"Red Cabooses" - which aren't all red!

My "home away from home" for this short visit was the Red Caboose Motel.  Pictured below, the cabooses are all lettered for different railroads, and thus aren't all red.  But they're in decent shape, the bed was comfortable, everything worked properly, and the room was clean.  What more does a girl need?

After a walk around the property, I headed for a nearby airport to see the other "object of my desire" - a 1929 model airplane designed by William Bushnell Stout (following some principles copied from the work of Professor Hugo Junkers, noted German all-metal aircraft design pioneer.)   Ford bought out Stout's "Stout Metal Airplane Company" in 1925, thus the aircraft was truly manufactured by Ford, with 3 Curtiss-Wright radial engines.  And aptly called a "Ford Tri-motor.  In its day, it won success as a dependable cargo plane/early commercial airliner, which had 8 or 9 removable seats.   And these planes ultimately participated in an early air-mail arrangement with the Post Office.

The last Tri-motor was built in 1933, but that wasn't to be the end of Ford's aviation adventures.  During WW II, the largest aircraft manufacturing plant in the world was built at the Willow Run, Michigan plant, where Ford produced thousands of the B-24 Liberator bombers under license from Consolidated Aircraft.

Maybe someday I'll get a chance to ride in one of those...

Here I am, standing next to the Tri-motor.

And an interior shot:

Rather luxurious digs, much nicer than some of today's aircraft, IMHO.  And the windows are huge, large enough to actually let the occupants see the passing scenery.  With a ceiling of just over 16,000' and a cruising speed in the vicinity of 110 mph, this plane stayed low and slow, for fantastic viewing of the countryside.

Above is an in-flight picture...

This plane was lettered for the Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), an airline founded in 1928 and merged in 1930 with Western Air Express to form Transcontinental and Western Air, which ultimately became TWA (now defunct.)   It initially offered a 51 hour train/plane trip for just over $300 including sleeping car berths) from NYC to Columbus on the train, Columbus to Waynoka, OK, by plane, and train again from Waynoka to Clovis, NM.  (At the time, there were no sophisticated naviagtional aids in aircraft...thus no long distance night flight.)  There they would board another Tri-motor to finish the trip to Los Angeles in the daytime.

After the flight....

Stay tuned for more...

Mandy