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"I enjoy working with this type of equipment," he says. "It's neat to figure out the way that the old guys did this stuff originally."
The tooling used at B&B is as collectible as the steamers.
"We pick it up at sales," Bob says. "The newest technology we use is a welder from the early 1950s. We're using tools that were being used in shops when these engines were built. A lot of it is flatbelt driven."
"I like the old mechanical stuff rather than hydraulic or electric," he says, "because when something goes wrong, I can usually figure it out."
Major equipment at the shop includes a set of light plate rolls for patches, a 1920s-vintage radial arm drill press for drilling holes in plates, vertical and horizontal milling machines, a hydraulic press and lathes. A McCabe flanging machine developed more than 80 years ago is at the top of Bob's wish list. "It was sold mostly to railroad shops," he says.
Tools aren't the only thing Bob scouts at sales.
"I have about 300 books at home on steam, steam engines and steam boilers, a lot of them dating to the turn of the last century," he says. "I read those, then try out some of that stuff, and you learn little tricks. Mostly, we try to put it back the way it was when it was new, then it's as good as it ever was."
Original documentation is also a useful source of information. National steam engine clubs, state agencies and museums sometimes have corporate records on construction, testing, and product shipments.
"There's a lot of amazing stuff still around the countryside," says Brian Vaughn.