Route 1, Lengby, Minnesota 56651.
To start with, I’m 23 years old (a young engineer). I
purchased the engine in February 1973 from Al Johnson of Leonard,
Minnesota who had the engine on a sawmill for a number of years and
sometime in the ’60s he cleaned and painted the steamer, had it
in a Fair at Bagley, Minnesota on a John Deere threshing machine.
Then it sat at Clear-brook for awhile at some ‘doings’ and
then it came back to his farm where it sat by a shed until I
purchased it.
I don’t know the engine number as of yet, but the boiler
number is 8642. I’ve found a good way to get the governor real
senseitive on a steam engine – at least, it sure made the governor
sharp on my engine. What I did was set the speeder wheel so the
balls on the governor fly way out, as far as possible, and just
enough tension on the speeder spring to lift the valve up. The
Judson governor on my engine is so sensitive that if you spit on
the flywheel when it’s running, you’d hear it let out a
chug or two out the stack. After Richard and I got the speed on the
engine set at 250 R.P.M. he held the tachometer on the crankshaft
and I took a plank and put between the flywheel and drive wheel and
pulled as hard as I could and the engine dropped approximately 10
R.P.M. before the governor opened a little and gained its speed
back. I don’t think you can get a governor much more senseitive
than that.
Richard and I are planning on making a few more changes on the
engine this coming spring. We are going to make a set of
Contractor’s Fuel Bunker for it and a canopy and sand black it,
prime it, paint it and put the famous Case decals on it -Should
look real pretty then! F-74
This is my oldest brother, Richard and his son, Darren, on the
steamer getting ready to take off for another run around the field.
You’ll notice the engine doesn’t have the original b inkers
on the back. Al Johnson told me that the original were taken off
before he bought it in 1952 because it was on a sawmill up by
Turtle River which is a little ways away from Bemidji, Minnesota
that was so they could fire it from the ground and I guess he had
other uses for the bunkers as he cut it up and used it for
something else.
