BIG BRUTUS

Once in a while we have a really nice day in January. January 29, 2011, was such a day. Beautiful sunshine, temperatures in the seventies and no wind. Nice day for on outing in the show cars. Since the '38 is out of commission right now, we went to the back-up, my Mustang convertible.

The Endless Memories Car Club of Grove,Oklahoma, had called to make arrangements with the Rebels to meet and take a drive to West Mineral, Kansas, to find BIG BRUTUS. We found it. Hard to miss something on the Kansas prairie that stands one-hundred-sixty feet tall and weighs eleven million pounds.

BIG BRUTUS was used in the strip-pit mining of coal in the area. It never dug coal. It removed the "overburden" or soil and rock from the coal. The bucket could remove ninety cubic yards or one-hundred-thirty-five to one-hundred-fifty tons in one bite. That is enough to fill three railroad cars.

BIG BRUTUS operated between the years of 1963 to 1982 owned by the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company (P & M). It is now a museum and memorial to coal mining, donated by

P & M in 1984.

It was totally electric. Two 3,500 HP synchronous AC motors ran the thirteen DC generators. Each generator was responsible for controlling one of the thirteen motors.

Toy Run 2010

On the cool morning on November 6, 2010, about 150 cars left Claremore, OK to make a big circle in Northeast Oklahoma. The propose of this caravan was to gather toys to donate to the Shriner Hospitals. By the time we arrived back in Claremore, the trailer was as stuffed as the toy animals.

First stop was in Chelsa, OK. Coffee, donuts, toys and gossip. Then to Vinita, OK. More toys. Lunch was served by the Shriners of Vinita. Good BBQ. It was a nice drive and a successful toy run for the Shriners.

REBELS CAR SHOW 2010

The twenty-second annual Rebel Car show was on October 17, 2010. With 238 fantastic cars to admire. As usual the vehicles ranged from stock to custom and streetrods.

Our "new" concession trailer made its debut. The ladies say it is a great improvement over the one we had rented in previous years.

The weather co-operated with us this year. A little cool in the morning, but a glorious mid October day with temperatures in the seventies. In a few of the past years we have had some rain and cooler temperatures.

And the winner is: the beautiful 1960 red Lincoln Continental Convertible pictured above. This car is show- room perfect. It has won Peoples Choice the last two years.