A hot rod is an older car that’s been customized to be cooler and more fun to drive. People often think of classic American cars, and the exact definition can differ a bit from person to person.
Concept
drive wheels
Drive wheels are the wheels that actually get power to move the vehicle. On a train, they’re the wheels connected to the power system that helps it pull forward.
Company
Lima Coach Works
Lima Coach Works was a company that built railroad vehicles. In this story, they’re named as the builder of a 1941 train.
LIVE
Rose EP46: he brought it to our attention that Spotify's It-- There's no space between the words, I'll tell you that. I would imagine. I would imagine. When, when I worked in a screen printing shop, uh, for the Hort, he would get mad, and when Hort gets mad, the space between the words disappeared. Like, like somebody threw... He, he needed somebody to throw a shirt to him, the customer was waiting to print this shirt, and it was like a sleeveless polo shirt for a cheerleading company.
Emily EP46: asked you a question. On your assertation on that, uh, ERTL produced a General Lee cast car. No. And he sent us a pic... Oh, sorry. Is it called, is it ERTL? No.
Rose EP46: a pic of his General Lee with the stamp Ertl Yep So, uh, good job Rose Ertl makes a lot of farm machinery toys, and they're good, but their HO scale is a little different than Hot Wheels HO scale, which HO is just like hobby, you know? So it, you know, some people define it as a 64th, but that sort of wobbles around a little bit.
Rose EP46: I know.
Emily EP46: I'm gonna give a shout-out to Shelby for being a fan. Shelby? Um, Shelby is, uh, this girl that I know from working at the One Moto Show, and, uh, she and I did builder check-in this time around. Uh, she's one of Tori's cousins. They have a beautiful, huge family. Um, she's gorgeous.
Rose EP46: Yeah. I hope that you- Well, thank you. That's so sweet. I mean, and then we ran into Heather at the
Rose EP46: Oh, why? Uh, people just always come and, like, dunk on me or whatever, just, like, call me an idiot for opening my mouth.
Rose EP46: But, you know, yeah, I comment on musicians and stuff like that and just, I don't know, try to say real shit that's positive. But thank you to our friends that have been listening, and I mean, that's everybody. You're all out there if you're hearing it, right? That's why you never, you never do an episode about the people who don't listen, 'cause it's not gonna reach them.
Rose EP46: I somehow s- because, I think because I was a registered voter, again, don't judge me. Um, that's right, I'm a dumb motherfucker and I vote. And, uh, I somehow started getting Attorney General Bob Bonta's weekly emails, and I still read them.
That's what you do. You try to get your attorney general to help you out. So there are lots of pleas for help in the comments, and it's, it's quite sad, in fact. But let me give you the, the, the... GM got sued for $12.75 million for selling people's locations to data brokers,
Uh, I just couldn't think of what angle to do it from, um, 'cause also not a great guy.
Rose EP46: I, I typed Valifornia- for vehicle. Vehicle California. It's still just as easy to find. Okay. Uh, there is, there is an article on the LA County District Attorney, but I wanna read the AP article. Associated Press, for those of you that do not know. I won't read the whole thing, but I'll give you some good
Rose EP46: is California advocating privacy. Just one state. Awesome. Uh, the settlement announced Friday is the largest ever for violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act, a 2018 law that requires companies to tell consumers about how their data is shared and to respect requests to stop the sharing.
Yeah. With the fine. They still made eight million, right? The information, which is like, I don't know, probably a quarter of one executive's pay or something. Uh, the information included names, location information, driving behavior, and contact information, Bonna said, which went to the data brokers LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk Ana- Analytics.
It followed a similar agreement between the FTC and GM earlier this year, and California settlements with Honda and Ford over the past 14 months for their own violations of the Privacy Act. That's right, folks. Uh, California's investigation of GM began after a 2024 New York Times investigation found GM collected data about millions of drivers nationwide and sold it to insurance companies in order to charge the drivers higher premiums.
Emily EP46: That works right now. Yeah.
That discovery, he added, led to investigations both by journalists, prosecutors, and regulators. The case shows more than anything that one consumer can make a huge difference. Though the settlement isn't much compared to the $2.7 billion in net income that GM made last year, Hochman called it-- Okay, see, that's not-- Hochman called it an indication that companies could expect higher penalties in the future.
