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FASCINATING HISTORY ON DISPLAY AT OSHAWA'S AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM BONK! BONK! There is no real way to describe the noise this raucou air-horn makes but the squawk must have more than enough to scare atonal been FRAMED BY a broken sheet of toughened safety glass, Sandy inspects the large, free - standing head lamps of a 1923. Durant HERE FRED and Sandy get a close look at a 1911 ternational Auto Wagon, built by the In- Harvester Com- pany and possib a forerun- ner of today's stauion wagon, > w ie chickens and errant pedes- trians out of the way of this 1904 Franklin the sound was not as sweet as that of horns on today's cars, The horn-bulb is just Fred agreed 4 d A % i % Pe le le! le: Mls open - touring car. this "beast"' is also a monarch of the highway, long and slim and powerful Leaside, On- This car was built in The rear deck is open, and unlike that of a modern half - ton truck 1 100 looks not pickup If you think that hood short and not deep enough to embrace an en- below the driver's hand on this right-hand drive auto The wicker basket, head, has a seen above Frank's duplicate on the other side, providing close-at-hand lug- tario, where the cars were assembled from 1921 to 1932 It has high, solid wheels (no spokes), is a four - model and has a great deal door right. It's under the seat, where else? Note the high wheels with gine, you are the solid rubber tires Wheels of this height made travel on unimproved, often- gage space for those in the The horn is of brass, as are all the fur- rear seats nishings on this aristocrat of the road, of leg 'room for rear-seat passengers. The car was known for its high quality engine, This model is on loan from Larry Norton of Oshawa, easy and al- The wheels rutted roads most comfortable. "Buggy" seat and indicate the transition from vehicle to horse drawn motor car, RON DEVANEY of The Oshawa Times Staff One afternoon this week Sandy Fraser, 10, and his 13-year-old chum Fred Wig- more waved good-bye to school and took a leisurely trip through Oshawa's Canadian Automotive Museum on Simcoe st. s. On this page is a pictorial record of just part of what they saw and did, Sandy had been to the museum before, but for Fred it was all new and different. There are lots of cars as old as Fred on the roads foday but how many 1898 Redpath- Messengers do you see? Sandy's father and mother are both General Motors employees, as is Fred's father. So car talk around the house is nothing new. EDUCATIONAL But the museum is more than a repose for vintage cars. It is educational, show- ing the evolution of both cars and trucks. Its displays show improvements in tech- nology: paints, motors, glass and lubri- cants and fuels. Tires, too. Sandy found a cutaway display of a car door. "'My dad once worked on those," he said. Fred was interested in the scale model of the 1769 Cugnot steam-powered vehicle because he had studied the steam-engine in school The boys had a look at a_ 1914 Chalmers a long, slim, open-touring model of the -type promotional wizard Hugh Chalmers gave to Eddie Collins of the Philadelphia Athletics that year. Chalmers instituted Baseball's Most Valu- able Player Awards All boys like hot-rods and custom cars and the only one in the Museum (it has since been removed; several of the cars are rented) caught their eye It is a 1930 Ford roadster, "open and altered,"' and did not look out of place be- tween a 1930 (Baby) Austin and a 1922 Reo Sandy and Fred thought the Reo was just the answer for a camping trip. And it probably was the. 'last word' in style for the outdoorsman 40-odd years ago It looks like a half-ton pickup. In the back is the sleeping accommodation with a canvas covering -- a tent on wheels. TENT ON WHEELS This Reo model, built in St. Cath- arines, is said to be the first car equipped for touring and camping, in an effort to lure the travelling public. A Rauch and Lang electric car had the boys perplexed. How do you steer the thing? The car has tiller-bar steering and can be operated from either the front or back seat. On a full charge the R and L is good for 75 miles. The front seat swivels, ideal for a poker game while on the road. Per- haps this car was popular with gamblers of the day. How does it feel to sit where Royalty sat? The boys still don't know because the cars themselves are off-limits. But they had a good look at a Royal-blue Humber, an English model which. has carried Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal famiiy. A real aristocrat of the road, and ahead of its time in 1904, is the Franklin. This is a real convertible, no top at all, but there is an umbrella for milady. The car was made from 1902 to 1934, when the company went under due to the Depression. Although built in Syracuse, New York, the car has a right-hand drive. The left- front seat folds over for easy access to the high-backed rear seats. The Franklin's four-cylinder engine is set in a transverse position, exposing all cylinders to a steady air flow. There is a brass runaing-light at the rear, when many cars of that era (and later) had none at all Chev and Ford are well-known names in the auto manufacturing field. McLaugh- lin, too, to antique car buffs. (And to those who are familiar with the history of this city's biggest industry.) But the museum is a treasure trove filled with cars whose names are unknown to many: Graham (later Graham-Paige), Atlas (built at Brockville), Maxwell (Jack Benny has one, but then he is ageless), Star, Overland, Saxon IF FRED HAD a beard he could shave in this high- ly polished rear-view mirror It is mounted on the spare wheel of a 1928 Hudson Super-Six. The side-mounted spares were a distinctive feature of this car. The Hudson company had a Ca- nadian assembly plant at Tilbury, Ontario. The car has an imposing hood, .topp- ed by a "Flying Lady" on the radiator cap. Oshawa Times Photos by Bruce Jones Ohe Oshawa Cimes OSHAWA, ONTARIO, SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1965 SIXTY-SEVEN years ago this may have been a typical scene on western and south- ern Ontario roads. Fred and Sandy make like frustrated owners of this "stalled" 1898 THE 1904 FRANKLIN fuel again and Sandy peers at a set of gauges on the "dash" chariot These are mounted in a and nicely heavy brass plug and may have been used to indicate are Redpath - Messenger, old- est car on display at the museum, The chassis was by Redpath and the running gear was assembled in the Kitchener - Guelph area. mixtures. coutrements on this luxury are done in offset the black finish. The two headlights topped by a The wooden body was made in Toronto by Alfred Robin- son, who later established a business in Oshawa. The R-M had a one cylinder en- gine and the car was capable of 10 to 12 mph. All the ac- light" which looks like it could have been used in Eddystone Lighthouse. With dark toads the candlepower. was brass bumpy "'search- welcome, t THIS well-dressed 'mill' being examined by Sandy powers the only rod in the museum right now. It is a 1930 Ford roadster, open and altered, It doesn't fall into WATCH THAT backspin, Sandy! Cranks may. be a thing of the past now but they were stock equipment on this 1907. Model "N" Ford. This car model, in the classic or antique cate- gory but Sandy thinks it is in a class of its own. The rod has been lovingly put to- gether, with parts from a half a dozen cars, the inevitable Henry Ford black ."you can have any color you want as long as it is black'), was the father of the hugely successful Model "T" and sold for $600,