I’m finally back from our 1rd Autopian Member Only Track day, and it was a huge success, and we’ll have more content about it soon, but I suspect you may be tired of hearing about it in Cold Start, which I know you rely on to get your up-to-the-minute news about car brochures from 60 years ago and the latest insights into insignificant automotive details that you, somehow, turn into cash? I assume that’s what happens, via, you know, business or something.
The trip back home, towing the 2CV with a new, press-fleet Ford Ranger, went basically fine, it was just loooong. All told, with stops and whatnot, we were on the road about 12 hours. That’s a long drive! I know this crowd has plenty of people who have done such stints and even longer, but let me kvetch a bit. Plus, the trailer adds a bit of extra effort, I think.
Part of the length could be related to the World Cup, oddly; I only say this because for the first time when I put in the directions, my phone decided to remind me it keeps up with the world of sports:
Huh. I’ve seen it tell me things will be delayed, but it’s never, you know, offered an excuse. At least the trip was breathtaking, visually:
I’m happy to be back home. Even if leaving our Vrbo house in Connecticut was a massive pain because everyone left me alone to do all the cleanup and laundry crap that makes me long for staying in a hotel. What a pack of dirtbags, right? Also, I had to get the narrow 2CV on the trailer with no one to help guide me, so thanks for that, too, ya punks.
Okay, but let’s get to the point of this Cold Start, which I know you’re eager for. As I was crawling around a traffic-choked bit of highway, I happened to pass by this truck with two massive engines on it:
I was immediately, and thankfully not literally, struck by their sheer size – these were massive engines. Filthy, too. So what are they? That seems like a fun thing to do! Identify some filthy engines! Let’s see if we can get a better shot here:
That helps. They do look majestic in profile, contrasting against that pale blue sky! They’re almost HR Geiger-like in their dark, twisty complexity. So what are they?
First, they’re clearly Caterpillar engines, thanks to the branding we can see on those cannister-like things. Are they filters? Maybe they’re filters. They look like filters.
Okay, so as far as identifying these engines, I think I found a match for the right one: a Caterpillar 3508:
I briefly imagined swapping it into the 2CV, and picturing the moment I turn it on, then let off the clutch, leaving a split-second blur of yellow-and-black and then nothing, just a tiny hole in the fabric of spacetime where the 2CV once existed.
What about the engine on the left? Help me figure out what that one is! I bet at least one of you delightful dorks knows what it is, so tell me in the comments!
They are both CAT 3508 engines. They come in many different configurations depending on the application. The large top-mounted air cleaners on the left engine make me think it is out of D11N large dozer. I’m not sure about the right engine. Maybe a mining truck application? They are not marine engines, they don’t appear have the top-mounted air-to-water intercoolers.
CAT engines get rebuilt multiple times in their working life. And even when they are at end-of-life they will be remanufactured by CAT: stripped & cleaned, damage repaired, re-machined, then rebuilt with new components and sold to customers to keep old equipment operational. You should do an article on CAT Reman, the work they do is fascinating!
C13 or C15 and a 3306.
You went on the lower level of the GWB? Eww.
The upper level is a glorious interface between man and nature, between the accidental beauty of a structure that was intended to be enclosed in stone and the sky that it rightfully inhabits with ineffable grace and beauty.
And you took the lower level?
I guess you get some fraction of a credit of bringing the glory of the 2cv to the lower level and brightening things up. But that’s making the anthropomorphizing of humanity’s blessed creations carry a LOT of weight,
Really, you took the lower level?
The level that is the closest thing a bridge can get to the underworld? A noisy claustrophobic place of no redemption other than the fact that New Jersey is at one end and New York is at the other, and you might be lost because the signs suck?
Sigh.
The real crime is taking the GW at all. Although at least this is the toll-free direction (if memory treats me well). I am always fighting with my GPS to not take the GW. If I was going back to North Carolina I might be tempted to take the inland route using the Newburgh Bridge. But generally I am in a car, not towing anything, so I can take the Merritt and the Palisades and use the new Mario Cuomo bridge (Tappan Zee to anyone older than about 20 years of age). Nyack is the destination to put in your GPS and Nyack has a cute downtown with a nice ice cream shop which makes for a nice stop. Although the last time I was going North through the area, I should have taken the GW, for some reason getting to the Palisades was a nightmare.
That’s very true, I usually only take the GW to connect from the West Side Highway to the Palisades Parkway, both of which are forbidden fruit to trailers or commercial traffic, at least in the NY parts.
My favorite Hudson River crossings are the Kingston Rhinecliff Bridge if I’m being expeditious or the lovely Bear Mountain Bridge if the weather is nice and I’m not in a hurry.
Not far from the Rhinecliff end of the Kingston Rhinecliff Bridge is Del’s Dairy Cream, now named Del’s Roadside, after Del’s family sold it to some guy who made a fortune on Wall Street but really had a lifelong ambition to be a Gurnsey dairy farmer and make ice cream.
Gurnsey milk makes the best ice cream, but it’s so expensive that it’s not often done. Lavender Blueberry Honey is my favorite so far, but Sweet Corn Blueberry is on my to-try list. And I don’t even like Blueberrys. I’m pretty sure that the blueberries were in the ingredient list to make the recipes more plausible. He has a lot of more normal flavours too, plus burgers and other food. I think the owner’s motivation is to realise some platonic ideal of an ice cream stand.
Other than the accidentally wonderful architecture of the GWB the best thing for me was that it made driving instructions from NYC to my family’s farm really easy. “Go across the George Washington Bridge, stay on 80, until Sacramento turn left onto I-5, and in 60 miles we are on the left -pause-, and the right”.
I was once told to turn left where the store used to be.
The Bear Mountain crossing is beautiful. The state park is a decent take-in if you have some time.
Last time I drove into nyc, I was advised to buy a six pack and stop before bridge, drink that, then cross in lighter traffic.
Not the worst advice.
I got stuck in gridlock and people got mad at me for not being prescient about arcane traffic practices.
I would have needed signage two miles before they appeared, and even then had no idea what they meant.
They were hung so low, they were blocked by trucks until I was under them and couldn’t read them.
So I was stuck in the commercial lanes forever crossing.
I took the ferry to escape New York!
I can’t identify the engines, but the shipment looks like they must be hauling these away from a superfund site.