717 Cloverdale Waterloo, Iowa 50703
In May of 1994 I was looking through the new Iron Men Album when I came across an ad for an Advance steam engine. It was at Toledo, Iowa, about 45 miles from my home. We were always going to go look at this engine, as we were aware of it, but we never got around to it. Well, now it was for sale, so Randy Schwerin and I went to look at it two days later.
When Mrs. Flynn, the owner, opened the barn I knew this was the engine I was looking for. All we had to do was agree on a price. So after a couple of calls to her son Floyd in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she decided I was fair with my price and I left the owner of Advance #9467.
This engine was in good mechanical condition and 100% complete, so I took it home and put the hand holes in it and ran it at our show. I decided that would be good for the summer of ’94, but I would clean it and paint it in 1995.
Leonard Flynn, the man who previously had owned the engine, was an Archer Oil representative. I do believe that he enjoyed using his product on his engine, because it was covered from one end to the other with oil and grease. It took my dad and I all summer to clean the engine so that we could paint it.
The only mechanical work I had done was to the governor. Dave Fuls rebuilt it for me and did a great job. Otherwise, the only work we did was cosmetic.
Warren Bellinger, 717 Clover-dale, Waterloo, Iowa 50703 discovered this 1906 Advance, #9467, in good condition and 100% complete under an allover coating of oil and grease. For the story of his find, which all started with an advertisement in this magazine.
I used the engine to thresh, to pull the dyno, and we double headed my engine and our 20 horse Advance Rumely on the plow. The two engines really snorted on the 14-bottom plow on the awfully dry ground.
I want to thank my dad and Randy for their help in restoring my engine this summer. It is greatly appreciated. I also would like to invite everyone to come see our engines at Antique Acres in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
