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Our Museum Volunteers who operate our equipment in movies, have a unique opportunity to take Behind the Scenes photographs. Above left: Picture taken from Dan Jaques Red Ford F150 enroute to the movie set. That is Virgil Whites low boy trailer hauling our two Cats from our Museum to the movie set. Above right: Studio purpose built house out in the desert east of Lancaster CA. Below left: The Set. Below right: Virgil White on our Museum owned Cat 60. 6-1/2 inches -- 165.1 mm -- bore, 8-1/2 inches -- 215.9 mm -- stroke, 4 cylinder, valve in head, 650 RPM. 3 speeds forward, 1 reverse. Carburetor Stromberg M4. Magneto: Bosch ZR4. Weight 20,000 pounds -- 9072 kg.

Above left and right: Carnivale vehicles. Note the huge electric fan to provide wind on demand, to the left in the right picture, powered by a large diesel generator. Below left: Our two Cats. You can see the back end of Virgils blue low boy trailer to the left. Below right: Filming. That is an actor delivering his lines, while standing on Dan and Virgils Diesel Cat 60.

Above left: Virgil White on our Cat 60, Dan Jaques standing beside, both wearing studio supplied work clothes of the era; matching those worn by the actor driver. Above right and below left and right: Virgil and Dan doing their thing, destroying the house. While this was the first film Dan was in, Virgil is an old hand, his movie career dating back decades.

Above left: Dan and Virgil have done their demolition thing. Virgil said that just before they destroyed the house, studio folks had gone inside and sawed half way through most of the house structural supports, so it fell down easily. To be absolutely sure studio guys attached wire rope to the house supports and ran it out to a truck that was out of the shot, and pulled when Dan and Virgil hit the house with our Cats. Above right: Dan Jaques facing camera, Virgil in profile walking away. That is our Museum Cat 60 on the right in the above picture. On the left is the Cat 60 jointly privately owned by Dan Jaques and Virgil White. Someplace back in the 1930's someone swapped the original Cat 60 gasoline engine, for a diesel engine off a Cat 50. Round fuel tank left of driver = diesel, right of driver = gas.

Excerpted from Virgil Whites June 2004 The Ignitor Column: The Litter Box, where Cats go to play:

The Cat this time is our Museum's 60. This Cat was donated to us by the Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles. It was owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. It was equipped with a winch that was used to string high lines. It had been sitting in Travel Town for years. About 1985 it was given to our Museum. I went to look at it and thought it would run. Bill Rohr, Frank Canning and I went to start it.

First, it was stuck. Finally got it loose. Cleaned the plugs, got gas in the carburetor, cleaned the points, oiled around, and started cranking. When it started it really took off. The throttle was stuck full open. Then it died. Gas line plugged up. Tried to keep it running, and get the throttle loose at the same time. Was a busy time. Finally got it to settle down.

Checked the rest of the machine. Made plans to move it. Used Jim Skiffers trailer, a 1956 International tractor that was on loan to our Museum. With the winch in the back, the tractor could not get on the trailer forward. Had to back it on. Brought it to our Museum, took the winch off. This tractor is now a cruiser or loggers model. It is higher geared than other Cats.