LETTERS

The steam engine situation here on the Is’d is rather
hopeless and there are few places left worth exploring. Therefore
the only hope of ever owning one rests with the fate of an A. B.
Farquhar that I have known about for about eight years. It may be
of interest to some of my fellow enthusiasts to hear about it and
those of the readers that are better informed than I may be
encouraged to come forward to tell me about Farquhar engines thus
raising my morale.

She is a moose of an engine by any standards. I say this even
the she is buried above the axles under a sawmill in the Port
Alberni Valley. Some of the sawmill beams rest upon the poor old
thing. Platforms and tanks appear to be missing as is the smoke box
and stack. The flywheel is off but there is a wheel that could be
it if I knew how big it should be. The engine is a husky looking
twin with Woolf valve gear. It is still ‘alive’ running a
planer line shaft on steam from the big mill boiler. It is a rear
mounted with gearing that looks to be built for heavy duty. Some
say it did some threshing in the valley. Before that it surely must
have been a ‘contractors engine’. The front wheels are wide
without skid rim. The rears are twenty-one inches wide with plain
steel bars about one inch by two and one half wide that would not
marr a good road yet give some grip when needed. I’d like very
much to see what the dirt and sawdust hides.

Every opportunity will be taken to collect the history of this
engine. The mill will likely run for a few years yet but who can
say for sure in this day of large firms absorbing the small
companies.

Neil Brady Browne, R. R. 2 (Discovery Rd.), Campbell River,
British Columbia

LETTER

I was delighted to find my snapshot and letter in the
September-October Album. A few days after the magazine came out I
received a letter from Mr. H. S. Turner of the Huron County Pioneer
Museum, Goderich, Ontario, the owners of the old thresher. He
stated that it was manufactured in the 1870’s by Bricker and
Company of Waterloo, Ontario. In 1888 Mr. E. W. B. Snider bought
out the Bricker Company and started the Waterloo Thresher Co.

They continued to make the Bricker machines and added blowers
and self feeders as time went along and they restored the name,
‘Champion’ although they did not originate it.

I called it a Waterloo Champion but was not strictly correct.
Mr. Turner also said that Mr. Hugh Chesholm of Sarnia, Ontario has
another old Bricker machine restored and running.

The Huron County Museum had a very fine collection of old farm
machinery and many other things including a locomotive. It would be
nice to take a day to get a good look at it all.

C. F. Greenfield, Box 723 Kincardene, Ontario, Canada

LETTER

In the March April issue of Iron-Men Album, 1959, a picture of
showing how to set an engine on dead center, seems right, stating
from Page 59 of the Steam Engine Guide that the letters were not
placed in the right position.

Me and Mr. Reddicopp, were looking at it in the Guide, but
couldn’t figure it out. There seemed to be something wrong, but
I realize that you engineers are wide awake and I give you credit
for it.

I’m interested in you model builders do you buy rough
unfinished castings and finish them and put them together? All this
requires a lot of tools to work with as a lathe, press drill,
thread cutter, etc. As for a neighbor of mine, made one cylinder
out of Babbit and Flywheel, but I wrecked it when I was a small boy
and the parts are lost, so I had to see how it was made.

So tell me about it, you fellow steam engineers.

Jacob P. D. Tiessen, R. R. 1 Abbotsford, British Columbia T. C.
H. 3868, Canada

LETTER

Although I was not reared on a steam engine I have been a great
lover of them since I was a small boy. I have owned several
tractions. The first engine that I operated was a 12 HP
Westinghouse with a hand fed 28′ Separator, I was 19 years old
at that time, incidentally, that was 58 years ago.

I well remember the first steam engine I ever saw. At the time I
was 3 years old and after breakfast that morning I wandered outside
the kitchen door and in front of me stood a monster with smoke
coming out the top. Badly frightened, I ran back into the house.
The engine was not running because they had not started to thresh
yet. The engine was a 10 HP Westinghouse.

I saw-milled most of my useful years, although during World War
2 I worked at maintenance on steam locomotives at a steel mill,
which I enjoyed very much.

We have seen many changes during the past 50 years. The steam
locomotives are all gone and the tractor has replaced the traction
engine. The saw mills are all run by diesel or electric power.

As I stated before I am an ardent lover of steam. I believe it
dates back to the morning of my experience with the 10 HP
Westinghouse.

Here is a picture of my engine that took me six years to build.
It will go down the road and handles easily at better than 20 miles
per hour. I just got it finished and have been operating it since
August of this year. The engine is 22 ft. long over all. It has a
water tank under the cab which holds for the boiler.

I believe I have experienced more satisfaction with this engine
than anything I ever had before. I filled one silo one afternoon.
The boys gather around when I fire it up. Boys of all ages I mean.
Some are as old as I but still we are boys.

Fred J. Hart, Williamsfield, Ohio

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