Monday, June 12, 2017

Tommy Bolack’s Electromechanical Museum

Along with all the ducks, geese and other waterfowl, the ranch has lots of peacocks roaming around. So you have to drive really slow coming down the driveway.

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To get to this museum (which is in two buildings) you have to cross the Animas River on an old, old bridge. Not for the faint of heart.

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There is no charge to tour the museums but you do have to call to schedule your tour.

The front of the museum is petrified wood.

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I really have no idea how to describe this place. It’s not an organized museum like we’ve seen other places; but as Jim put it, it is “mind-boggling”.

Old farm implements

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Tom’s son Tommy has been in charge of the ranch since his father’s death. Tommy is not an outdoorsman like his dad, but has a very strange love for all things mechanical and electrical.

DSCN3419This picture is a stack of motherboards.

This museum is a wonder of electrical switchgear, insulators, generators, fuses, meters, control panels, 1900's medical, aircraft, cars, printing, television, broadcast, tanks, tractors, oil drilling equipment, stereo and tape, and a vast collection of computer hardware.

Electric meters

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A tub of copper from old computers

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Todd – this is for you. An old Ford analyzer.

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How about some aged radio-station transmitters and all the car speakers from the old Rincon Drive-In in Aztec, to a three-stage compressor from a Nevada uranium testing site, a 16-foot-diameter drill bit, and an entire electrical substation.

Huge roller bearings

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Tractors and an old steam train

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How about a 16 1/3 RPM record.

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I made Jim pick the pictures to put in this blog post and I have no idea what most of them are. If a business in town is replacing their systems or upgrading, they give Tommy the old equipment and it gets added to the collection.

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Probably the largest collection of telephone insulators in the world – this is just a small portion of them.

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Metal lathe

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Telephones

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These pictures don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what you will see here. Mind-boggling!!

THE END

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16 comments:

  1. Interesting, very interesting 🤔

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  2. Hey, don't laugh, I worked on some of those old computer mainframes. LOL

    It sure looks like a neat place to visit with all the different collections he has there. I hope it all isn't lost when the son decides to give it up.

    Have fun out there.

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  3. I would never get Jerry out of there with all the old telephone equipment!! I like the peacock.

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  4. Wow what an amazing museum and free too . could spend hours there for sure.

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  5. Sorry, not my kind of place. I can feel my dust allergies kicking in from here. :)

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  6. Just caught up on your blog. Looks like a fun trip so far. The Very Large Array is on our list and we will do that sometime. Also like the Tommy Bolacks museums. Also, Judy would be proud of your 'The End'.

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  7. Crikey ...... I bet there's some rats there somewhere. I could keep that place free of 'em. Mum says Dad would love it. She'd hate it. If she wants to look at something old she just looks in a mirror.

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  8. What an awesome looking peacock. That sounds like a very interesting museum, and it is free. Thanks for the share.

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  9. Love the peacocks. The museum looks like something both of us would really enjoy visiting. I'll have to add it to our list just in case we ever make it there.

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  10. I love seeing peacocks showing off all their glory.
    HAHAHA...what a hoot of a museum. It does look a like a little of this, a little of that. I think I would enjoy just wondering around.

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  11. Looks to be a fun day checking everything out. The amateur radio operator in me would be on sensory overload, the boy in me would have to be drug away from all the heavy equipment. Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

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  12. Totally amazing. Must be a total man magnet or is that too sexist to say. I'm sure there are many women who would know what a lot of those goodies are.

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  13. Mum says Dad would love it. She'd hate it. If she wants to look at something old she just looks in a mirror.


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