In 2014, the museum was paying the highest rate San Diego Gas & Electric, our local electric utility, was charging for electric use. This was their “Commercial Rate” which was over twice the rate charged for residential users. Our monthly bill was nearing $300 per month for our 3-days per week use at the museum. The remaining use was for the two live-on residences at the museum.

This is when the museum decided our Long Range Plan should include for a roof-top solar system, to be installed on the long shed roof that shades the loading dock on the south side of the Mill. We obtained bids and in March 2015, we applied to the County of San Diego, Community Enhancement Program for funds to install the system. In June of 2015 the funding was approved for $26,600 and these funds were received in September of that year.
We employed a solar design company, Off Grid Systems in Kearney Mesa to design a system for us. They informed us we would need a civil engineer to do roof load calculations to satisfy the County. We found Knox Engineering of La Mesa, and Mark Knox. His engineering along with the 12 page design plans by Off Grid Systems were submitted to the county and approved in September 2015.

With everything approved, we began purchasing the hardware and the required 28 solar panels. Rick Tenbroek, John Lewis, Andy Andrews and Carl Calvert all stepped up and began the roof repair and upgrade to accept the new solar panels. We reinforced the roof structure by adding eight 3-inch diameter steel posts 9 ft. in length that John Lewis

The annual MTM Membership Meeting and Open House was held on Saturday, April 16. It was a beautiful sunny day, windy in the morning but calming down around 10:00 AM. Carl Calvert cranked up his one cylinder Clark diesel engine and Andy Andrews operated the three-cylinder Atlas marine engine. Frank Ball ran the recently restored Ford Model TT truck and Andy Andrews used the orange Ford Model A Doodle Bug tractor to pull a hay wagon for hayrides.

The most interesting operating vehicle was a World War II Weasel, a tracked amphibious vehicle owned by member Mike Anderson. It was designed and built by Studebaker and was meant for use in snow where wheeled vehicles were impractical. Hot dogs and hamburgers were cooked by Life member Bill Jellyman. The meat and fruit salad were supplemented by chili cooked by member Bill Fields and Quinona salad provided by Josie Ball. Dessert was homemade ice cream provided by Carl Calvert.

Ten lucky raffle winners walked away with some great prizes such as Matchbook Antique Truck scale models, museum hats, museum T-shirts, National Geographic photo books and two metal wall hanging maps of the USA with pictures of license plates depicting the states. The maps were made by John Lewis and donated for the raffle. A special window applique was presented to John Lewis and Rick Tenbrook identifying them as the “Proprietors” of the gas station. The antique station from the 1920’s is complete except for paint and a few clean up items. John and Rick are the ones who took it over after about 12 years of neglect and brought it to life. Thanks, John and Rick for all your good work.

Over 100 men, women and children attended the Open House taking in the enjoyment of rides, exhibits, history, motors in operation, good food and good company.

property came to us for assistance. Barefoot had a massive 1953 truck that they wanted to donate.

The 1953 GMC 740 had been heavily modified and converted into a 25ft dry freight cargo van. The original modifications had been performed by Brown Cargo Van, Inc., a company that dates back to 1946 when Brown Trailers, Inc. of Spokane, Washington, created cargo vans in knockdown form. The origoriginal modification date is unknown; however the modifications didn’t stop with Brown. The GMC 740 originally had a diesel engine, but according to a metal tag placed on the side of its 604 straight six gas engine: “This engine has been balanced completely as an experiment. Please leave this tag on engine 3-28-62 N.P.T. Billing“. The cargo hold had also been converted into a living area equipped with a gas range, refrigerator, sink counter top, dresser drawers, a make shift bed and various other creature comforts! It is also evident that the living quarters had taken various forms by previous owner.

Brown Cargo Van, Inc.’s first truck body was constructed from trailer parts and outfitted as a bookmobile for the city of
Spokane. That unit turned out to be the first dry freight cargo van ever made out of aluminum by any manufacturer. Subsequently, the company expanded nationwide and was later sold to Clark Equipment Company of Buchanan, Michigan. Clark manufactured and sold cargo vans and knockdown kits until 1975, when the Ashton-Richards Company purchased the business.

Sixteen years ago, the MTM restored a 1912 Mack Stage for the Julian Historical Society. It was the first motorized stage to run from the end of the San Diego & Southeastern Railway near Lakeside to the town of Julian, a distance of about 30 miles over rugged mountain roads. Since its first appearance in Julian’s 1999 Fourth of July parade the restored stage has served faithfully in festivals and other functions. Over these years, wear and tear and some functional weaknesses have become evident so this handsome old horse was returned to the barn for some repairs and improvements.
I took on the job of completing the overhaul with the help of Andy Andrews of MTM and Bob Beers, Brian Steutel and David Rabbai.of Julian. Most noticeable among things that needed attention was that the engine was not running well had a tendency to overheat and sounded rather too clattery for comfort. At the back corner of the body, the steel bracket anchoring the roof support stanchion was broken.

Andy Andrews did a skilled repair of the steel bracket at the back corner, adding a hidden gusset to improve strength. There has never been a gas gauge on this vehicle so we made a bracket to hold an appropriate wooden dowel near the
tank-filler cap for convenient probing of the fuel level in the tank. I opened the valve chambers on the engine to find that the lock nuts on two of the exhaust valve lash adjustments had come loose defeating proper operation of the exhaust valves on two cylinders. All the valves were removed; lapping the valves verified they were straight and in good condition. Removing the valves also revealed that one valve spring was significantly mismatched to the others. A better match was scavenged from another engine in the yard.

We put in about three gallons of motor oil and ran the engine for testing. Road tests revealed more engine concerns. Prodigious fuel consumption has always been evident, but lacking experience, none of us were in a position to know what to expect as normal. Other troublesome characteristics have been low power and a tendency to run too hot. The combination of these things and the lack of other explanations began to make me suspect improper valve timing so David and I opened the front of the engine and found that there is no timing mark on the crankshaft timing gear. Careful study and measurement seemed to indicate the timing gears were meshed with the camshaft gear retarded by one gear tooth. The mesh was corrected and the engine front reassembled.