Rose EP46: It's nothing. Yeah. They don't care. They're not Jeep. They're not struggling.
Emily EP46: I don't want- Emily EP46: at that. Well, here's the thing, is I was feeling pretty shy- Oh ... and I kinda didn't wanna do it.
Emily EP46: There is some really cool interviews back there, though. So if you want to hear, we've got Halorization, uh, Jacqueline Venezuela. Those are a couple. Elena Shear. Yeah. Um, Diane Peterson, who is a stunt woman, also starred in the, uh, 19... What year was it? I can't remember.
Rose EP46: The fruits of her labor Yeah, for real. Uh, but I mean, her stories were phenomenal. But anyway, Emily has done this kind of thing. She is no, uh, stranger to it. It's funny to hear that you were feeling shy. You've done, you've done it so often. We did it at the Portland Roadster Show.
Rose EP46: case you're not from Portland and you don't know, this sh- or if you're from Portland and don't know, which is a lot of people still yet, this show starts at, like, 4:00 in the morning Emily EP46: um, where the Burgerville is. Or is that 12th? It's on 11th, uh, where the Burgerville... Uh, 11th and Hawthorne? Is it 11th and Hawthorne or is it 12th and Hawthorne? It's 11th and Hawthorne. And then, uh, sometimes, yeah, the cars will go all the way down to 7th.
Rose EP46: You know Uh, a couple women, I did show them the questions. 'Cause I think maybe-
Oh my God. You said life- You're so mean
Emily EP46: It was a good car. No, it's a 1920s sedan- Oh ... thing. Yeah. It was cool. Um, I can't remember exactly what it was, but anyway, so he told me all that stuff, and then he refused to be interviewed. Like, you
Emily EP46: And she had two little VW earrings on, like, like little VW, like, cars, not like VW symbol, but they were like little cars. . And, uh, I asked her if she wanted to be on the podcast, just 'cause I was... I didn't know who she was, and I was like, "Oh, this awesome old lady is here."
Rose EP46: You're out in the public, the, you know, you can just- Speaker 3: Dang, really? That's awesome.
Speaker 2: this is one of the must-go-to shows in Portland, I agree ... you know, there's so many camaraderie, there's so many people I know, varieties of people there's multiple cars of mine here that I've sold
events that everybody makes, You know, we got a ton of people here from well, you know, Vancouver is actually part of Portland Speaker: All right. Sweet, still young. a hot rod?
Speaker 4: Yep, yep. It was grouped up with the Pinto, which, you know, I will say if you get rear-ended in a Pinto, good luck.
Speaker: It's my favorite show. Yeah. So I get that. Do you dare disclose your age? 48. Did you forget? I did. I forget sometimes too. What is a hot rod? a fast, customized car. Love it.
Speaker 7: I think a hot rod is a classic car that, uh, usually pre, I would say pre-'73. An American sports car. Amer- yeah, an American sports car that has been- Yeah ... customized somehow. I- I like it back to original. That makes a hot rod to me. Yeah. But, uh, yeah.
Speaker 7: thing. Yeah. And so you get to see all the dif- different generations, um, of people and cars.
Speaker: What time did you get up to get here?
Speaker 2: Um, PIR on steroids.
Speaker: 57 years young. What is a hot rod?
Speaker 11: Hot rod, well, it's, it's classic, and it's got a lot of personality, and it's, uh, it's a lot of personality and then what it means to everyone individually.
Speaker: Whoo, 71, young. What is a hot rod?
Speaker: Love that. What time did you get up to get here?
Um, early mornings. Um, let's see. Yeah, let's come back to that one.
So anyway- People come from- Just people come from everywhere ... from everywhere We start building at, like, 4:00 AM, and then we all leave at noon. It's
Speaker 10: No, and it won't happen again.
Speaker 10: I don't know. I've come several times with Jerry over the years, but it seems like a show that a lot of people are interested in and have been coming to, the same people over and over. Just, uh- Yeah ... meeting, seeing people, and, uh, the camaraderie.
Speaker 16: It can be a general, it can be a feeling, it can Speaker 18: seriously. Do
Speaker 20: I came because this is one of the top-notch shows in the city every year, and somehow we always get the right weather for it.
It's true. W- what time… Yeah, but not everybody has that sweater.
