LETTERS

was the snappiest engine I ever ran in a beltalso the easiest to
fire. It had a short boiler and side mounted with 30 inch wide
drivers and short coupled. It was no good in mud or slippery roads
for you could not steer it. We used a team of horses to help steer
it, but it sure had a bunch of power.

HARRY FISCHBACK, Kettlersville, Ohio

STEAM LAUNCHES

My special interest is steam launches. I have the pleasure of
being Pilot, Engineer and Fireman on the Steamer Staurus (33 ft.)
on Lake Winnipesauke, Laconia, N. H., on many a week-end during the
boating season. There are five active small steamers on the
lake.

ROBERT G. FUHR, 85-10 Chelsea Street, Jamaica Estates 32, N.
Y.

WE ENJOY THE REUNIONS

I noticed in the last issue of the ALBUM, that you would pull
out if I didn’t provide more coal. So, I am enclosing a couple
of lumps to keep the straw flying.

My dad, brother, and myself started attending threshing reunions
in 1953. Our first one was Joe Rynda’s Threshing Bee at New
Prague, Minnesota. Since then dad and I have been to Mt. Pleasant,
Iowa three times, to Pontiac, Illinois, once, and to Rollag,
Minnesota twice. We enjoy going to the reunions, meeting and
talking to the folks and making new friends. Dad started threshing
in ’82 by cutting bands and threshed until he retired from the
farm in ’43. He has owned and operated several machines in that
time. I started threshing in 1917 by hauling grain from the
machine, when I was 12 years old. I have hauled a lot of grain from
steam rigs but never run one. I remember the joy in my childhood
heart when the rig would pull onto our farm. The big black engine
always fascinated me and I also enjoyed riding to and from on the
tank wagon with the ‘water monkey’. In later years I
operated a gas outfit a Case, then later on I sold the separator
and bought a combine. The thrill of threshing went with the old
Case separator.

The ALBUM is a swell magazine, I wish it would come once a month
and also would like to see more pictures of the early gas
tractors.

Just heard the qutting whistle so will drop my fork and run for
the cook shack.

OVID J. STEVENS, Barnard, South Dakota

TWO YEAR RENEWAL

Since I like the ALBUM so much I am sending money for two years.
You see, I used to run steam engines and liked it very much. In
1915 I ran my Dad’s center crank Case 36 hp. hauling a 32′
New Racine thresher. In 1918 he got a 75 Case and that was some
engine with oodles of power. I now have a 32′ Case separator,
Case silo filler, water tank and Case baler. My Dad’s 75 Case
was scrapped during the scrap drive in the last war so I am looking
for an engine at this time. You see I live in a town which is the
home of Case machinery.

H. F. PETERSON, 2042 Deane Blvd, Racine, Wisconsin

NEWS ITEM

Jack Maple and wife, Rushville, Indiana, R. D. 1, spent the last
week (Sept. 8th to 14th, 1957) at the Kentucky State Fair. Through
arrangements with the J. I. Case distributor at Indianapolis,
Indiana, the Case dealer at Louisville, Kentucky, displayed
Jack’s 60 hp. Case at their Case exhibit at the State Fair at
Louisville. Our neighbors were highly elated to once again see an
old traction engine and mostly to hear that old ‘steam
whistle.’ Jack is a member of The Pioneer Engineers Club of
Indiana, Inc. The Club is always glad to show these old traction
engines at any time.

JOHN J. MENCHHOFFER, Sec, 3520 W. 12th Street, Indianapolis,
Indiana

HOW ABOUT IT, BOYS?

Mr. Leo Huston, of 412 First Street, M. W., Watertown, South
Dakota, about a year ago wrote us and asked this hard question:
‘Do you think the steam fans would be interested in
contributing a dollar each or so to buy a steam locomotive and have
it in some central location. A good engine should cost $5,000 or
less.

At first we hesitated to bring: this before the Hobbyists. Now
we feel it would be fine if you would drop him a card or letter and
give him your opinion Either way.

ELMER.

A CARD WOULD BE NICE

Mr. Earnest W. Burnett, 4715 Lowell, Salem, Oregon, sends us
word that Mr. Rodney Pitts, R. D. 3, Box 47, Camby, Oregon is on
the mend after a terrible accident. It is suggested that we send
him a card. It will mean much to him. He has been in the hospital
over three months.

JAMES LEFFELL ENGINE

While renewing my subscription, I want to tell you I realy
appreciate the ALBUM. I operated threshing engines from 1916 until
they went out of style. My father owned two outfits, Gaar Scott and
Huber. I am enclosing a picture of an old James Leffell engine that
I recently purchased. It is 6 hp. portable and I am unable to find
any data on it. Maybe some of the old timers can tell me something
about these engines. It was housed for years and in A-l condition.
I also have 4 small stationary engines and one traction weighing
about 40 pounds.

HERMAN SEMINOIR, Chief of Police, Walton, Kentucky

I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH

I was lucky enough last February to find and purchase an 18 hp.
simple portable Case steam engine and an Ellis Keystone separator
made at Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The separator is the hand feed
type and wood construction. The engine needs repair as does the
separator. I should like to hear from any one who knows any of the
history of the separator. 1 had to pull the engine and separator
for a mile with the Jeep through mud and snow then loaded the
engine on my ton pickup and the separator on the flat orchard wagon
behind and so got them down out of the hills where they had set in
a fence corner for the last thirty years. I feel a bit more in the
Steam Circle now.

EMERY A. WHITE, R. F. D. 1, Grand Junction, Colorado

IT TOOOK ME BACK

I received the sample copy of the ALBUM. Thanks a lot. It took
me back over the years. The picture of the old Jumbo traction
engine brought back memories.

1 started early in life, 1906, when I was ten years old. My Dad
owned a 36 hp. Case portable engine. We ran a saw mill with it.
That was my first experience. The last was in 1921, a Case 65 hp.
traction engine and a 36×60 separator and it was a nice outfit. All
this in Montana. I also left a string of straw piles in Kansas and
North Dakota. I went to France in 1918 with the old 20th Engineers
Regiment, Forestry. I helped to run a saw mill ‘Over
There’. It was an Eclipse steam portable engine and an American
sawmill.

I am still playing with steam a low pressure steam heating plant
in a school building. A far cry from the old Iron Horse of earlier
days.

D. H. FORREYSON, Whitsett, North Carolina

INFORMATION

Mr. Laurence A. Griesemer, R. D 5, Box 277, Toledo 5, Ohio,
sends us this interesting bit of news

The Farris Pickering Governor Co.. of Palisades Park, N. J.,
took over the Pickering Governor Co. They build governors from inch
up. He thought that some of the Model Builders would be interested
in this information. Thanks Laurence.

TRACTION DRILLER

My main interest at present is to find an old steam traction
drilling machine that was built in the early 1900’s. Condition
does not matter too much, as I would rebuild it from the bottom up.
Loomis or Kepstone brand preferred.

So says Mr. Theo. Yoder, Linn Grove, Indiana. Can you find
something for him to work on?

BELL FOR THE CHURCH

Mr. A. C. Pump of Imperial, Nebraska, wants to thank all who
aided him in getting a bell for his church. They got one in South
Dakota. Many wrote him about the matter.

He also makes a comment on Mr. Glessner’s cartoon’ After
you have had to take a blow torch and thaw all of the pet cocks out
on the old Avery every morning every winter so you could close them
before carrying water to fill the radiator to shell corn, he would
not need any hand holes.’