Another interesting museum of electrotechnology

[John K5PRO]

These photos are of Tommy Bolak's personal collection in Farmington, NM. As an eclectic collector of all things, he has quite a spread on his ranch, including some powerstation sized outdoor transformers (very early ones), a DC3, a steam locomotive on a small track, and a bridge that he bought and put across the San Juan River. He also has gardens and a zoo with his interesting animal collection, but that's another topic. He is a serious glass insulator collector, and it can be found on the web. While not as organized as the Huntington, WV museum or the Bellingham, WA collection, he has some very interesting stuff that he has gotten from old mines, radio stations, dental offices (wooden Xray machine), etc. Ron Nott of broadcast antenna industry have me a tour, and has invited me back for a repeat. If anyone wants to see, let me know and I can help you make contact to see it.

[John K5PRO]

Some more photos from the Bolak collection.

[John K5PRO]

More here:

[John K5PRO]

And more:

[John K5PRO]

But wait, there's more:

[KL7OF]

wow i wanna see this place..

[W6WAC]

I wonder when KOB took that RCA out of service?  From about the late 70's into the 80's I used to listen to them here in Southern California before they went all yap.  They haven't been the same since they lost out to a lawsuit.  Prior to that their signal boomed in.

"Around the world, around the clock, this is 77 KOB, Albuquerque"

or

"77 KOB, the 50,000 watt voice of the great Southwest"

Scott

[N4zed]

BUCKET LIST !!!!

[W3GMS]

Thanks for the posting John.  I was totally unaware that the place existed. 

That is a must see on our list on our next trip out that way! 

Joe, GMS

[John K5PRO]

Mr. Bolak's dad was one time governor of NM. They did fine owning a lot of land that later was drilled for oil and gas. I heard he had the DC3 flown in without a flight plan, 'under the radar', which annoyed the FAA.

[W0BTU]

I love this, especially the dental x-ray machine. The rotary spark gap disc on the end of the motor-generator is interesting. Rotary rectifier?

In any case, I'll bet the noise that machine made scared the patients to death. :-)

[John K5PRO]

Get this... He got that Xray machine when a dentist was remodeling in New Mexico, and knocked down a wall. Behind it was this machine as forgotten treasures.

[W3RSW]

Very nice. Tnx fer tour. Yeah, wish I could be there too.
My favorite was the three phase E panel load center, an early version of just about all the compressor station load centers I was familiar with over career years.

Some of your first pix of wooden mounted contraptions made me want to grab a Swiffer and do a major dusting.