Labor Day 2022 at the Forney Museum

To add some interest to my idle Labor Day hours, I roused myself and visited the Forney Museum of Transportation.

From the Forney Museum website:

The Forney Museum of Transportation is a one-of-a-kind collection of over 800 artifacts relating to historical transportation. It began 67 years ago with a single 1921 Kissel, but soon expanded to include vehicles of all kinds. Today it includes not just vehicles, but also buggies, motorcycles, steam locomotives, aircraft, carriages, rail equipment, fire apparatus, public transportation, sleighs, bicycles, toys & diecast models, vintage apparel and much, much more!

Our collection highlights include: Union Pacific 'Big Boy' Steam Locomotive #4005, Amelia Earhart's 1923 Kissel 'Gold Bug',  Forney Locomotive, Colorado & Southern Caboose, 1923 Hispano-Suiza, 1913-53 Indian Motocycle Collection, Denver & Rio Grande Dining Car,  Stutz Fire Engine, 1888 Denver Cable Car, 1923 Case Steam Tractor, 1817 Draisenne Bicycle, 500 Piece Matchbox Collection, and more!

I was interested in the chronology of early automobile development.  The museum had several examples of primitive cars from about 1900 that were little more than wooden buckboards with a small gasoline motor bolted to the back.  They looked neither stylish nor comfortable.  

The first car that looked appealing to me was the 1909 REO Runabout.

 

The Forney Museum had a Ford Model T of similar vintage that one could sit in for a photo shoot.  Here is a front view and then a view from behind the wheel.  There was barely enough floor space to accommodate my large feet.

 

Design sophistication made a big jump in the next nine years.  Here is the 1918 Buick.

 

The gem of the museum was a sporty 1923 Kissel owned by Amelia Earhart.

A few years later came the stately 1927 Ford Model T, right before the transition to the Model A.

Advances in car design continued into the Depression.  Here is an appealing 1932 Plymouth.  I would like one for my birthday.  Then all I would be lacking would be a picnic basket and a debutante (or the age-appropriate equivalent).

Leaping ahead a generation, here is the 1957 Chevy.  My father owned a beautiful turquoise-and-white six-cylinder version.  This was a great upgrade from his first car, a bulbous 1949 Chevy Fleetline.