Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

Care to take a guess what is going on this pad?

Updates coming soon

[Crusty]

A memorial for the Hindenberg crash?

That was the first thing that came to mind, might not be spot on.

[Frank S]

A memorial for the Hindenberg crash?

That was the first thing that came to mind, might not be spot on.

Not spot on, what will be positioned there went into service 20 years before the Hindenburg fire and was still in service through the 1963 presidential election its number is 14 that is all the hint I'm giving

[Crusty]

Ah-ha! Gotta be a lathe.

[Frank S]

Ah-ha! Gotta be a lathe.

well it does have electric motors on it but no its not a lathe.
and for years it had a lot of coal on it

[Frank S]

Ok this is part of what the pad was for


just a little heavy that tire has 60PSI in it

backing in place using the power of the hydraulics and the winch on the trailer to position the container where I needed it



this will be parked between the containers after I roof over them and close in the ends

[metric_taper]

this will be parked between the containers after I roof over them and close in the ends

Where have you been hiding that, or is this a new acquisition.
Looks like those are batteries between the wheels of this very old truck.
Just what the heck is that?
Frame and drive line are primed. Looks like wood wheels need this treatment next. No air, so I'm guessing ~1915.

[Crusty]

From the previous clues Frank's given us I'm thinking it must be an electric truck from the early part of last century. I'd call it a lead+acid sled.

[metric_taper]

Crusty, Frank hinted at Coal being on it. It could have come from some coal mining operation, that was underground large enough to drive this size truck in.
So this truck will be back in vogue in 2035 when California requires all vehicles to be battery driven.

[Frank S]

In 2008 one January morning while working in Kuwait I received a phone call from a guy I had only known through our mutual association with antique trucks. since 1998. One of our common interest was preserving history or old trucks at the time of the discovery of this truck he and I were deeply though separately involved in researching and retrieving lost or deleted discussions which had been posted on various truck forums but dumped from the servers due to lack of band width. Though at the time neither knew the other was doing this. One day I happened to ping his computer while he was online in a search when he noticed me a back chat window immediately popped up asking what I was doing I recognized who it was from a mutual forum he and I were both members of and told him what I was doing then he said you are trying to access my system. We started chatting and learned that we were both doing the same thing then decided to build a server for the society we were members of and present it as a means of saving as much lost of forgotten data as possible.
long story even longer the morning he called me he said he had found an old truck that he was interested in, what were my thoughts. I told him if I wasn't 7000 miles away I would buy it so he bought it.
Here is the link to the url of his account of the truck and part of its history.
I highly recommend reading the full story and comments
C T Electric (Commercial Truck Company - Electric Truck ).
Eddy and I didn't meet face to face until many years later in fact it was well after I had made a trip to California to purchase a lathe and haul a small trailer back for him as well which I converted to a trades day display trailer for him to take to truck and car shows so he could sell his paint.
Anyway the truck is now at my place I will be constructing a permanent protected storage for it so he and I can set about the task of fully restoring it to its prime.
I have long considered it as much mine as it is his even though he owns it.