oil pan.

The artist's rendering appears to depict a longer wheelbase car with much of the extra length in the hood. It seems like artists always depicted a longer car than was built. I haven't noticed before but both depictions appear to show a belly pan. Did Locomobiles of 1925 vintage have whole belly pans?

I believe that is a factory tractor. I can't recall the name at the moment. The name, Gibbs, comes to mind but not sure that's it.

Howard, you are right! Here is a closeup of the Frayer Miller motor. Picture from Stohr Design studios.

And this one. The engineering that went into these cars is amazing. This one came from Tumblr and it's caption is in French, Mauve sur Elfe, course de côte de Gaillon, 1921

Another Pinterest find, this is Eddie Rickenbacker in what looks to be a Franklin. Turns out this is the Frayer Miller car raced in the Vanderbilt Cup series.

Check out this Opal with overhead valves. The wheels and tires look tiny. That's quite the belly pan! Prepared for the Semmering Hillclimb in 1909, it was rated at 180hp.

It may be just me, but I don't believe people bought Locomobiles to get from point A to point B. Look at the picture again. The couple is taking a leisurely drive along a body of water. Locomobiles were bought for the prestige of being seen in one. Yes, they are a high quality car and it may have been different in the dusty west. The road beside my house was dirt for a while and I used to tear up and down it in one of my cars, leaving a cloud of dust I had to drive back through to get back home. If memory serves, Al's grandfather was a Locomobile dealer; it would be interesting to know how many Locomobiles he sold. Are there any sales figures Al?

Al, my feeling is people drove for pleasure more than anything in those early years and windshields aren't necessary.

I believe this is what is called a close coupled. The term close coupled, according to google, pertains to a car body in which the front seat section and rear seat section are coupled close together. The term would mainly apply to custom bodies where there would be jump seats in the rear body section normally. The term close coupled identifies no room for jump seats. Of course, if the car were a Ford or Chevy, it would be called a four door sedan or five passenger coupe or any number of other terms.

The Solarclipse was also advertised as the best lamp on the market and it had several features that set it apart from the other lamps available. If a person was going to be doing a fair amount of night driving, I can see how they could be talked into a pair of Solarclipse lights. The one cylinder Cadillacs were popular with Doctors.

Would you call that a close coupled Sedan? I never really knew what the term meant but the general consensus here seems to be this is more like a standard design for a sedan than a limo design with a roomier back seat.

It is interesting to me that all of the Locomobiles Riker designed are T heads except for the two race cars. Even the Harold Thomas commissioned Locomobile build was a stepped up T head motor. Why did Riker believe the overhead valve design was better for the race cars but stay with the T head design for all production cars? I believe Ed's answer to this question was the board of directors preferred the T head design. If Riker had his preference, all subsequent Locomobiles would have had overhead valve motors. Also, I read somewhere this week that Riker left the car division around 1916 to work on Riker trucks. He wasn't involved with the car division after 1916. If these facts are true, and my dad used to say a piece of paper will lie still and let anyone write on it, just how much influence did Riker have after 1909? My understanding is the model 38 and 48 chassis stayed the same till the model ended. Can anybody speak to the interchangeability of parts for the entire run?

Not a period photo but a period car in a modern photo. Who can tell us what this one is? Looks like copper jacketed individually cast cylinders and six of them. No transmission; must be push start. I found this one on Pinterest. Oops, turns out this is the Ford 666.

Lyndhurst Mansion is the old Gould Estate in Tarrytown NY. It, with its 67 acres of grounds, was designated a national park in 1966.

Prewar, I assume your question is rhetorical. Radiator tags are not put on vehicles so the owner can remember what they are driving; they are put on so everybody else knows what they are driving. I'll never forget driving my car one Sunday evening when a couple stopped me to ask, "Is that a model T?" I was flabbergasted, and answered, no. I loved the story of the guy who bought his sister a Locomobile for her birthday. That's a world I can't conceive of.

If I understand this right, and I am a rank amateur, the Gunboat Cabriolet was made by Healey body builders, yet, it has the distinctive Brewster forward kick at the lower front of the body. This kick is an almost exclusively Brewster design from way back in the buggy days. One could almost say it is a patented design element. It makes me feel untrusting of the Healey body tag.

Prewar Nut poses an interesting question in the light of Al's Demarist bodied 1925 and the 1917 Brewster bodied car owned by UFO Garage. From 20', the two cars look identical. I understand Locomobile also produced two almost identical roadsters. It would seem when duplicate bodies were ordered, they were let to different body building companies so that there would never be two alike.

Now you just need a car to put this on.