What is the Most Unusual Vehicle That You Have Driven

[oldford]

I drove a 1901 Waverly Electric owned by a friend near Boston several years ago. What a delight... Wanted to buy it when it went up for sale, but funds were lacking. Wonderful car...

 

Frank

[Walt G]

I did drive a Stanley steam car, my friend in the Long Island Old Car Club VMCCA had a 1912 Stanley touring and on one of the "By land and by sea" tours we had decades ago out on the east end of long island that was where it happened. Neat alright but to many things to look at to really be comfortable for me - ie: water level tube to see how the boiler was etc.

[edinmass]

Steam is what hooked me on old cars when I was five years old............never got over it. 

[SC38dls]

I was scheduled to fly in the F16 two seat trainer. The lead pilot for the Viper Squadron (The Air Force east coast F16 full combat demonstration squadron) was the son of very good friend that passed away. He knew how much I loved to fly and was good to the family when his dad passed so he set it up. Two hours before the flight some visiting congressmen said he wanted a ride and I got bumped due to time restrictions for training. I would have liked to launch a stinger missile up that politicians asset! 
dave s 

[Laughing Coyote]

3 hours ago, SC38dls said:

I was scheduled to fly in the F16 two seat trainer.

I actually did get to be in the back seat of a F-16 when I was in the Air Guard.  They have an incentive program and they put your name on a list.  It takes a while to finally get your ride, but it was quite the experience.  They let you take the controls and fly it.  The fasted we got was 1.2 Mach.  Everything gets really intense at that speed.  

[Terry Harper]

For me that would be the 19 ton, 1907 Lombard Steam Log Hauler at the Maine Forest & Logging Museum. I am very honored and proud to be part of the crew that operates and maintains this beast. Its rated at 100 hp but churns out over 11,000 ft. lbs of torque at the tracks. It was designed to haul long trains of sleds during the winter months. We have swapped the skis for wheels so we can demonstrate during the few non-winter months we have up here. 

 

Steering is an adventure. Its very low geared so as we like to remind people "steer early, steer often". Its a very sweet running machine and we will have it out and about for our Living History Days event on October 1st and 2nd.

 

 

[28 Chrysler]

Travel Lift, it may be in competition with the Lombard for speed but the steering may be more responsive.

[TAKerry]

1 hour ago, 28 Chrysler said:

Travel Lift, it may be in competition with the Lombard for speed but the steering may be more responsive.

Looking at your signature, I can assume that you did not drive this in Nevada! LOL

[oldcarfudd]

My military aviation experience is about as far as you can get from an F-16.  For several years I owned, and eventually had restored, a 1943 army training glider, a Laister-Kaufmann  LK-10a, military designation TG 4A.  It was built when the army was training pilots first in gliders, an experiment that didn't last.  My glider was first flown after being sold as war surplus.  I had about 100 hours in it, took a number of people for rides, had my first successful country task in it, the first two legs of my silver badge, and my first three landouts.  The ship is now hanging from the ceiling in a WWII gliding museum in Texas.

[Marty Roth]

WWII Higgins Landing Craft

 

When Lagniappe Chapter of Louisiana Region AACA hosted the 2015 Central Division National Meet (Nationals) in Houma, Louisiana,

one of the unusual options was the opportunity to ride on the Intracoastal Canal in a WWII Higgins Landing Craft.

These boats were constructed here in Louisiana, and designed to be carried aboard larger ships and lowered into the ocean a safe distance from shore. Built with a flat bottom allowed them to get as close to beachheads as possible. They carried both equipment, as well as soldiers. Built with a flat ramp as the bow, the ramp could be dropped so that men and jeeps and other equipment could quickly have access to shore, hopefully minimizing the soldiers' exposure to enemy fire from the cliffs, above. These Higgins boats served on D-Day, as well as all across the Pacific Theater. One of the is on display in the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, another in the Military Museum in Houma, LA, and another on the Intracoastal Canal. 

 

I had the privilege of driving the one on the Intracoastal Canal, with about a dozen or so visitors on board who attended to our show.

Knowing that my father, a WWII Seabee, 6th Special Battalion,serving in the South Pacific, was able to do a better job because our armed forces had these Higgins craft, is still inspiring to this day.

 

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the boat, but a friend snapped these of me piloting that Higgins craft.

 

[CChinn]

When I was the XO at the Naval Hospital at NAS Lemoore, home base for all west coast Navy Strike Fighter Squadrons, I got the opportunity to fly in the back seat of an F/A-18 Super Hornet. Way cool and much faster and maneuverable than my 1940 Chevy!

[Pilgrim65]

Some amazing rides , nothing quite so good , but I used to ride a cycle master to do my paper round was a old bicycle with engine in back wheel , pretty quick 30/35 mph and never seen another like it since , but weirdest a van with hydraulic cradle on top to service street lights 

[Marty Roth]

Many years back, possibly 2007, or so, and while driving our old Cadillac convertible on a VMCCA Heritage Tour based in Lakeville, CT with my then 10 year old grandson, we visited the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook, Dutchess County, NY. In addition to visiting the hangers and museum, there were many vintage planes, many of them being of WW-I vintage.

We were offered a ride in an open dual-cockpit Stinson - I believe it was a "Model-O", and of course we accepted. The pilot sat in the rear  while we sat in the front. A 10 minute flight turned into nearly two hours of sightseeing when it  turned out that both the pilot and I had similar backgrounds. We both worked as musicians at various resort hotels in the Catskill mountains back in the 1950s and 1960s - the age of the "Borscht Belt". We even played at some of the same hotels, but at different times, and may have jammed together at the River Tavern in Woodbourne, NY where hotel musicians gathered after-hours to get into jazz, and away from the more commercial "standards" which were preferred by older guests at the hotels.

