3746 Winter Garden Road, Orlando, Florida 32805.
Keith Oderkirk held his 4th Annual Central Florida’s
Steam-Gas Show March 24, 25, 26, 1972, on his Museum Grounds about
a half mile north of the Haines City limits on US 17-92.
This was my third visit there, and the third time I over-ran the
entrance and got directed back by a good Samaritan station. I have
with the excellence of his place. Even without the engines, and
attendant machinery, the museum is a place in which all steam
engine fans, who are basically old-timers, should revel. It houses
the items that old-timers (the writer is 81) love to see.
A traveler with a trailer would find the Oderkirk Grounds,
‘park’ is probably the word, a mecca. Not only is he in
secure surroundings here, but is in easy driving distance of half
of Florida’s major attractions.
Another point: The folks one meets here are ”the right
kind of people’. Meaning: Raised in the backwoods like I was.
But not so far back that there were not plenty of steam engines.
And those steam engines are making a strong come-back today. But
mostly in the 4-inch scale size (one-third full size). But many of
these ‘apartment size’ engines are so well and carefully
made that many of them could be mistaken for their
‘grandfather’, were no man near to verify size.