Photo of the day

Now THAT is a cool setup! Love the colors too.

Later,

Lee

TAHOE wrote:

nice!

Ya gotta check your boots down here in old FLA.

BURN THE BOOTS!

It's them snakes or the big darn spiders! The snake might mess up your shorts as well!

I like snakes overall, but not the ones with baby rattles.

Tell me that you did that just to shock me?

The Sinclair sign is a popular item from this area... had a rather large refining/processing plant in Wellsville NY in the early 1900's. It was the major employer around along with turbodyne (presently dresser-rand), who manufactured steam turbines. There was a large fire there (sinclair) in the early part of the century, a photographer named Kresge had some amazing pictures of a lot of the fire, the most amazing being of a 50,000 gallon naptha tank being blown from its location, 300 feet (according to the caption on the picture) into the air, weighing 200 tons, I believe (must have had some product in it), and showing the tank nearing the end of its trajectory coming back to earth... and beneath it was a Sinclair employee who was crushed by the tank as it landed. It also told how deep the hole was it made when it impacted the ground, and the employees name killed in the aftermath. I'll see if I can find it and direct Rebstew toward it and get it posted if interested. Sinclair is/was a big deal around here.

Yours? (He says hopefully)

lol No I think Rob Mullins had it and sold it to this guy in the picture. Not really sure.

dieseldr wrote:The Sinclair sign is a popular item from this area... had a rather large refining/processing plant in Wellsville NY in the early 1900's.  It was the major employer around along with turbodyne (presently dresser-rand), who manufactured steam turbines.  There was a large fire there (sinclair) in the early part of the century, a photographer named Kresge had some amazing pictures of a lot of the fire, the most amazing being of a 50,000 gallon naptha tank being blown from its location, 300 feet (according to the caption on the picture) into the air, weighing 200 tons, I believe (must have had some product in it), and showing the tank nearing the end of its trajectory coming back to earth... and beneath it was a Sinclair employee who was crushed by the tank as it landed.  It also told how deep the hole was it made when it impacted the ground, and the employees name killed in the aftermath.  I'll see if I can find it and direct Rebstew toward it and get it posted if interested.  Sinclair is/was a big deal around here.

Looked all over for this particular picture- striking out.....sorry.

Not sure if this link will work, if it does you will need to scroll down, and there is a picture of what I believe  is the aforementioned explosion.... These little people who work in my computer can find anything  and I live THOUSANDS of miles away

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lk8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=kresge+explosion+sinclair&source=bl&ots=H4U0x4RVq0&sig=6a8wedne4T46Cdn5F7iLdMF4YPI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Q2CaVMPWM8uxUdX2gYAJ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=kresge%20explosion%20sinclair&f=false

You got it- it doesn't amaze me anymore what other people, no matter their location. can find on the internet. Anyway, this is the photo I spoke of. Scroll down about a quarter of the way. I have read articles from the early nineteen hundreds, and , apparently, this sinclair location at Wellsville NY was the largest refinery in the country at the time. I don't know how that was determined, whether through barrels processed, acres covered, crude brought in, number of employees, etc, etc. But I guess it was a big deal at the time, is now a superfund site, and there is a state college vocational school on the grounds there.... has been since the early 70's. Only a handful of buildings remain at the site, and cleanup and monitoring continue on a daily basis in regards to the refinery operations of nearly a century ago. The Genesee river runs right beside it, providing recreation, ample fishing, and a backdrop for the greater wellsville balloon rally, held annually each July.

Going thru the annuls of history, It amazes me some of the things that were built in highly populated areas, 1917, Not well known thing but there was a chemical works in a Silvertown, a part of London's east end, densely populated, an explosion ripped thru the plant exploding 50+ tons of TNT, had it been daytime the explosion would have killed thousands, fortunately it was night time and the factory was shut, killing "only" 73, and injuring 300+, even into the 90s the area was a wasteland, only being developed for the London Olympics a few years ago,

Wild picture.

When I was a kid we had a guy making fireworks illegally in the city of Newport Ky. Someone set off a keg and blew the building up. It knocked building over around it and blew houses off foundations. Johnny Bennett that is on here lived about 3 blocks away and it even blew the windows out of his house if I remember right. I was just a kid back then but remember it well. The city building was built where the building blew up.

Newport 1981


For the locals to me that know Newport Ky this picture is standing at 10th street facing north toward Cincy, Ohio with Monmouth St being just to your right about 25 feet. That building way down there is the old Marks? building they turned into hi end apartments not long ago on the corner of 9th and Monmouth. If you stood in the same spot as the picture taker, today you would be looking straight at the Newport Fire Department door where the fire truck sits.

If you'll notice in the picture above, little Reb is scoping out the axle and driveshaft for his first rod build.

I was struggling for a comeback- that's as good or better than anything I would have come up with...

lol I was a bit older than that young lad. I wonder if that axle was in a truck in the warehouse or just something that was sitting loose. There was a couple people that died and a bunch that got hurt. I was in grade school on the other side of town and they let us out in the school yard to see the mushroom cloud going up.

Strangely, This was very close the where I used to live, and a relatively close call for me.
Buncefield, is still a refinery, producing Avgas, built during ww2 to provide fuel to many many fighter and bomber airfields north of London, it was a giant pumping station too as it fed the airfields by pipe.
I worked nights for 30+ years in London, and used to commute with a few friends to work, we used to car share in a motel car park which was situated just across the road from Buncefield,  Fortunately, we had an early finish and walked thru my front door about 5am, 20mins later the place blew up, demolishing where we used to park, normally about the time when we would pick the cars up.


https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=buncefield+explosion&biw=1301&bih=641&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Ri6dVJn7FcetU8CUg6gL&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