 

The best part was when the pilot offered to let me, and my grandson take over the "Stick", actually controlling the Stinson as we flew over the area between Loch Sheldrake, Liberty, Monticello, Hasbrouck Heights, Woodbourne, Ellenville, Mountaindale, and the Navesink river where I spend every summer from the early 1940s through the mid-1960s.

 

While I had previously been handed the controls by my father of a Cessna 170 and 172, as well as a Piper Cherokee 180-D, and a Beechcraft Bonanza,

the Stinson was among the most memorable.

 

Then again, being given the wheel of a tour boat of a Tour Cruise Boat in the 1000 Islands area of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Is an entirely different experience.

[28 Chrysler]

22 hours ago, TAKerry said:

Looking at your signature, I can assume that you did not drive this in Nevada! LOL

That was back in my days on the upper Mississippi.  55 tons at walking speed is unforgiving, no visibility on one side.

[ron hausmann]

On the farm growing up, we had a YS Arny White Half Track. My dad was a WW2 mechanic and had it just to fiddle around and drive. It was fun driving into the woods and crushing trees - darn thing would go anywhere. Only problem was that the turning radius was so wide that he had to ruin the corners of the lawn whenever he left the driveway, since our woods and pasture was across  the street. Also the battery was really a crazy size.

Ron Hausmann 

[1937hd45]

On 9/23/2022 at 5:06 PM, Terry Harper said:

For me that would be the 19 ton, 1907 Lombard Steam Log Hauler at the Maine Forest & Logging Museum. I am very honored and proud to be part of the crew that operates and maintains this beast. Its rated at 100 hp but churns out over 11,000 ft. lbs of torque at the tracks. It was designed to haul long trains of sleds during the winter months. We have swapped the skis for wheels so we can demonstrate during the few non-winter months we have up here. 

 

Steering is an adventure. Its very low geared so as we like to remind people "steer early, steer often". Its a very sweet running machine and we will have it out and about for our Living History Days event on October 1st and 2nd.

 

 

 

 

Terry, Is that Nina or one of her sisters? This video is additive shows her at work. Bob 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by 1937hd45 (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

1 hour ago, 1937hd45 said:

 

 

Terry, Is that Nina or one of her sisters? This video is additive shows her at work. Bob 

 

 

 

That's a wonderful video! Our's is number 39 which would be one of Nina's older siblings. Unfortunately, Nina was scrapped on a site near Dummer, N.H.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Terry Harper (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

Sad to know Nina is gone, makes that video and music a bit sadder. Did they cut trees all summer long and bring them out on the snow, or was it year round using trucks with smaller loads?

[Terry Harper]

18 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

Sad to know Nina is gone, makes that video and music a bit sadder. Did they cut trees all summer long and bring them out on the snow, or was it year round using trucks with smaller loads?

They usually started cutting in late fall. All the hauling was done in the winter using Lombards, horses or tractors or a combination of both. Until the 1930's and even into the 1940's winter hauling was the rule until the development of bulldozers and other earth moving equipment made all season roads affordable and practical. One steam Lombard in our collection was used as late as 1947. 

 

Here is some footage taking on a gas Lombard log hauler operation in the late 1920's You can see the use of horses, crawler tractors and good old hard labor - nothing like chucking pulpwood for $1.25 per day!

 

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Terry Harper (see edit history)

[28 Chrysler]

Some more loggers.

[1912Staver]

I  " drove " , steered actually a friends 1912 Reeves Traction Engine . Not the largest , but still a quite large " Canadian Special ".  The Canadian market engines had better boilers and heavier gearing than what the U.S. market machines normally had fitted. A proper plowing engine rather than one that would do most of its work as a stationary power source, threshing, saw milling etc.

 I am licenced on boilers of this size , but modern semi automatic boilers.  The intricacies of running a 100 year old , completely manual boiler are outside my experence. So my friend tended to the boiler and throttle and I just steered it.

 As Terry said previously , even steering machines of this type are something that takes some time to get the hang of. Slack is necessary in the steering chain , so for every change of direction you first have to take up that slack. Then the wheels move reasonably quickly and the change of direction is quite abrupt. Lots of over correcting and many , many turns of the steering wheel.

Not my friends engine , but one that is very close.

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

I will add another one. Back in the 1990's I volunteered at the Maine Narrow Gauge Museum in Portland, ME. My preferred job (only job) was firing the locomotives. No. 3 was a gem but I really loved No. 8. It was a bit of a challenge compared to No. 3 but there was always a great deal of satisfaction in keeping the boiler pressure steady (just below when the safety valves would lift) and keeping a bright, clear fire with no holes, the water level in the sight glass steady and the stack clean  - i.e. no big billowing black cloud of coal smoke. 

 

Not my photos but here they are:

 

 

[yachtflame]

Back in ‘84 I was Captain of Roy M. Cohan’s yacht “Wavemaker” and spent a lot of time at his house in Greenwich, CT. He kept 6 different vintage cars there and I had use of any as long as I took it to get washed. My favorite was the 1948 Delahaye 135 coupe. An unusual car to drive, at least for me!

Edited September 27, 2022 by yachtflame (see edit history)

[TAKerry]

2022-09-24_05-28-10 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr

Havent seen one of these posted yet!  As an operating engineer I have been behind 'the wheel' of most types of yellow iron. Cars, not so much. I cant really think of one exotic or crazy thing I have driven. I have been behind the wheel of a friends late model 'Vette Z06, I drove my grandmothers Fleetwood Broughm many years ago, dad had a couple of Caddies I drove. Thats about exotic and luxurious as I get.