Rick Montague (rammerc) has passed away

I just heard, belatedly, that member Rick Montague (rammerc) passed away early this year. I have no further details of his passing.

Rick hadn't posted much in the last few years, but he still looked at the Antique forum regularly. He was born in Cincinnati, and went to work in the radial drill department at LeBlond just out of high school. He eventually took a job at the Cincinnati water department, just after the huge triple expansion pumping engines were decommissioned (google "Cincinnati triple steam"). He once showed me a box of brass oilers and fittings he'd removed from the engines... as they were slated to be scrapped, he and his fellow employees would lower each other down into the well in the crane cage to remove items for "personal scrapping". Eventually, the city realized that they weren't sure if the building would stay upright once the weight of the engines was removed, so the scrapping was called off and they are still in place.

Rick continued in the public water field after his move to Florida in the 1970s. He was an enthusiastic and prolific collector of all things esoteric and mechanical... guns, watches, fishing reels, outboard motors, machinery, motorcycles and cars. He had a knack for turning up rare and unusual machines... I bought my Federal planer from him, along with the only Pratt & Whitney 3C "combination" lathe and mill I've ever seen (both machines on one 10 foot long bench).

We kept in touch for many years, and I visited him in Florida a couple times. He'd moved out of the city about ten years ago, and was really enjoying the riverside property that he and his wife purchased north of St. Petersburg.

Andy

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Glad he escaped the “nasty nati”. I wasn’t so lucky..

Rip rammerc

I knew of him through my posts about Hardinge Cataract QC Lathes of which he had #6 the earliest one we know of. Sorry to hear about his passing.
He gave me help and advice early on when I took on a few of these lathes. Godspeed Rick.

Harold

Harold Mulder said:

I knew of him through my posts about Hardinge Cataract QC Lathes of which he had #6 the earliest one we know of. Sorry to hear about his passing.
He gave me help and advice early on when I took on a few of these lathes. Godspeed Rick.

Harold

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I picked that QC lathe up for him in Minneapolis, MN, then hauled it down to Florida for him a few years later when I had unrelated business down that way. Rick had an impressive collection of stuff. He always said that Florida was a great place to find small machinery, because guys would retire down there and bring their home shops with them. Planers and shapers were a favorite of his, and at one time had a really nice collection of small benchtop models. He sold a lot of the machinery off over the last ten years, along with his massive outboard motor collection. Got back into motorcycles, and had five or six of them the last time we talked.

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Sounds like he was a very interesting individual, I would like to have met him. R.I.P.

Hodge

Andy:

Thanks for the update. I last visited him just before the move to the riverside. Went to a couple of the Florida winter shows with him.

RIP Rick

j.carlson

I never met him but always wanted too. Sounded like “ my kind of guy”, one who loved cool stuff. I bought a number of small things from him over the years.

So sad another one of us is gone, RIP.

Those of us who were friends of Rick should post some neat things here about him. He liked to ride his two motorcycles, although I don't remember the make of them, but I know they had to be cool. He collected all sorts of old machines, some very unique and expensive. I may find some pictures of the neatest ones. But right off the bat, here's Rick lounging in his back yard in St. Pete with one of his cats.



And if anyone here remembers e-mailing Rick, his address was [email protected] which always gave me a laugh at the "webtv" part. He never got a computer for his e-mail. Sometimes he used Shirley's computer I think, but mostly stuck to his ole webtv.



Rick was a neat ole fella! Loved his old iron! He is terribly missed!

Irby

Rick had acquired five or six motorcycles in the last few years. I remember a full dress Harley, a couple newer S&S-engined choppers, a Ducati Monster, and a couple others that are slipping my mind. The last time we spoke, he was ruminating on buying a Hayabusa... the world's fastest production motorcycle. He had been into bikes since he was a teenager, but hadn't owned any for quite a while and had just started accumulating them again in the last few years.

That's a great photo of him, Irby. He loved his cats... surprising for a lot of people that a "tough guy" like Rick had a soft spot for strays.

Rick was an outside-the-box thinker, and also didn't like being told what to do. Their house in St. Petersburg was a small bungalow from the 50s, with a little old one car garage out back. When the city told Rick that he couldn't add on to the garage for more shop space, he ordered a custom enclosed trailer with lighting, windows, and hardwood floors. He cut a gap through the concrete wall that marked the rear border of their lot, backed the trailer in next to the garage, and didn't move it again until they sold the place.

He would often write "boys and their toys" when signing off on emails he sent me... that's a pretty good description of his collecting habits. He was a great writer, which made email correspondence with him especially enjoyable. He loved his WebTV... was always complaining that the progress of technology was slowly making it obsolete. Browsing the web and answering emails was best done from an easy chair, according to Rick.

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Andy FitzGibbon said:

.... He cut a gap through the concrete wall that marked the rear border of their lot, backed the trailer in next to the garage, and didn't move it again until they sold the place....

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I never interacted with the man, but that snapshot says it all, my kind of person. RIP Rick.

Sad to hear about your friend Andy, he sounded like a real interesting fellow to know. Thanks for posting a picture of him. I for some reason am always curious about what people who post here, (and elsewhere) look like... Jim

I am sorry to hear about Rick's passing.

I used to correspond with him many years ago (c.2006) regarding "Ricks Mystery Motor", a fascinating outboard engine from the 1920's-30's. Eight cylinders (opposed boxer type), overhead cam, leaf springs for the valves. It looked a bit like something Harry Miller might have produced, but the builder remained unknown as far as I know.

Unfortunately I can't find the photos he sent me.

Here is a 2006 PM post from Rick:

"I have what I believe is a one off experimental 8 cyl opposed marine engine. It has a Bendix Eclipse aviation inertia starter mounted on top as the motor sits vertical. Late 20s early 30s vintage with gear driven overhead cam and leaf springs to operate the valves.I have spent several years researching this motor with no luck, maybe I need to post some pictures here and have better luck.
Rick

Clockwork starter motor

I remember Rick's 2006 outboard engine query. I did a lot of searching at the time for engines with similar features, principally the valves' leaf springs. I never stopped looking, hoping that one day I'd be able to surprise him with an answer.

I'll stop looking now.

I saw that engine on one of my visits to his house. Not sure what happened to it. He sold a lot of his outboard collection, but as I recall he had hung on to that engine and a few others he really liked.

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Speaking of Rick's outboard motor collection, do you guys remember that little-bitty motor he got?





Irby