....barges go, but slow

Living on the Ohio river I sometimes forget what a neat thing the river is. This week Mary and I just followed the small two lane highway that follows the river. There are a lot of scenic vistas and overlooks along the river. At Cannelton, IN there is a set of locks and a dam. This point is about 670 miles below Pittsburgh, PA where the river starts.The dams along the Ohio are of the wicket and gate style. They are used to regulate the flow and level of the river to minimise flooding and to keep it navigable in the dry seasons.
These are the gates and they are raised and lowered to regulate the level. All the way up and they don't stop any water. The level is the same above and below the dam. They don't even seal. There is so much flow in the river they just slow it down and the river upstream rises.

These enclosures house the BIG hoists that raise and lower the gates.
You can also see a vulture cruising for fish below the dam.

Fortunately the was a barge locking through while we were there. He is waiting for the lock to finish filling so they can open the upstream lock gate and let them out.

The lock has been opened and they are moving on up stream. The Ohio river has a huge amount of traffic so this goes on around the clock. Another barge had pulled up waiting their turn to lock through.

....more Race cars that go

My brother works grid at the MidOhio race track. He bought his wife a new camera so she tried it out at the race last weekend. Pretty good job with the new camera. All of these pictures were taken by Jenny and not me.A formula ford coming down the road from paddock to pre-grid.
My brother making sure the formula car drivers are all belted in correctly.

Here he is lining them up for the start.

Sometimes you have to be pretty explicit as the red mist may already have settled in.

Two sports racers leaning into the corner.

A friend finishing.

...race cars Go

I got to crew this last weekend at the Mayday National at Heartland Park in Topeka Kansas. Because I was working most of the weekend I didn't get a lot of chances to get pictures, but I caught a few here and there with one short video at the end. When we get the in car footage I may include some more. Here is our paddock area. Front of car.
Rear of car. Always fiddling and diddling with things.

A Miata and a VW Golf going through turns 2 and 3.

The Golf is one of the popular small sedans.

A Lotus Super 7.

A Miata passing an SRF on the outside.

This Formula Atlantic wasn't having a good day.

Turn 4 and 5 is a busy place at the start of a race. The following video is from the regional race for Formula Atlantic's, Formula Continentals, C Sports racers and D Sports racers. This was our class but we didn't run the regional. We were saving ourselves for the National race Sunday.

....my favorites

I am returning to more cars from the Lane Museum. This is a group of my favorites from the museum. I just like these.1985 Renault Alpine 310
1954 Panhard Ghia-Aigle

1938 BMW 320. There are only 17 of this Cabriolet left out of over 4,000.

1976 Lamborghini Urraco P300

1998 Lotus Elise. It's a Lotus thing.

1955 MG TF. Like it needs a label.

1935 Adler Trumpf Junior. After the war they made typewriters.

When I walked into the museum and they had a map of Le Mans built into the floor I knew this would be good.

A Special Post - Doolittle Raiders

For today I am not posting any pictures from the Lane Museum. My brother lives in Ohio where Wright-Paterson Air Force base is located. This weekend they are having a celebration honoring the Doolittle Raiders of WW2. April 18, 1942 16 B 24 bombers took off from the deck of the USS Hornet to strike the first blow back at the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. There were 80 men in these 16 planes and only 8 are still alive. They are trying to gather all of the flying B 24's in the US to do a fly in at Wright-Paterson. My brother and his wife took all of these pictures so I offer a big thanks for them.As of Thursday evening there were 17 at the Urbana Ohio airport with more due today.
The nose art on the old planes is one of their great draws.

Some more interesting than others.

I find all parts of the old plane fascinating. and good looking.

These old planes take a huge amount of maintenance to keep them flying. a true labour of love.

One beautiful airplane.

Shell feeds for the side mount machine guns. We still need to remember what these planes were designed to do.

Two arriving together with the first peeling off to land.

The last to land at sunset. Here is a short video of one rolling in to park.

...three wheels are better than Four?

The lane collection of three wheelers is outstanding. Some of the "most interesting".This is one of Mary's pictures and unfortunately we didn't get much info on this car, but it is quite the looker. I don't know which is its best feature, the trunk in the front, the sidewinder starting handle or the wood trim pieces. No, its the nifty luggage rack!
Of course a lot of the micro cars are three wheelers. If you are going to leave off a lot of the car might as well leave off one of the wheels.

This is a 1950 Martin Stationette. I think it started life as a roll top desk and somebody left a gasoline engine in one of the drawers.

The 1932 Martin Martinette. Words fail me.

This is a 1934 B.S.A. TW33-10. This was a four cylinder car and they sold over 1700 of them. I have several friends that have old B.S.A. bikes and I bet they didn't know they were once in the car business. This is realy a very nice car.

Whats missing here? This is a 1958 Coronet. I liked this styling cue to make you think it had 4 wheels? This had a fiberglass body and Triumph front suspension.

Th 1948 Davis Divan got it's name from the fact that it is so wide that the front seat, the only seat, can seat four across just like a divan. What inspiration. There were only 16 built and every one still exists in private collections.

Four across if your all real good friends. I don't think we have seen the end of three wheelers and I wonder if the next one will have two wheels in front or in the rear.

Time for some race cars

To say that the race cars at the Lane Museum are a bit eclectic is to say, well I don't know, here are some of them. I will have more later.A 1960 Saab 93 currently being raced in some vintage class?
A 1966 Citroen DS set up for ice racing. I wish I knew how this ended up in Nashville TN. Not your ice racing capitol of America.

1985 Renault 5 Turbo 2. One of the Killer B's rally cars.
1985 MG Metro 6R4. Another of the Killer B's. This one has the old Rover V8 cut down to a V6. That is the old Buick aluminum block V8 that they had in the early 60's that GM sold to Rover because nobody over here would buy it.

This is an Austin Healey Sprite running in the SCCA F/Prepared class. No info on who's are why its here?

A 2001 Dallara IRL car. I think this one was sponsored by Red Bull, not sure.

1967 Can-Am car with a 2002 PCD Saxon British hill climb car in the background.

1967 Caldwell Can-Am race car campaigned and still owned by Sam Posey. They have a TV in the background playing old footage from the races. It appears that the only time it was filmed was when higher placed cars were passing it. The cars here really are a lot of fun and a little of everything.