Speaker 22: I got up at 5:30.
Rose EP46: Uh, we start at 6:00, and so typically I'm up and I'm moving by that point. So 7:00 is sleeping in, but it wasn't enough, and I laid back down, and I was a cozy little cinnamon roll in bed, and I slept till like 11:00. I know,
I would just be in bed- Yeah ... and I would just need my poor body to rest. And that's kinda how I felt after that week. Um, it's been a, been a rough one. Uh, I've moved twice in a month, and it's been a real pain in the ass.
Uh, it used to run from, I believe, LA to San Francisco, and it's a 1941 train built by Lima Coach Works, uh, or Lima, you know... I think that's what it is, it's Lima Coach or Lima Engine or something. Um, and, uh, it's a big ass train. The drive wheels on this train are as tall as me. I'm 6'04".
Rose EP46: Just, uh... Can you just imagine that much weight just moving like that? Holy shit.
Rose EP46: fingers ... they'll tell people, they'll be like, "Stop that." You know, but like, you know, an adult, they'll, they'll be like, "You can... Don't pull on that, but you can touch it," or whatever. So yes, I went up to the SP&S 700.
Rose EP46: thing, uh, is it kinda stuck in the yard 'cause it tears up the tracks?" And he's like, "Yeah, it'll, it'll smash standard gauge rail." And uh, I was like, "Is it gonna get back out, or is it stuck here forever?" And he was like, "Well, that's up to Union Pacific and Amtrak."
Rose EP46: but like you said, you, you know, you can go back and you can... They'll take you up in the cab or whatever. Because that one's all black. The SP&S 700 is pure black. So the last time that one of the docents was walking me around and talking to me about it, I was like, "This thing is an absolute weapon."
I'm gonna go down there and join right now." That's what I did. I went down there within days of seeing a video that that was here, and I was like, "I'm gonna go join that." And, um, so anyway, they were like, "Are you just, you just here for this or do you wanna ride the train?" I was like, "When's the next ride?"
Rose EP46: and, uh, they're badass trains. It's a really good train, I mean, evidenced by the fact that it's still running and working today. That train was used for logging all the way into the '60s making money.
Emily EP46: But- Forty minutes? Maybe it's longer than two
Mm-hmm. They would keep, you know, they would keep a steam generator even into the, you know, later years as they went into diesel too, continue heating the cars and stuff. That makes
Rose EP46: you know, Faye Butler would always talk about like, you should join a museum and go to the museum and spend your time in places like that. And so I like, I like that. I mean, that's a small museum. They need, they need donations, they need money.
Rose EP46: And it's like, it was a, it was a cool shirt. So bought a couple
Rose EP46: we weren't on a car in the back. We were sweating our asses off. That's hard work they do. This was, this was coal-fired, and this was the same thing. They had just a little bit of trackage rights in, uh, Paris there, and we could go down the road, and then you just stop and you come back.
And it's on the, uh, it's like this grate, and you wanna keep the grate evenly heated to keep the boiler evenly hot. I mean, they'll aim and make... You know, you don't want particular hot spots, but the coal- It's hard
Emily EP46: Yeah. It's not very often you see a train under... You said it was under steam. Yeah. Yeah.
America was like, "Build us a rail system." I think they gave them, I think they gave them 11 miles on either side of the rail. Like, the way that this worked was to give them 11 miles of property either side of the rail to then sell people homes. To encourage people to live along the railroad and help develop communities and cities
Rose EP46: you just watch it and you think, "I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start me a business. I'm gonna make a couple dollars, make a better life for myself." And then you, like, watch these videos about people that built railroads and fucking p- you know, government gives them 22 miles either side of it or total.
Hypothetically.
Emily EP46: Yeah, she does. We appreciate that, Gina. Yeah. Appreciate that. Well, hey, thanks for listening, speaking of.
About this episode
GM’s data-privacy lawsuit takes center stage, with the hosts noting “$12.75 million” tied to location data and describing it as “the largest ever” under the California Consumer Privacy Act. The conversation then pivots to a Portland-area car event, where they define “hot rod” as “a fast, customized car.” Guests also share a vivid railcar story about “a 1941 train built by Lima Coach Works,” and wrap with museum steam-locomotive details, including coal-fired operation and continued steam heating even after diesel.