1913 Christie Front Drive steam pumper/ fire engine

The restoration is remarkable, but the concept used in this construction is astonishing and innovative. Brilliant really, Walter Christie was a gifted engineer, and made the first front wheel drive car, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/first-front-wheel-drive-car-1904.html and raced it in 1905 in the Vanderbilt Cup.

But getting back to the steam pumper... Christie didn't get in over his head and make the existing tech obsolete, he made it better. You may have realized that Microsoft is the world's top software company because it makes it's Windows better, not obsolete, and this made Bill Gates the world's richest man... improvements, not obsolescence.

Like I was saying, Walter looked at what needed to be improved, and took the opportunity to make horse drawn fire steam pumpers self propelled once they were equipped with his front wheel drive units instead of horses. Horses were already 10 years into the age of the car, and the writing was on the wall.

Fire department equipment is really expensive, and Walter focused on the biggest fire departments on the East Coast to contract with to improve the existing equipment to speed up the delivery of equipment to fires. Notice in the below photo that the front and back have little in common

To easily compare this to the horse drawn model, just click on this link and see it from my gallery http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/san-diego-firehouse-museum_11.html last month of the steam pumper in the San Diego Fire House Museum: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigSV-Gmo4J-vhxX_5F1TwJwQs4Vw7bCzVDR0ivR8LgXn3VL_EXgkmkdhEH2vH9aSlo0ORTZ1b0phoN4qpnIoSQrr8wJjJ8xfYKlU0GDTJHKtYg9c2majbc0oqrputg8uymXY_H8WjEIRdc/s1600/DSC_0055.JPG

This is just a short gallery, for a better one, and a full write up on the Christie company and it's founder: http://justacargal-s.blogspot.com/2011/03/1913-christie-fire-engine.html

Steam punk, making things look victorian and brass era, steam powered... that's the idea. It has a lot of aspects though, here's a few

1930's France it seems, because just to the left of the motorwheel is a Citreon Traction Avant

Steam powered ditch digger.. .that is a monster

Cadillac tow truck, for more cars converted into tow trucks see: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/tow-trucks-were-sometimes-made-from-big.html

Johnny Cash and the 1986 Steam Expo. Very cool. Two times.

the above is the Lanz bulldog, 1 cylinder, compression ignition powered

all of these are just an indication of how cool http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/ is

Chicago's first locomotive, the 1837 Pioneer

This was the first locomotive to operate out of Chicago. Called the Pioneer, it was built in 1837 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was originally used by the Utica and Schenectady Railroad in New York. It was later acquired by the Chicago and North Western Railway and put into service there in 1848. The Pioneer still survives, and is on display at the Chicago History Museum.