Steam 101

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He hooked up with high school teacher Tom Hall of Moorhead, Minn., the other main instructor in the college, and together they decided to make it a two-day weekend school. 'We decided he would teach part, and I would teach the other part,' Gerry says. 'At first, we would do it every couple of years, or whenever we felt like it, but it just grew and grew, and now it's grown to the point where we have a demand every year, and we have to do it.'

Classes run about 70 students a year, from every state and province, and one from England so far. The 2001 class was the 21st.

Licensed steam engineer Tom Hall says his background is railroading (for one day each year during the Rollag show, he is engineer on Locomotive 353 and runs it up and down the tracks, hauling people on its 2 1/4-mile track around Gunderson Lake from station to station during each September's threshers' reunion), and stationary steam engineering.

The class has evolved over the years. 'When we first started,' Tom Hall says, 'it was strictly a lecture course, simply because that was the best we could do.' In fact, the course was held at Larson Welding in Fargo, N.D., with nary a steam engine in sight. However, the next year the class was moved to the 250-acre Western Minnesota Steam Threshers' Reunion (WMSTR) grounds near Rollag, Minn. It remained a lecture session only, at the time.

Tom Hall says, 'But four years into it, one of our former students came and said, 'Could we steam up a traction engine so on Sunday you can have the students demonstrate what you covered?' The next year we had three steamed up, and it's grown that way. So we've become much more hands on.' About 10 are now steamed up each year for students to practice what they've learned. Tom also teaches the body of steam law, inspection and certification of the machinery, for example.

Gerry's expertise is in steam traction engines. 'Before I started collecting steam engines I was collecting books, and I have an extremely large library of old original printed literature on steam, textbooks and that sort of thing.' He and Tom (their presentations have affectionately been called the 'Tom & Gerry Show') analyzed what they felt was needed in a class about steam, and extracted that information from the old books, making textbooks for the college students. These include Steam Traction Engineer's Checklist, by Jim Nowell, an outline covering things that need to be known to start up, operate, and shut down the engines. 'He teaches part of the courses at our school as well,' Gerry says. Another text is Practical Steam Traction Engineering, by Dr. Gerald Gysler Parker. 'We also hand out a wonderful book that was printed by The Case Company regarding steam tractors, Case Steam Engine Manual.'

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