Kiddieland Train Project.

The Kiwanis Club of Carthage is requesting donations to help replace rails for the Kiddieland train.

The train was placed into operation on May 30, 1953 and has contributed to the almost sixty-thousand rides estimated to have been provided by the Kiddieland operation in the last five years alone. Replacement rails have been located and the total price for the rails and miscellaneous fasteners is estimated to be $7,732.

The Kiwanis Club of Carthage is requesting that donations be kept between $1 and $86. The $86 donation will purchase one section of rail and will be recognized with an inscription on a plaque that will be displayed in the station. It will take ninety rails to completely replace the track. If more money than needed is donated, the excess will be placed into a fund for future needs of Kiddieland.

Funds derived from the operation of Kiddieland are distributed to various groups including the Cerebral Palsy Center, the Children’s Miracle Network, Kiwanis Youth Baseball and others.

Donations should be sent to Kiwanis, P.O. Box 254, Carthage, Mo., 64836.

NASCAR to the Max

More Saturday night short track action is on tap this weekend from the ¾ mile, high banked, Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia.

Like Bristol two weeks ago, Richmond will feature the same bumping and banging that leaves all 43 entrants with some sort of battle damage. The winner of this 400 lap event will favor the driver who is best able to take care of his car early, avoid a major pile up, and press for the win in the last 50 laps. Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace have run well here in the past and will be among the front runners.

Darlington Raceway lived up to it’s billing as the "Track too Tough to Tame" for Sunday’s running of the Mountain Dew 500. The race included 11 caution periods for a total of 51 laps and stopped for one red-flag period to clean up debris from a multi-car accident.

Darlington’s unique egg-shaped layout along with it’s dissimilar banking in the separate turns makes the preferred lane of racing right next to the outside wall. Several drivers earned their "Darlington Stripe" by losing concentration briefly or being bumped by another car, hitting the outside wall, and scraping all paint and signage from their car.

The last and final caution flag flew with one lap remaining allowing leader Ward Burton to drive the last lap behind the pace car and to take his third career victory at highway rather than raceway speed.

Jeff Gordon was able to add to his points lead based on his second place finish. His next closest rival, Ricky Rudd, finished seventh and Dale Jarrett experienced mechanical problems and faded to a 34th place finish and dropped to fourth place in the season championship points behind Michigan winner Sterling Marlin.

Several drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Rookie of the Year contender Kevin Harvick were summoned to the NASCAR trailer, the NASCAR equivalent of the wood shed, following the race for "over aggressive" driving. NASCAR will no doubt keep an eye on these two at Richmond.

I’m told that rides in the Coney Island amusement park are five bucks a ride.

Course the rides out at Kiddieland prob’ly don’t have quite the thrill as some a those at Coney Island, but I’m bettin’ for a lotta little folks, it’s just as much fun for fifty cents.

I can still remember the excitement of ridin’ on the boats goin’ ‘round in circles when I was a kid. As my kids were growin’ up they too got their first "thrill ride" on the small, safe rides.

I’m guessin’ that parents and grandparents get more enjoyment watchin’ than the kids do on the rides. But then, it’s hard ta find anything to keep a kid occupied for an hour for only a couple a bucks.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I have an ’89 Olds Cutlass Ciera with 40,000 miles on it, and it has been a great little car. To make a long story short, I was having a problem with overheating, and my GM dealer examined the car and told me I had a cracked engine block. I had a new short block and a crankshaft installed, but when I got the car back, I was still having problems with the temperature.

After 30 or 40 miles of driving, the temperature gauge started creeping up past the halfway point. I took it back and they replaced a thermostat sensor. I drove it again, and after 30 miles or so the temperature started going up again. Now I’m afraid to drive the car any distance. Could it be that the fan motor isn’t kicking on? Gentlemen, I’m 82 years old, and I need wheels because I’m not too good on roller skates. -Hy

RAY: Hi, Hy. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one. Let’s consider the best and worst-case scenarios first, since it’s probably neither of those.

TOM: The best-case scenario is that everything is fine. You say that the temperature gauge creeps up past the halfway mark, but you don’t say whether it KEEPS going. If it stops just above the halfway point and stays there, that may just be the result of the new block breaking in and running a little hotter than normal right now. And that would be nothing to worry about.

RAY: The worst-case scenario is that your dealership made a mistake and failed to notice that the cylinder head, not the block, was cracked. Or that the head was cracked in addition to the block.

TOM: But let’s not be alarmists. There are several other good possibilities here. It could be a faulty fan, as you suggest, and that’s very easy to check.