The tractor and engine show season is starting
Well I got a few good comments on the two articles I did featuring two British companies, namely Garretts and Wallis and Steevens and I hope you all enjoyed them.Attend a showNow our own season is...
View ArticleJohn Fowler and his legendary steam company
I have written a couple other recent articles on the steam engine companies of England and since I am a dedicated Anglopile, that is not too unusual.England was to a great extent the birthplace of...
View ArticleFowlers of Leeds to World War I
Hello again, steam friends and fiends.Today I want to tell you a bit more of the great British Steam Engine and Cultivating Machine Company based on Michael Lane’s book The Story of The Steam Plough...
View ArticleFowler’s Chapter Three: Story of the Steam Plough Works
I finally got the time needed to review the latter chapters of Michael Lane’s Story of the Steam Plough Works, which is a history of the Fowler Works of Leeds England.They had developed the well-known...
View ArticleDoes priority count? New Year’s Day event beginning of show season
We are starting out the new year with some material on show schedules, not necessarily steam, but engines none the less.New Year’s DaySome years ago, a few people, mainly gas engine folks, decided that...
View ArticleOff-season activities to take up time
Hello again Steam enthusiasts. I hope you are all managing to keep warm in this frigid weather, if by steam or just hot air.I used to say I fired my boiler in the summer for fun and in the winter to...
View ArticleSteam history is a reminder to document, record
Hello again steam enthusiasts.As usual, off season topics are a bit hard to find but we keep trying and thinking and reading a couple of the magazines of the hobby and several club newsletters to keep...
View ArticleFoundry patterns still valuable to collect
The show season is well underway for 2015 with some of the early and well known shows in the past, or upcoming. Since I have not been to many I have not seen much machinery to expound upon.I mentioned...
View ArticleMud and steaming around just don’t mix
Well, the show season is rather well underway. Have you been to any of your favorites yet?We made it to an Ohio show over on Bundysburg Road near Middlefield and enjoyed it a lot as usual. It is a...
View ArticleSummer shows and the ‘stuff’ we accumulate
The summer is flying by and, as usual, we wonder how it goes so fast and why we are not getting more done.The first part of the season was too wet, but since mid-July the weather has been about as good...
View ArticleLovers of steam and antique equipment lost some dear friends
Hello, friends of steam everywhere. Not much activity in the hobby of late, even though the weather as been blessedly warm so far this winter, but lots of winter to go at this point. Several readers...
View ArticleSteam-loving people, railroads under steam and steamed food
Hello, friends of steam out there. There is not much activity in the hobby this time of year. Most equipment is drained and stored for the winter. Several readers have asked why there have been no...
View ArticleBritish steam magazine offers ‘rally’ insight
Being a dedicated Anglophile as I am, I love to read the magazine called Steaming from England. The parent club is called the National Traction Engine Trust, updated to match the law from National...
View ArticleEngines highlighted country by country
(Read last month’s Letting Off Some Steam here.) I finally got some new material in the mail that has informed and inspired me. I mentioned before that I’m a member of the British Traction Engine...
View ArticleSteam shows: The times they are a changin’
I suppose this title can be applied to most any area of human endeavor but if we are thinking of steam engines and steam shows, which is my usual field, many details come to mind. If some of the...
View ArticleThreshing always popular at Northwest Pa. steam show
The Northwest Pennsylvania Steam Engine and Old Equipment Association held its annual summer Steam Engine Show Aug. 4-7 at their showgrounds on the north edge of the Borough of Portersville. The...
View ArticlePictures helped tell the threshing story
I regularly subscribe to two domestic magazines of the hobby and one from England. The editors of the domestic magazines depend on people sending in show reports and other stories and especially...
View ArticleModels help keep steam engine interest alive
Well, steam nuts, your engines ought to be drained, dried out and put in the shed by the time you read this. Most clubs are planning for 2017 and getting their advertising copy to the magazines,...
View ArticleMusic is a good addition to steam shows
There are various entertainments at the old engine shows and often music is involved. When I first went to shows, an old time fiddlers contest was common. Several of the old timers, like Raymond...
View ArticleTracing the development of steam engine
I must again open with an apology for lack of recent columns, but medical problems and other things here at home have absorbed a lot of my time and energy. I decided I would reprise some earlier work...
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