Model A police car?

[bobbycoke]

I am the fourth owner of a 1930 model A ford tudor and was told by the third owner that the car was a Ohmaha Nebraska police car from1930-1935......I have no documentation and have been unable to find an photos or proof that the Department used Tudor model A's.........It's orginal color appears to be a blue.....any barner have any information or photos????????? thanks Bcoke

[Brad in Germany]

Here is one from the Lincoln Nebraska Police Department archives (click on the photo to go to their web page):



Brad in Maryland

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Our local constable drove a '37 V8-60, it couldn't even CATCH a Model A!
Bill W.

[Tom Wesenberg]

From Brad's picture I'd look for evidence of spotlights having been installed.

When our club restored the 1930 Coupe which the Minnesota Highway Patrol bought new, they had a clip on the dash for holding tickets and papers, and also had a dash light installed to use while writing tickets at night. The spot light had a red lens.

[coupe1942]

Do a search on police cars of the 30's in yahoo images and you may find something. Lots of police sites have archive photos and many official state sites often have archived photos, generally black and whites, that they have online. The Library of Congress used to have a search engine where you could plug in a word string as "cop car or vintage cop car" and it would bring up some photos. I had several years back ,but lost them all in a computer glitch crash. The Nebraska State Police may have just such a website, as it is not uncommon. I know Alaska had tons of black and white photos of vintage trains and cars when I used it in the past. Yellowstone Park used to have such vintage photos, too. Wish I could direct you better, but one other place to at least try is to go to Ahooga.com and check out the random photos shown there. Many of those old black and white photos I had posted pics of there in the past. Not sure if the whole kit and kaboodle is shown there or how much the random photos sow from the collection there, but it may be worth looking over to see.

Good luck with it.

[Capt Quahog]

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Recently did a conversion of some old 35mm color slides into digital files. Came across numerous pictures of automobiles once owned. Below is a view of an early 1930 Ford Tudor acquired back in 1969 from a man in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. At the time, he worked for the city cemetery department and bought the Model A out of an old municipal storage garage. As the saga went, the car was bought by the city in a lot of a dozen or so designated Model A Ford tudor sedan "police" cars. The cemetery department got one from that fleet in year 1930. As explained then, those vehicles were set up with some type of special gearing. To this day, that was the fastest Model A Ford that I've ever owned.

When he and his son acquired the tudor around year 1960, it had been sitting indoors for a long time. They installed reproduction Ford checker type upholstery and repainted the car in original paint scheme. Paid $600 cash and drove the blue and black A Model Ford home down the old Route 2 back to Boston in the spring of 1969.

In those days, I ran that sweet old Ford all over New England. The car was very quick and we'd cruise along the old U.S. Route 1 up to Maine on various excursions. That A Model tudor was excellent for tent camping trips into the back woods down ancient logging roads. On the open highway, the car would happily cruise along just under 60 without a hiccup. Other Model As, could not keep up with that one. Got to a point where I would shun traveling groups of antique cars because the trips were tediously slow. Usually shot ahead and met them later. Had the Fitchburg cop car for about three years and sold it to a guy from southern New Jersey for $1,200.

Someplace there is a hand colored photograph given to me by the seller upon purchase over 40 years ago. It shows the blue 1930 Model A Ford when new parked on a hill at the cemetery in Fitchburg, Mass. Will find that photo and post when opportunity permits.

Photo below is of the 1930 Ford as described. Picture was made on the cobble stone street behind the Boston Elevated Railway EL train carhouse and lower level streetcar barn at Charlestown Neck, Boston in 1970. All is long extinct.

[Ted Duke]

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

Our local constable drove a '37 V8-60, it couldn't even CATCH a Model A!
Bill W.

And I'll bet you proved it!

Ted

[WTSHNN]

I have at least 100 era images of Model A police cars but can't remember if I have any specifically from Omaha.

Tudors, roadsters and phaetons are the most common vehicles used by departments back in the Model A era. Remember, these were cash strapped municipalities that sometimes couldn't even afford to pay the officers' salaries! Luxuries like white walls, saddle-shoe paint jobs, and spotlights were rare.

I would try reaching out to the Omaha historical society (or equivalent) or see if the University of Nebraska has an online image archive you can easily search.

Could also try www.copcar.com

-Tim

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by Ted Duke

And I'll bet you proved it!

Ted

Ted,
I was too young to have a car, but when Uncle Gump came home from the war in Germany, he bought a Dodge Command Car & Alph couldn't even catch it!
Bill W.

[Midwest Tin]

In the Photo the tudors appear to have right hand steering or the image is reversed.

[WTSHNN]

Anyone else think the top of the radiator shell looks different? Almost looks like it is flat on the bottom similar to the AA versus the widow's peak of the passenger cars...maybe these were fitted with a AA radiator and shell for low speed cooling improvement?

-Tim

[Bick in New Zealand]

Is it a Pines Winterfront or something similar?

[coupe1942]

If you do a Yahoo image search, you can sort through the photos and possibly find something as these. However, pull up this link and you can also check with the Rhode Island State Police to see what they may have, as they did list some Fords as were in the stables of their department in the past.

http://www.statetrooperplates.com/rhodeisland.html

When you do the image search, check both Yahoo and google image searches and try out different word strings as 1930 ford, 1930 police car, vintage police cars, black and white photos of police cars, old police cars and so on.

Here is something from Lincoln, NB, which may be of interest when you read about 1930 vehicles they had:

https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/poli...es/1930veh.htm

Good luck with your quest.