ABOUT MR. BUCKMASTER’S HUBER
Received the March-April 1959 issue this afternoon about 2:30
p.m. As soon as I returned home from the Post Office had a
minute’s time, hurriedly started to look through the magazine,
and of course on Page 9 saw the two pictures of Mr. Basil
Buckmaster’s 20 HP Huber Return Flue Steam Engine.
Mr. Buckmaster sure has a good engine, as the writer put in over
four hundred hours reconditioning this Huber engine. Everything
that needed replacing I put on new if I was able to get the part,
or made the part, if was unable to make the part, built the old
part up and then machined it down, etc.
Another unusual thing about Mr. Buckmaster buying this Huber
engine, Isold it to him by correspondence. He never saw the engine
until trucker delivered it nor have I ever seen or met Mr.
Buckmaster. Have had four letters from him since Arnord Prestbye
delivered the engine to him, and Mr. Buckmaster is very well
satisfied with the engine and his deal. Will never sell another
engine that way, as there is too much chance for the buyer to find
something to be disatisfied about. It is over fifteen hundred miles
from Sioux Palls, S. Dakota, to Eureka, Montana.
Spent over 12 years in the Threshing Machine Game, before and
after World War I, but never made a deal quite like the one made
with Mr. Buckmaster on the Huber. About the only reason sold the
Huber, all my experience in the past had been with straight flue
engines. Wanted to get a straight flue engine, as you know from the
picture I mailed you on January 29, 1959, of my 20 x 75 hp Double
Cylinder Rear Mounted Nichols & Shepard Steam Engine. Hope you
can find space to run the picture of my N & S Engine in your
magazine in the very near future.
JOHN P. KADINGER, Box 842, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
ENGINE IN THE MOUNTAIN
We have had many requests for further information on the Aultman
Taylor engine marooned in the mountains of Washington. We have no
information on this engine of which a picture is to be found in the
January-February 1960 issue of the ALBUM, bottom of page 28. Write
to Mr. L. K. Wood, Mendon, Utah, who sent us the picture.
Mr. Raymond Laizure, Cadiz, Ohio, has the spirit we like. Here
are his words —
‘Elmer, I am with you 100% in regard to that Aultman Taylor,
stranded on a mountain in Washington, as that looks like a late
Engine, anyway it does have the late smokestack. We will take a D8
Bulldozer and make a road up there, and if it refuses to leave that
vicinity, there will be one of the biggest Iron Men fights that was
ever heard of, in that part of the country. Wishing all the folks
of the ALBUM the best for 1960.’
MEETING OF WILLIAMS GROVE STEAM ENGINE ASSOCIATION
More than 150 members of the Williams Grove Steam Engine
Association attended the first meeting of the new year, January 27,
in the Franklintown Fire Company Building, Franklintown,
Pennsylvania.
Among the business transacted was the approval of purchase of a
carload of soft coal from the Reading Company, at a very reasonable
price. The car had been wrecked near Shippensburg, and fifty tons
of fuel was gathered up and transported to Williams Grove by
volunteer labor.
A front-end loader and truck were furnished by Roy Richwine,
Jr., while C. S. Willis and Sons, Dillsburg, furnished two trucks.
Other vehicles driven by volunteers helped furnish transportation
while a dozen or more shovel-wielders loaded the coal.
George W. Fawber, Secretary-Treas. reported the financial
standing of the organization and Leroy Shugart, Recording Secretary
and Membership Chairman was kept busy signing up new members.
Tentative plans for the 1960 show were discussed after which
refresh ments were served and a program of movies furnished by
Walter G. Arnold of Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Several members of The Early American Steam Engine Association,
Red Lion, Pa., were present, together with a delegation from the
Maryland steam engine group.
GEORGE F. FAWBER, Secretary, 511 West 16th Street, New
Cumberland, Pennsylvania
OLD FLAMES
We heated the court house for eight days with this engine of
mine, and it just played with it. We kept a steam pressure of from
60 to 80 lbs. day and night as we had a fireman on it 24 hours a
day. This was a life-saver for the county, as one night the Jury
was out until 10 p.m. before coming to a decision on a case.
