Evening star., 1933-07-23
BY ". BOYCE MORGAN.

a stranger had happened to wander down
to the lower end Of the Jameson pasture
early one August morning he would have
stopped, stared, rubbed his eyes, and won-
dered II he were seeing things.
For the Jameson pasture ended at the
Cobble Mountain railroad track and on that
track stood a contraption such as few human
beings have ever seen. It looked somewhat
like q railroad handcar, but mounted on the
top Of it was the motor Of q decrepit hivver.
Not only that but this motor, instead OF being
pointed toward the front of the car. as any
normal motor should be, was mounted side
ways. The radiator was on the very edge OF
the car. and on the other edge was gasoline
tank And across the front of the strange
vehicle stretched the seat cushion OF an auto
mobile.
Had the imaginary stranger taken the
trouble to approach this odd contraption more
closely he could have found out all about 1t
from no less an authority than the two owners
themselves. At this very moment Perry jamie
son and Bill Locke were emptying the last
drops of gasoline from Q can into the tank
and they were as excited as any two boys pos
sibly could be.
IF this thing doesn't run, after we've
worked on it almost all Summer" Perry was
saying. I'm going to be sore enough to tear
it to pieces with my bare hands"
"It'n run all right" Bill replied confidently.
wipng a smudge Of grease of his chin. ''The
have enough power to 60 uphill"
THIS was an important day in the lives OF
Perry and Bill Several months before
while wandering along the abandoned track
that ran up Cobble Mountain, they had come
across a broken-down handcar It was lying
the two boys Immediately began speculating
on its possibilities for fun.
After getting the handcar up on the track
they discovered that new wheel together
with some two-by-fours, few mails and Q
little work would put it in running condition.
Their next step was to consult Mr.. Appleton.
who was the local agent for the railroad COM
pany This interview produced results q few
days later in the shape OF an old but sound
wheel which Mr.. Appleton had salvaged from
somewhere in the railroad yards
With this the boys were able to fix up the
handcar, and for several weeks they had lot
of fun with it, pushing it up grade where the
track started, to climb the mountain beyond
the Jameson pasture, and then coasting back
down and all the way into town.
1t must be explained that the Cobble Noun
tain spur Of track was once useful for bringing
timber down from the logging camps on the
mountain, but when numbering operations
stopped there, the railroad abandoned this bit
Of its line. No train Of any kind had run up
the mountain for two years now, but the track
had never been torn up.
EVENTUALLY the boys tired of the novelty
L Of coasting on the old handcar, and then
the idea came to them Of motorizing it. After
. good deal Of scheming and haggling. they
managed to buy an ancient flivver for the
princely sum Of $3.75. This car would not
run under its own power, but the boys towed
1t to the Jameson pasture and went to work
on it. They had to buy a few parts, but they
picked them up In . local junk yard for al
most nothing, and they finally managed to
make the motor run satisfactorily. Then they
took it out of the nivver and mounted it on
&C On their first attempt they mounted it with
the radiator toward the front, but they soon
discovered that this meant they would have to
fix up the gears to transfer the power to the
axle of the car. They solved this problem by
mounting the motor sideways, which enabled
them to get the power to the axle with
mere leather belt and . couple Of pulleys. As
Perry pointed out. 1t might look funny that
way, but It worked. and that was the main
thing.