More auto woes

I suppose my most frustrating car problem was in October 1962. I was in the Navy and my ship was preparing for a long deployment to WestPac, and I unexpectedly had a last minute chance for some leave. So I drove my VW to ng. country all by myself. The weather was beautiful, there was still some fall color, and trains were running. I got some nice pix from Durango to Chama.



Switching at Durango.



Climbing out of Carbon Junction.



The east end of the relocation before the old track was removed.

The next morning in Chama I headed up the hill chasing the first hill turn. Somewhere around Lobato I started to smell something burning. It smelled like insulation. I pulled off the road and turned the ignition off. The smell got worse. I could feel the hot wiring. I finally disconnected the battery and it cooled down. After letting it cool down I carefully restarted the car and basically coasted back to Chama. Much less no VW dealer, that was long enough ago that there were not many "foreign" cars in Chama. Or parts for them. But like small towns everywhere the local mechanic was a whiz at "making do". He quickly diagnosed the problem as a short in the ignition key assembly, and found a replacement that sorta fit and worked fine. But I was kinda freaked out and being by myself decided taking my ailing vehicle into the wilderness of Cumbres was not a great idea. So I headed back to Long Beach and Navy life.

JBWX



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2021 10:55AM by John West.