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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."
"For years," Tom says, "Gerry and I have tried to make a blend. Part of our classes are for complete novices who have a strong interest in steam traction engineering but no experience. The other part is experienced operators and engine owners from other states who are here to work toward their Minnesota license. In 16 hours we try to make a blend so neither side is too bored or too snowed."
The students own a full-sized cutaway Case boiler that can be used as a training aid. In the afternoons, Gerry says, "we turn the students loose, and they go to the nine or 10 practice engines we have setup and practice a few things we taught them that day. If some of them are standing around and waiting their turn, we'll go around and show them some things that we've talked about. That lasts most of Saturday afternoon." On Saturday evening an engineer teaches valve settings.
"Also Saturday evening we'll hook one of the engines up to the Prony Brake and just play around. It's a device used to put a load on an engine. It involves a huge pulley, and we hook the belt onto the brake. The other end of the belt goes onto the fly wheel of one of the steam engines. Just lining up one of those steam engines into a belt is very, very tricky. The Prony Brake has a lever that adjusts the amount of load you put on the engine and you can go ahead and run it up and measure the amount of horsepower being put out. It's really fun. This year we waited until dark, and loaded the engine fireboxes with sawdust, and pulled heavy loads. They blew sparks up through their stacks 50 feet into the air. Everybody kind of likes and enjoys that."
Sunday morning classes again run from 8 a.m. to noon, after which the future graduates hook up their machines to implements, and go through a driving course. That's when the gallon jugs of water are tossed under the moving machines.
Gerry says he finds two things difficult for students to grasp: "I think it's difficult for some of them to grasp the physiology of the steam cylinder itself, and in addition, to be able to pay attention to all the things they should as the machine is running. For example, to get on an engine and run it around and be pretty good with steering and starting and stopping, but yet forget completely about the water level and the fire. That is not uncommon for people learning how to do things. They get tunnel vision."
Gerry says one thing that surprises the students the most, he thinks, is the responsiveness of the throttle. "Pulling a throttle is very, very tricky, and we notice this too when people actually get on our full-size steam locomotive. When they grab that throttle and start jerking it around, they find out that you have to make very, very fine adjustments at the throttle. I think when they discover how much power is in these pieces of machinery and how carefully you have to apply it, I think that's very surprising to them." The instructors make sure students know that all the steam machines are important, and that they learn how to operate both a single-cylinder steam traction engine and a double-cylinder. "The single-cylinder is much more difficult to operate than a double-cylinder," Gerry says.
Tom says, "Steam traction engineering is as much an art as a science. It's like an art teacher explaining to someone how to try to do a painting. You can explain the technique involved, and the types of paint, and how the different types get applied to the canvas, but you can't teach them how to paint. The same with the steam engines. (Operators) have to have some talent, or common sense, or whatever, and they have to practice."