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Castle Jalopy A Classic Car?

Friday, August 10, 2018 9:00 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

Our entry at Glendora's 31st Flashback Festival

Michael Rubel's old grove tractor from Rubel Castle is our classic vehicle entry. It pushes. It tugs. It lifts and carries personnel and rocks. This three-wheeled machine even blows exhaust out the front! On display at Glendora's 31st Flashback event, the Glendora Historical Society will show off this unique item on August 18, 2018.

Michael Rubel began collecting vehicles and farm machinery by age 11 and was known in his teens to be a superb mechanic. He eventually owned over 70 vehicles and entered many of them in the Glendora Bicentennial Parade in 1976 and the Glendora Centennial Parade in 1986. Before his passing he had sold most of them, but the Castle property retains an iconic example of his collection of tractors, trucks, one-lungers, Western pump engines, wagons, and even a couple of luxury cars. See a nice exploration of Castle vehicles on this blog.

Our entry this year is this jury-rigged dozer, which was likely made by a local outfit, like Hastie's Blacksmith and Foundry, on Michigan Ave. "When the workers weren't clearing boulders and debris for the machine to progress they occupied the bench for ballast, giving traction for pushing optimum dirt and rocks. Remember the huge rock piles in some of the groves, like the one that Earl Comstock, Col. Hastie and Lee LaChance created in the midst of their three groves, between Bennett and Leadora, west of Loraine? What amazing work the initial planters of citrus had to do! They did it, too, working together as they competed for the best groves and maximum yields." --Christopher S. Rubel

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