Stumbling upon a 1913 10 hp Stover Model X

The engine is coated in Stover green, but it hasn’t been “prettied up.”

“That’s the real casting,” Rick said. “It was that rough.”

Another early engine Rick enjoys showing is a 1915 1-1/2 hp Rock Island.

“That’s the engine everybody wants to buy,” he said. “It was an older restoration when I bought it. After I got it, I fixed it and painted it. It uses an ignitor. It’s in very nice shape, it’s very sought after. You do see them around, but everybody just loves them. It just runs so quiet, and it’s all original. If you like gas engines, it’s one of those engines you think you have to have.”

Rick added a 1922 1-1/2 hp Alamo to his collection because of family ties — the engine’s, not his.

“I bought it because Rock Island and Alamo were built by the same company,” he said. “It’s kind of neat that they’re sister engines.”

Part of Alamo’s “blue” series, the engine was originally used on an irrigation pump. It had been restored when Rick found it at a Washington swap meet.

“My father-in-law and I go to a swap meet there in April at the rodeo arena,” he said. “We get up in the middle of the night, drive to the swap meet, and we’re there to watch the trucks drive in. Then we go back in the summer with the motor home and get the goodies.”

Rick’s collection includes Fairbanks-Morse, Jaeger, Waterloo and Blythe engines. Hercules engines, though, are among his favorites.

“I have a 1917 Hercules marine engine originally owned by the U.S. Navy,” he said. “It has a lot of copper and brass. It’s just beautiful.” An old bike chain is used to run the engine’s box magneto, which was patented in 1905.

Another Hercules in his collection — a 1-1/2 hp 1915 model — has a Webster tri-polar with brass band. “Hercules is the classic of all gas engines,” he said. “It just has a classic shape. Hercules was really artistic when they didn’t have to be.” FC