It Keeps Getting Better Every Year!

Baldock help me run it. This year he was sick so I asked Mike
Podruski to help me and he said he would. He spent most of his time
over at the big engines, but I am a very firm believer that you
learn better by doing the things and learning them yourself; so I
like to learn that way, too.

This is a picture of the original George White. It was built in
1913, and has a 25 HP engine. Grandpa bought it from Earl Dixon of
Duncan, Manitoba, in 1961.

The George White traction engine model. It is 40% in size,
or²/₅ scale. It was built in the early
’70s by my grandfather, the late Ole Aslakson.

A model of the double cylinder, rear mounted, 25-85 HP Nichols
& Shepard traction engine. It is¹/₃ scale
and was also built by my grandfather the late Ole Aslakson, in the
mid to late ’60s. In this picture I am driving it in the daily
Parade of Engines at the Central North Dakota Steam Threshers
Reunion.

This is a picture of the original Nichols & Shepard. It was
unusual for Nichols & Shepard engines to be rear mounted as
this, and it also has very heavy transmission gearing used for
plowing or general draw bar work. It has a heavy buttstrap boiler
known as the ‘Canadian.’

My grandfather, the late Ole Aslakson, built a model of a 1916
double cylinder rear mount Nichols & Shepard, and also a model
of a 1913 25 HP George White. The George White model has an
all-welded boiler, except the tubes, which are rolled and beaded
and the staybolts threaded. The tubes are 62′, the drives are
30′ high. The engine itself has a bore of
3⁷/₈‘ and a stroke of 4’. It is about
7′ long and weighs close to a ton. I was working with a formula
to find engine displacement, and I found that this engine is a 53
c.i.d, or 870 cc. Grandpa didn’t get the George White all
finished before he passed away, so I hope someday I will be able to
do the last work on it. It only needs a water tank, bunkers,
operator’s platform and a pop valve. It was tested several
times and was passed, so it is in running order but needs the
finishing touches.

In this letter I am enclosing pictures of the models and their
originals and some specs on them. I feel that these two engines are
very special and/or unique because Grandpa didn’t use a kit or
parts from a kit, and yet they are so perfectly to scale and look
so nice. He made parts out of wood and had them cast at the Fargo
Foundry. I think it took a Norwegian to do this because I think
that they were the ones who made all the wood carvings. Somebody
also told me that Grandpa would tell you that the things that took
the longest, and were the hardest parts to build, were the
wheels.

I would encourage anyone living near New Rockford, North Dakota,
to come and see the wonderful line of engines that we have. It just
keeps getting better every year, at the Central North Dakota Steam
Threshers Reunion show. This year it will be held in the middle of
September on the 19, 20, and 21, that’s when it all
happens!