Flying in a '20s Snow Bird

All images courtesy of ClassicCars.com

Last year when the snow came and caused travel chaos I recalled a 1920s solution to snow-covered roads - the Ford Model T snowmobile conversion.

This year when the snow came and caused travel chaos (d'you think there might be a pattern emerging here, Britain...?) I was once again reminded of this novel and effective vehicle - or rather this time its successor, the Model A snowmobile.

In the same way the the standard A improved upon the T, so the newer snowmobile conversion continued to be refined and updated.  Companies such as Arps offered conversions like the "Snow Bird" (top) for the likes of farmers, rural doctors, the U.S. Mail and anyone else who frequently travelled through heavy snowfall.

As the Model A was not built in as large a number as the T, and as conversion kits remained expensive, there are actually fewer A snowmobiles left than there are Ts.  If you look at the video clip in last year's post you'll notice only one or two As compared to a dozen or so Ts.  Still, I'll bet the closed-cab A was slightly warmer than the open/convertible T!

Nevertheless provided one is wrapped up properly a Ford snowmobile is still for my money the best way to beat the snow.  As the country is once again brought to a standstill I sit indoors looking out on a crisp white mantle and imagine zooming along in a "Snow Bird":

Rewired antique radios undigitize MP3s

source
I couldn't have put it better myself!

Rewired antique radios undigitize MP3s

First a latter-day telegraph ticker and now antique iPod docking stations - what better examples of the ethos I was expounding a month ago; modern technology meets vintage style and classic ideas.

I'm sure many of my readers would love to have just a working vintage wireless, and perhaps some of you do.  It would be great to have an aesthetically pleasing 1930s-, '40s- or '50s-style radio to on which to listen to all your favourite FM/AM stations.  I want one myself!

Ooho, yes please!

Now that'll be all very fine and large for the time being, but there will come a time (confound it) when the analogue AM/FM signal will be switched off (current estimates put this at somewhere between 2015 and 2020 in the UK).  What then will become of our beloved vintage radios - will they all suddenly end up as museum pieces or silent ornaments?  OR they can be converted, as this American company proves is possible, into iPod docking stations!  Not only does this give them a new lease of life but, if it is to be believed, the update is done in such a way as to convert the digital signal of the mp3 format back into the warm sound of analogue - and particularly vintage analogue at that.  Who knows, it could mean that it may even be possible to convert them in such a way that they can pick up and decode the digital signal of DAB radio.

Either way, it proves that tube radios can still have a place in the modern world and that they have very much left to give.  It sounds like an absolutely topping concern, and just the thing for my iPod!