rail inspectors were outfitted with Chevys, Fords, etc... the company President, though, he went full force and got a Caddy limo

New Haven Railroads lines managing director, Pat McGinnis.

Notice the vanity plates with his initials... he mush have been ridiculously wealthy

Found on https://www.facebook.com/HeritageRailway and photos from https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/4925148772/in/photostream/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York,_New_Haven_and_Hartford_Railroad

The New Haven Railroad operated in New England from 1872 to 1968, dominating the region's rail traffic for the first half of the 20th century. By 1912, the New Haven practically monopolized traffic in a wide swath from Boston to New York City.

 The line went bankrupt in 1935, was reorganized and reduced in scope, went bankrupt again in 1961, and in 1969 was merged into the Penn Central system, which itself went bankrupt.

 A reorganization was completed on September 18, 1947. Frederic C. Dumaine, Sr. and others, including Patrick B. McGinnis (1904-1973), gained control in 1948.

Frederic C. Dumaine, Jr. took over after his father's death in 1951 and immediately set about restoring the condition of the railroad and the morale of the employees. In 1953, control passed from the preferred stockholders to the common stockholders.

A proxy fight then ensued between McGinnis and incumbent president Dumaine; McGinnis emerged as the victor and sought to maximize revenue for shareholders.

To do this, he deferred maintenance and ordered experimental lightweight trains for Boston-New York service. Another McGinnis contribution was the imposition of parking charges at stations.

Hurricanes in 1955 washed out a number of important lines. Upon McGinnis' departure for the B&M in 1956, auditors found the NH earnings for 1955 were less than half of what McGinnis had claimed.

 McGinnis' financial dealings ultimately culminated in a prison sentence for receiving kickbacks on the sale of B&M's streamlined passenger cars, ending his career in railroading.

Shorpy, source of fantastic old photos.. here are some cool photos of Don Lee and his San Francisco Cadillac dealership

Above, Don Lee handing over the keys to a Cadilac in front of his San Fran sales office, 1932

Dec. 1923. Don Lee Cadillac agency, corner Van Ness and O'Farrell and a Model V-63 Phaeton

From http://www.shorpy.com/

Le Monstre of Briggs Cunningham, a 1950 Series 61 Coupe deVille, and a brief synopsis of Briggs Cunningham

At the end of World War I, Cunningham's uncle street raced a Dodge Touring car that was powered by a Hispano-Suiza airplane engine. Briggs would accompany him on many of these races, thus fueling his interests for automotive racing.

Cunningham was a wealthy man. His father, who passed away when Briggs was only five, was the founder and president of the Citizens' National Bank and a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

He married the grand daughter of Standard Oil's co-founder.

Briggs went to Yale, and his classmates and friends from that time were pivotal in some ways to his successes. One friends father was the head of Chrysler engineering, and came through with new Hemi engines when Cadillac withdrew engine support, powering the C1 and C2 Cunningham cars.

 The Collier Brothers also were college friends,  and were race car drivers for Briggs and founders of the Automobile Racing Club of America, which is where Briggs met Luigi Chinetti, winner of the 1949 Le Mans, who invited Briggs to race in Le Mans in 1950 with the pair of 1950 Cadillacs.

Cunningham amassed a collection of automobiles that included the first Ferrari in the United States, sold to him by Luigi Chinetti, and a Bugatti Royale, one of only six made. When moving his collection to his new museum in Costa Mesa, the parking lot was washed out by a rain storm, and his friends and connections in the right places jumped in to help, with a rescue mission mounted by the U.S. Marine Air Corps, which laid sections of perforated landing strips to facilitate the movement of vehicles over the mud and into the building.

When it was clear that the museum was a financial loss, and always would be (as most museums are) he sold it all to Sam Collier, nephew of his racing friends.



Sam Posey states his own entrance into racing came when he (at 16 yrs old) and his mom were given pit passes by the Cunningham team to the 1959 Sebring race.

He participated in some vintage racing with his 1914 Mercedes, and joining him were Today Show founding host, and inventor of the morning talk show format, Dave Garroway with a 1937 Jaguar SS, and Charles Addams (Addams Family cartoonist in the New Yorker) with a 1932 Alfa

He invented racing stripes, nearly all his race cars were white with blue racing stripes down the center... Carroll Shelby was so impressed he inverted the colors for his race cars looks with the GT 350 Shelby Mustang, and GT 500

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/?fref=nf

Learn more at http://www.briggscunningham.com/home/le-mans-era/lemans50-html/
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z8847/Cadillac-Le-Monstre.aspx

I love visual identification infographics of a manufacturers line of cars

Found on http://aacalibrary.tumblr.com/

the convertible Cadillac Seville .. the San Remo Ultima

Found on http://www.lov2xlr8.no/misc.html

the 1979 Gucci Cadillac

Found on http://aacalibrary.tumblr.com/post/104762115030/gucci-cadillac-seville-1979#notes

Elvis by Celebrity Customs Italian Team