Wheels

I suppose I could start this out with some noble sounding statement such as "From the dawn of civilization. When man first invented the wheel..." but that borders on pretentious. I'm actually not convinced man invented the wheel. I'm thinking he improved it by watching a round rock roll down a hill before it whacked him in the head. The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

We could not survive without wheels. They take us places, they move machinery, they make dragging around your vacuum cleaner easier. Life itself would suffer without wheels. And the best part? Well to me anyway they make for great pictures. 

This old bulldozer has long since plowed it's last road. Nothing more than a steel monument to progress from a bygone era. From the looks of it and its many missing parts I'm thinking they just drove it here and left it.

This is a Massey-Ferguson 35. Best I can figure is it most looks like one I found from 1963. Tractors don't go through styling updates like cars do so I will assume early 1960's. I just liked the pot-metal logo on the front. Not often you see a two-name company where the second name is the one they refer to.

I found this firetruck next to the old Packard Clipper  down around Gadsden. This guy had a couple hundred old cars and trucks. It was one of those photography goldmines. The only problem was he didn't particularly care for me shooting pictures of them. I suppose I could have argued that I was on a public right-of-way and all but you just get a feel for those who are not inclined to listen. I will say he was nice when he pretty much told me to get lost.

This is an Allis-Chalmers Gleaner I found in a barn in Chilton County. It's missing its cab and other miscellaneous parts. Gleaning, as I understand it, is cleaning up leftover crops after the rest have been been commercially harvested. It's real technical stuff and I will leave that to the experts on this...yeah...that's what I'll do. We'll just say it does farm type stuff.

I showed the back of this bus in my last blog. I just think it's cool sitting here in a vacant lot. It's easy to see if you're coming into Sylacauga from Childersburg. There's a house to the left and I wasn't sure if anybody lived there. The for sale sign made me take a gamble and it paid off.

This thing I saw on a remote road in Shelby County near Montevallo. I have no clue what it is. It looks homemade and I suspect it was used to carry logs out of the woods for processing. I'm thinking the huge roll-cage on the front meant it was either unstable or watch out for falling trees. Logging is dangerous work. I can't imagine how bad it was back when this was a working piece of machinery.

This is a mail car from the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. I found it in Andalusia along with the Plymouth switcher. The REA Express was started as a Govt owned monopoly to ensure safe and timely delivery of parcels over the railroad system. All the railroads were part of this except two. Southern and the Mobile and Ohio, both of which made their way through Alabama, had their own service. REA eventually got put out of business by UPS who, along with the Interstate system, could deliver packages much cheaper.                                                                                                                                                          

An old industrial switcher made by Plymouth. No, not That Plymouth. This was made by Plymouth Locomotive Works in Plymouth, Ohio. 1960's at least. These were used to move railroad cars around industrial facilities such as steel mills and grain elevators. 

Ya know...I didn't mean this to be a history lesson. But in the same light I can't just say "Oooo...check out this picture of a car!" I'm hoping you appreciate a little background on these.

How many times have you seen an old Nash Metropolitan? Probably more times than you've seen two at the same time. I remember these well. Kind of a geek car driven by guys who wanted something different. The one on the left is a 1958 model and was most noted for having no trunk lid. You had to fold down the back seat if you wanted to store anything. The one on the right (1959) introduced a trunk that opened from the outside!

And finally an old travel trailer. No idea who made it. So you know somebody had painted it bright red. Trust me when I say changing it to grayscale made it worth a look. I found this in a backyard (I haven't been shot yet and I consider that a plus) near the cotton gin I mentioned in an earlier post in Vincent, Alabama.

And speaking of Vincent, can you find a more fitting way to end this chapter than to show you a map (legal CYA-Courtesy Google Maps) of the actual city limits of Vincent? 

Yep...looks like a wheel. Well....with a flat spot but close enough. So you know I didn't know this initially. I was just verifying what county Vincent is in and saw this. One of those way cool moments. If you were curious...probably not but if you were it's in Shelby...and St. Clair...AND Talladega county. 

One last thing. I want to thank Beverly Crider and her Facebook site Strange Alabama. She graciously linked my last blog and it exploded with hits. I cannot thank her enough. Check out her page (Strange Alabama) on Facebook as it has tons (well not literally) of pictures from across my beloved Alabama. I have met the nicest people since I started this and she is definitely one of the best.