Following is a description of our ‘job ‘ as it appeared
in the Daily Paper of Carlisle, Pa.:
‘A 47-year-old traction engine, the kind that hauled
threshing rigs over rural roads shortly after the turn of the
century and then furnished the power to thresh the grain, was
puffing away Monday night on the lawn of the Cumberland County
Courthouse.
‘The 1912-model Case engine was there to keep the courthouse
warm, because the boiler for the heating plant blew up shortly
after 8 a.m. Monday.
‘The old traction engine’s boiler was hooked up to
courthouse heat lines and steam flowed again. The engine is the
property of David N. Sheaffer of East Street. Fireman, at least for
part of the night, was Ernest Shover, local farm implement
dealer.
‘Plumbers said the explosion was caused by failure of the
water pump. No one was injured. Repairs are expected to be
completed in two or three days.’
DAVID N. SHEAFFER, 405 North East Street, Carlisle,
Pennsylvania
FROM CALIFORNIA
Altho we have never met I feel that we are old friends due to
the articles from time to time in the wonderful little magazine. It
brings more joy to the heart of an old engineer than anything I
have known since the days of the old American Thresherman Magazine
of the long ago.
On Page 10 of the last issue is a picture of a Minn, thresher
and a Garden City wing feeder and you state that you saw one for
the first time and pitched bundles into it. Do you not think the
wing feeder is a great improvement over the straight feeder? In the
part of the country where I grew up they came into existence around
1910 and once the farmers came to know what a labor saver they were
they would not engage a machine without them, so the old machines
were compelled to put them on in order to work.
When we bought our first machine in 1912 it was equipped with a
Garden City wing feeder so I don’t know anything about
threshing with any other type of feeder. I can remember the old
style of straight feeder on the machines that used to come to our
place to thresh when I was a lad too small to take any part in the
work other then sit on the engine and get in the engineer’s
way. As I remember it, it required six men to feed from a stack of
grain. The man next to the feeder pitched directly in to it then
another man on the far side of the stack pitched to another man who
in turn placed them in the feeder. Thus the wing feeder eliminated
one man to pitch on each side of the machine. Another labor saving
feature was that the wing would lower to the ground saving the work
of pitching the heavy bundles of wheat up to the
higher feeder. Of course the wing feeder required a lot more
power than the same size thresher without the wing feeder, hence
the large engine used on the later models.
A lot of good engines had to be set aside and replaced with a
larger one when the wing feeder was added to the machine. Up until
the coming of the gas tractor I never knew of a smaller than a 36
inch cylinder and on up to 40 and 44 inch sizes.
The threshing scene is very familiar to me as I did a lot of
stack threshing in the early part of my career. Often pulled in
between as many as 8 stacks on each side of the rig. That is where
the engineer has to get his rig in a straight line or he can’t
line up to the machine without hitting a stack with the engine. O,
for those days again. The town of Fosston is quite a distance from
where I had done my work but then threshing was the same in every
part of the land, hot, hard and dirty work but we all loved every
day we put in at it.
I have never been informed as to whether you were an engineer or
not. I knew you have been a thresher but which end you worked I
never knew. One end was as important as the other and a lot of
credit must be given to the men who ate the dust as well as to the
men at the Smokey end. The engineer had to take more chances when
crossing some old wooden bridge than any other man on the crew as
he had to ride her across, whereas the others did not have to take
the chance of the bridge going down. I never had a bridge do down
with me but have had some hair raising thrills on some of them.
Seeing one in the drink is not a pretty sight I can tell you. Every
picture in the Album is heart warming to any engineer who spent any
amount of time in the threshing game.
I have an album of threshing scenes that my many pen pals have
sent me and I never tire of looking at the faithful servants and
wonder what each one has done during her life and the care she
received. What a story they could tell if they could only talk?
Well, friend, the steam is going down and am all out of fuel so
must fold up the drive belt for tonight. I could go on talking
threshing and engines for hours but will fire up again at some
other time and continue the story.
HARRY YATES, 3775 Herman Avenue, San Diego 4, California
