While looking through the Iron-Men Album/Steam Traction archives today, I came across an interesting photo. 

Rod Hauenstein, at the mercy of Troy Pawson and Bernie Woodmansee, going for a ride in the wheel.

The text of the article refers to what is happening in the photo: "Rod Hauenstein provided some comic relief when he jumped into the rear wheel for a ride and they stopped the engine with Rod upside down."

I was surprised to see this photo, especially in a fairly recent magazine, from the year 2000. (Read the article: “Steam People Ring in the New Millennium”)

Our readers are always very concerned with safety, and we’ve received letters and e-mails in the past when we’ve run photos of kids husking corn without protective glasses or photos of children riding on tractors. Looking through issues of Iron-Men Album that followed this one, there is no mention of the photo in the letters to the editor section.

I’m curious about how our readers feel about this photo. Is it just a photo of some steam buddies having a good time, or is it a dangerous situation waiting to happen?

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Here at Farm Collector, it’s easy to keep a grip on our mission.

“Dedicated to the preservation of vintage farm equipment” is, after all, printed on the front cover of every issue. But it’s summer: What better time to stray off the beaten path?

American Industrial Machinery Since 1870, C.H. Wendel A Babcock country press from the 1880s. The working print shop display at Printers' Hall (on the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion grounds, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa) uses a Babcock press powered by a vertical steam engine.

And so it is that in the September 2009 issue we visit a different past — that of the weekly newspaper of 90 or 100 years ago. Don’t get nervous: We’re still talking cast iron machinery, line shafts and stationary steam engines. Like equipment on the farm, machinery in the print shop was big, heavy, cantankerous, noisy, dangerous and dirty. It was also elegantly designed, brilliantly conceived and often stupendously dependable.

The weekly newspaper not only delivered news to rural residents for whom no other media existed, it also often served as a small town’s printer. Need envelopes? Business forms? Tickets? Funeral programs? Wedding invitations? Sale bills? You’d talk to the boys at the newspaper’s job shop.

There you’d find sheer tonnage of cast iron designed to enhance and elevate the most fragile material imaginable: sheets of paper. Powered first by steam, later by line shafts and gas engines (and later still by electricity), Linotypes, presses, folders, trimmers and cutters made up an arsenal of equipment ready to meet any conceivable printing challenge.

For me, this is a sentimental journey. The dictionary defines “printer’s devil” as a trade apprentice. But among the pressmen at my father’s weekly newspaper, I am confident the term was used to describe the boss’s kid. A little girl in the print shop — hovering at the clacking Addressograph, sitting astride a massive roll of newsprint like a pony and rocking it gently, darting toward the press and grabbing just-printed sections just like the men did — was tolerated but not encouraged.

Times were different; no one thought to instruct a girl child in the intricacies of printing equipment. But memories loom clear decades later: the absolute danger of the massive paper cutter; the way eye contact and nods replaced speech when the press roared; the cacophony of sound that rose and fell in a bell curve, collapsing into the sweet quiet afterward when the paper was out for another week.

The country print shop is a relic of the past – unless, of course, you stray off the beaten path. Extra! Extra! Read all about Printers’ Hall in the September 2009 issue of Farm Collector!

As for the music on the album, here's a taste of what you'll hear. This song is called "Smoke on the Prairie," and was written by Chas. L. Genter:

I'm sure that many of you don't know that I'm a folk musician in my spare time. Over the last three years, I've recorded and released five albums of original folk music, and recently had the unique opportunity to combine my interest in folk music with my interest in old iron.

While looking through issues of Iron-Men Album from the 1950s and 60s, I came across several poems written by actual steam farmers, threshermen and their wives reflecting on their experiences with steam farming. Farmers are often characterized as tough and stoic, so I was struck by how romantic and funny these poems are. And, in addition to being well-written accounts of a fascinating chapter of American history, I also thought they'd make pretty good songs. So, I chose 12 of my favorites and set them to original music.

To give the album an old-time American feel, I used instruments unique to American folk music including banjo, washtub bass, steel resonator guitar and autoharp. I played all of the instruments myself and recorded the album in my bedroom studio. From start to finish, the album only took me about two weeks, mostly because it was very easy to fit the words to music. These poems were written from the heart so they already carry a certain kind of tune. All I had to do was read each one a few times before matching the words with a complementary tune in my head.  

Though the album is focused on steam farming, the sentiment behind the poems and the music is something that everyone with nostalgic feelings toward the good old days of farming can relate to. In the technology age, it's easy to lose sight of how we used to things five years ago, much less 100 years ago. Many folks believe that when steam farming disappeared, so did the romantic view of farming. And while farming is definitely quicker and more efficient than it's ever been, the close relationships that farmers once had with each other and the land have been replaced by mega-capacity combines operated by one person in an air-conditioned cab. These poems help us remember that at one time, things were different.

As you can see from the album cover, Farm Collector coordinating editor Jeannine Snyder put the finishing touches on the project with an outstanding album design and layout that complements the music perfectly. The photo that Jeannine used for the cover features a Waterous steam engine threshing crew, and was provided to us by John F. Spaulding. You'll find more photos like that one in the book he put together with Dr. Robert T. Rhode, Steam Tractor Encyclopedia, available in the Farm Collector store.

And as for the music on the album, here's a taste of what you'll hear: This song is called "Smoke on the Prairie" written by Chas. L. Genter in 1955, and is being offered as a free download for a limited time.

Songs of the Iron Men is now available in the Farm Collector store for just $10 plus shipping and handling.

Read the original poems in their unedited entirety.

Page through the 2009 Farm Collector Show Directory and you'll find plenty of shows featuring a great variety of steam engines. But among all of the Case, Minneapolis and Russell engines you're likely to find at these shows, it's highly unlikely you'll see the likes of an Allchin, Ottomeyer or Fowler steam engine. Unless, of course, you attend one of the many popular steam shows in the United Kingdom.

1911 Burrell road locomotive at the 2008 Great Dorset Steam Fair. Photo from SteamScenes.org.

If a trip to the U.K. isn't in the cards for you this summer, one website might be able to satisfy your curiosity in all things steam, European style. As described, SteamScenes.org is the largest collection of traction engine pictures on the Internet. Their collection contains pictures of steam traction engines taken at steam rallies, road runs and within museums across the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. I found the engine gallery to be particularly interesting, as I found photos of several engines I'd never heard of. I could have easily spent hours looking through the thousands of photos in that gallery alone.

If you enjoy looking through photos but would rather see these beautiful engines on the move, I suggest you head over to YouTube and check out the SteamTraction.com video index. There, you can check out footage from various European steam shows or look for specific European-made steam engines.

And after all of that, if you'd like an even more interesting glimpse of the steam engine lifestyle in the U.K., you'll be hard-pressed to beat the documentary The Moon and the Sledgehammer. Considered a cult-classic among film buffs, this short documentary was made in 1971 and follows the everyday life of an English family living in the woods. As the trailer describes them: "They have no gas, electricity or running water and manage to sustain a self-sufficient lifestyle. As each family member reveals their own personal philosophy, the film carefully pieces together a portrait of a group that are not phased by modern society."

	Mr. Page, the patriarch of the family featured in the 1971 English documentary The Moon and the Sledgehammer.

Steam engine buffs will be thrilled to watch the several minutes of Allchin and Fowler footage, but other than that, the difficult to understand dialogue and meandering narrative might turn off some. Personally, I thought the film was fascinating and enjoyable to watch but I have to include the aforementioned disclaimer before recommending it to a steam engine enthusiast. Of course, you can decide for yourself by watching the trailer. And if you decide you'd like to take chance and watch the entire film, it's available on DVD.