Steam & Excursion > Trackless Steam

A walk among the Dinosaurs at Jurassic Park.
Ed K. cp Laurel Run

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Great title, Ed.  What a collection of steam tractors.  Where was that?  I especially liked the one using the belt to drive other machinery, which was one of the features those tractors used often.

nycman Wrote:
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> Great title, Ed.  What a collection of steam
> tractors.  Where was that?  I especially liked
> the one using the belt to drive other machinery,
> which was one of the features those tractors used
> often.

Rough and Tumble Museum Kinzers, PA Lancaster County off Rt.30
Ed K.

Thanks for that nice clip.   One of my favorite places.  Go and a humid day and the air is thick with coal smoke. A great place to go and talk real steam.   Go 5 miles up the highway and see steam on tracks at Strasburg RR.

Wow!
Wonderful stuff.
Back in the seventies, I  used to go there every year.

At marker 1:11, is a home built tractor by Perry Charlton, machinist from Ronceverte, W. Va.
Perry died about 1975(?), left his tractor to the R&T boys at Gap.

Perry volunteered his serves and shop when Benson's RDG 4-8-4, 2102 spent the summer of '71 (maybe 72?), running the hundred or so miles up and down the C&O's Greenbrier Subd.  Could never have made it through that summer without
the enthusiastic help of the the Good Ol' Boys, of Ronceverte.

So wonderful to see "Perry" Alive and running again --- he would be glad to see the dedicated folks enjoying running his machine.

Thanks so much for the glimpse at Kinzer's, this year.

Wes C.

The Case on the belt is driving what is known as a "Baker Fan". It takes a known amount of HP to turn the fan at designated RPMs. The faster you can spin the fan, the more HP is required. A special tach with a rubber end is inserted into the countersunk end of the shaft on the baker fan. It's a wonderful tool to make the engine work to full capacity. Been on a baker fan many times on my own Sawyer Massey.

Posted from iPhone

Something I've always wondered about steam tractors - what did ol' Farmer Brown do when his Case needed new tubes or other boiler work?  Were there "boiler shops" in town next to the dealership, or was it handled some other way?  How did they deal with water quality issues and scale build-up?  Was there a "maintenance schedule," or did they run 'em 'til they blew up or otherwise failed? 

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Something I've always wondered about steam
> tractors - what did ol' Farmer Brown do when his
> Case needed new tubes or other boiler work?  Were
> there "boiler shops" in town next to the
> dealership, or was it handled some other way? 
> How did they deal with water quality issues and
> scale build-up?  Was there a "maintenance
> schedule," or did they run 'em 'til they blew up
> or otherwise failed? 

Varied widely. State by state regulated, not federal nor universal. Some states did not regulate them at all! Other states were more strict than Federal was/is for railroads.

-John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/15 12:10 by LarryDoyle.

This would be a good vehicle to run fantrips with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGeSBWVQyPQ

Don, yeah!  Sounded like she was on her knees on that hill.  That would be a wonderful chase vehicle (for a short time).