Anybody Remember Back When?

[JasperFrank]

Yes I remember that. We had an old big dozer, and to get it started you first started the pony, and that was a gas motor, single, that was the starter, cause there were not any electric starters that could turn over a large diesel back then. I remember, and may be wrong, but it spin a flywheel, and the fly wheel, turned over the diesel engine? It was cable for the bucket. I got to use it a few times when I was 14 in the early 70's. It was a terrifying machine. So fun though, you could drive right into a forest and trees didn't matter.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I got hired on several jobs up into the '90's because I was the only one around who could start a pony motor. In those later years they were mostly on old D-6's with side booms for working with pipe but one contractor I worked for bought one for rolling slopes with a sheep foot roller.
The thing most old timers liked best about the pony motors was that you could get the oil pressure up in the diesel before starting it.
Back in the days the pony motors were common an operator also did his own oiling and repair work, including welding. You were a lot more careful than. There were some of the old cable dozers with wet or oil cooled units but most were dry units and you learned real quick not to be riding the control lever. Changing cables was a pretty regular thing if working in rock because there was no down pressure and no matter how careful you were the cable would get crossed and bird nested.
This all reminds me of why I hurt so much come evening time.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Odd things one runs into on the 'net.

I ran into more than one occasion where a "know it all" said that system was so the customer could see what grade of fuel he was getting. LOL. It was so the attendant could pump up the amount of gas you wanted. Want 3 gallongs, pump it up to the 3 gal mark.

Another fairly well known thing was that some cars 'back when' had to back up steep hills to have enough power to climb it. NOPE: It was due to gas tanks under the seat and no fuel pumps. Tank low on fuel and try going up that hill forwards would drop the fuel below the carb level, e.g., out of gas.

It was also so the customer could see and verify that he was getting what he was paying for. Apparently, there was some paranoia going around those days.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Ha - I remember back when Moses brought around the tablet from God - it was a request for formulas for making DIRT. As I remember - some hydroponic gardener came up the formula that is still in use.

I remember, also, in the more rural areas of the county. Non-motorized graders being pulled by tracked dozers to grade the county roads.

Service station in small remote towns and even our more urban town had gas pumps where you wobble-pumped gas up into the big glass container and it then fed down into your vehicle by gravity.

Our house - and everybody else - had the old wooden box phone on the wall with the two big dry cell batteries. Spin the crank to get the operator and tell her the number you wanted. Listen for "your" ring from the phone - ours was three long - two short.

My dad alway hated taking the Chevy in for service - he would have to sit around and wait. Oil changes were EVERY 1000 miles and no longer.

There was no such thing as studded tires - my dad put a pair of walnut shell or sawdust tires on the rear for winter use. He always carried a set of chains for use if thing got really bad.

In the summer there was always the icky old canvas water bag hanging on the front bumper - fill the radiator or fill the kids - same water for all.

Technology has certainly brought us a long way - - I STILL think many of the old ways were much better.

Oosik, we must be close to the same age.

That old slow equipment lasted for several lifetimes and there were plenty of jobs for the mechanically inclined to keep it fixed. including the owner.

Ever try to get a bolt out of concrete that was embedded in molten sulfur? Had to burn the sulfur out usually had to set the sulfur on fire and let it re-melt or burn up.

Try to take a pipe joint apart that was made up with litharge and glycerin? Never had a leak though. (Now somebody ask what litharge is)

Thread 6" pipe with a manual threader?

Power operated tools have sure taken the manual labor out of our trades.

Don't get me started.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Our names were a bit more down to earth. We just called it the **** house; or if it was brick, then it was a brick **** house. My Grand dad had one that was right uptown. Not brick, but the throne was poured concrete with a hand crafted lid made of wood, that could be lifted up. I never will forget, etched in it was a shield with the following script: "WPA 1938".

How many of you know what the WPA was? Then there was the CCC.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

When Mom was a child they still had the outhouse on the rural farm...

Most labor was by hand... except for the single cylinder Diesel Tractor that did everything... it pulled the wagons, mowed the fields, powered the buzz saw and hay blower.

Old hand crank diesel tractor and when it was cold a glowing bunt plus was screwed into the cylinder head to assist...

Amazing what 15 hp could do!

There one luxury item was a radio...

Ok you got me! What is a bunt plug?

Good thing when the crank handle was on the rim of the heavy flywheel. The ones with the crank like car took some real umph. That was probably what generated the pony engine idea.

Ron

 

[Looking4new]

When I first started driving we were paying $0.459/Imperial gallon for high test gas. 'Regular' or the cheap stuff was $0.399/gallon. Remember the Imperial gallon is 160 fluid ounces, whereas the US gallon is only 128 ounces.
Americans would come up here and fill up their cars extolling the virtues of buying Canadian gas because they got better mileage out of it. They got the same mileage, just a bigger gallon, so they bought less gallons.

The middle of July, temps in the high 90s and the Americans would come up here with skis on their cars looking for snow.:laughing:
How far north do we gotta go to get decent snow? Keep going north, you might find it by the time you get to James Bay.

 

[Ken45101]

I was looking for a tractor (before my first Kubota) around 1999. A fellow had an older one for sale and we went to look at it. He was driving out of town but he said his wife was there and we should go ahead and start it and try it out. It turned out to be a pony motor. I had my son along, he was a truck mechanic at the time. We managed to get the pony started but had no clue how to start he diesel. Maybe we didn't realize that it took 10-30 minutes, LOL. We gave up. After reading this thread, I am very glad we did!

How many of you know what the WPA was? Then there was the CCC.

Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps. There was a CCC camp in Shawnee State Forest (Ohio) until about ten years ago when they tore it down. It was well maintained and looked like it was in use but IDK what they used it for.

 

[oosik]

My last year of college - 1964/1965, Univ of WA - Seattle, WA - the wife & I were just married. We bought a Vespa motor scooter. Regular gas, in Seattle, was 19.9 cents per gallon. In the Seattle weather & traffic - a motor scooter was a PITA and downright dangerous. Somehow, we both survived - I graduated - my Dad bought us a brand new 1965 VW bug - day after my last class we loaded that poor little bug to the gills and drove all the way to Anchorage, Ak where I had my first job waiting.
Seattle was having some kind of gas war over the winter and that's why gas was 19.9. I think it was, normally, around 22 or 23 cents.

Hard to believe that a product now costing $3.29 pre gallon was ever that cheap.

This summer I'm going to give up my WA State pass card to the State Park System and get one of those credit card sized US/Canadian pass ports. I'm only around 115 miles south of the border and have always enjoyed the driving and scenery up in Canada. Some really fantastic, scenic drives just north of the border.

 

[Egon]

The old time wobble gas pumps used the glass container as there might be no electricity or meters available.